Why Cry When You Made Me Leave? novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: On His Knees
My father told it standing, at first.
He told it to the five chairs and the benches behind them, in a clear voice.
"Seventeen years ago Ruggero Sabbadin stood in this hall," he said.
"He told the families he'd cut the Cardinale share of the Quay from half to a quarter."
"He called it fair, and he was laughing."
"I'd carried that dock beside him for twenty years."
"I went home and didn't sleep."
"Two weeks later I bought forty gallons of lamp oil from the Pier Nine warehouse."
"On the night of the fourteenth of October I went to his house with a bottle of grappa and a story about making peace."
The hall was so quiet I could hear the lanterns burn.
"His captain let me in," my father said.
"A boy of sixteen, with a face like a window."
"I told him to carry the child to bed."
"When he went up the stairs I poured the oil along the ground floor, and I lit it from the yard."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Why Cry When You Made Me Leave? are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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