Chapter 1 - TABLE 7“Table 7 is here.”
Three words silenced the kitchen.
Chloe Bennett grabbed the tray before anyone else could.
“You worked eleven hours,” Marco warned.
“I know.”
“Costello is in there.”
Chloe looked at him.
“Family still eats.”
Marco stared at her as if she had just volunteered to walk into a burning building.
Everyone at Il Canto knew who Gabriel Costello was.
Nobody talked about him loudly.
Nobody looked at his table for too long.
Nobody made mistakes around him.
Gabriel was the kind of man whose name arrived before his car did. A mafia boss with money in half the city's private clubs, warehouses, shipping companies, and night markets. Men disappeared after crossing him. Businesses changed owners overnight.
And tonight, his entire family had chosen Il Canto.
Chloe pushed through the doors.
At the head of the VIP table sat Gabriel Costello, surrounded by six men in dark suits.
Beside him sat his elderly mother, Beatrice.
Tiny.
White-haired.
Silent.
And deaf.
“Shipment arrives at midnight,” one of the men said.
Gabriel nodded.
“Handle it.”
Then Beatrice raised her hands.
ASL.
Where is the wine?
Gabriel didn't even look.
“Not now, Ma.”
She signed again.
I don't want bread. I want wine.
“Bread is coming.”
Beatrice lowered her hands.
Then she tried again.
I hate the veal. I want seafood risotto.
Gabriel sighed.
“She'll have the veal.”
Chloe froze.
Something inside her shifted.
Her younger brother Leo had been deaf.
She had learned ASL for him when they were children because their parents had worked two jobs and Chloe became the person who sat beside him during doctor's appointments, school meetings, movie nights, and breakfasts.
Leo used to sign jokes at the dinner table just to make their mother laugh.
Then a drunk driver killed him.
At seventeen, Chloe stopped signing.
She had told herself the language belonged to a life that was gone.
Apparently, it didn't.
She placed the plates down.
Then she stepped toward Beatrice.
She raised her hands.
Hello. My name is Chloe.
Beatrice's eyes widened.
For a second, she simply stared.
Then her hands moved.
You sign beautifully.
Chloe swallowed.
Thank you.
Beatrice pointed at her veal.
Then at Gabriel.
My son is an idiot.
Chloe almost laughed.
She signed:
The veal is terrible. You made the right choice.
Beatrice laughed silently.
A chair scraped across the floor.
Gabriel stood.
“What are you doing?”
Chloe turned.
“She doesn't want the veal.”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“She wants seafood risotto.”
Silence.
“She asked for wine twenty minutes ago. You kept ordering bread.”
One of Gabriel's men looked down.
Another suddenly became fascinated by the table.
Gabriel stepped toward Chloe.
“You understood her?”
“Yes.”
His hand closed around Chloe's shoulder.
Chloe glanced at it.
“If you're going to break my collarbone, can you wait until after I put her order in?”
One of the men nearly laughed.
Beatrice slapped Gabriel's arm.
He released Chloe.
His mother signed furiously.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“She says your manners are terrible.”
Nobody moved.
Beatrice continued.
“She wants you to stop treating her like she's stupid because she's deaf.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
Just slightly.
He looked at his mother's hands.
Hands he had spent years ignoring.
“Bring her the risotto,” he said quietly.
Then he looked at her empty glass.
“And the Barolo.”
Chloe signed the order.
Beatrice grabbed her wrist.
Thank you.
Then she added:
My son is an idiot, but he tips well.
Chloe laughed.
Gabriel narrowed his eyes.
“What did she say?”
“Confidential.”
Chloe walked away.
Behind her, Beatrice laughed for the first time that night.
Gabriel didn't.
He kept staring at his mother's hands.
Because suddenly, he understood something.
His mother had been talking to him for years.
He just had never bothered to listen.
But Chloe Bennett had.
And that was a problem.
Because Beatrice Costello had never been silent.
May you like
She had been trying to warn him.
For twelve years.
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