Chapter 5: The Toast

Thanos Stavrou pulled out my chair himself.

"The Vlachos pledge," he said, with a little bow.

"What a pleasure.

"My mother says you are not sick on Sundays."

"Only on mornings," I said.

He laughed and sat down across from me.

He tucked his napkin into his collar.

He was heavy and handsome, with silver hair combed straight back and a gold watch that clicked on the table.

Marigo took the head of the table.

Alex sat on my left, close enough that his sleeve touched mine.

An aunt and two cousins filled the far end and said nothing, which I understood to be the custom when Thanos spoke.

Lunch was lemon chicken, rice, and a bowl of greens dressed with oil.

Thanos ate slowly and watched me.

When the plates were half empty, he lifted his wine glass.

"A toast," he said.

"To the heir."

The cousins lifted their glasses with relief.

Marigo did not lift hers.

"May God give," Thanos said, smiling, "what the doctors could not."

Beside me, Alex went still.

I felt it through the sleeve against mine.

"Thanos," Marigo said.

"I only bless the child, Mama."

He set down the glass and folded his hands.

"But naturally, a man in my position wants a paper first.

"A Vlachos girl arrives with a belly at the exact hour her father needs a pardon.

"It is convenient."

My face went hot.

"Is that what you think I am?" I asked him.

"I think you are your father's daughter," Thanos said pleasantly.

"And your father has not told the truth since the lease."

"We'll have no test," Alex said.

His voice was level, and it cut across the table.

"I don't need a paper to know what's mine."

"Perhaps," Thanos said, "he does not need one because he knows what a paper would say."

Alex's hand closed on his knife.

He didn't answer.

He sat there with his jaw tight and let the sentence stand in the air.

I turned my head and looked at him.

I understood it as doubt.

He had said yes to the table, and now he was saying no to the one thing that would prove it.

A cold ache went through me.

"Then I'll take it," I said.

Every head turned.

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