Don Bowed To Me Chapter 16
She laughed.
Leaned over the table, bracing herself against the edge.
Looked down at me with open contempt.
“Vitale? The Providence Vitales?”
“Isabella’s family?”
She looked me over.
I was wearing a charcoal Alaïa dress. No watch. My hair was simply pulled back.
“Isabella’s sister.” Her voice took on that little oh, I remember now tone.
“It’s coming back to me.”
“Before I flew out in June, Mommy mentioned something. Said there was a scene at Isabella’s wedding. Her sister made quite a scene. I was in Positano. I wasn’t paying attention.”
She looked at Sebastian.
“So this is your ‘private time’?”
“You. And Isabella’s sister?”
“Isabella and Matteo’s marriage was annulled. Their whole family can’t show their faces in Newport anymore. How could you possibly—”
“Chiara!”
Sebastian’s voice cracked through the room.
Anger, barely restrained.
He stepped in front of me.
His expression was cold and unreadable.
“Leave this restaurant. Now. Or I stop being polite.”
Chiara froze.
In ten years, Sebastian had never spoken to her that way.
Her lower lip began to tremble.
“Sebastian. You’re talking to me like this? For this bitch?”
“What is she?”
“She never even finished college. The whole coast knows. She’s the Vitale reject.”
Her voice rose.
Other tables began turning toward us.
“Sebastian. I’ve been following you since I was twelve.”
“Do you have any idea how many men I’ve turned down for you?”
“My mother said when I turned twenty-five, you’d propose.”
“And now you’re telling me you’re on a date at Le Bernardin with some Queens barista?”
Her hand tightened around the edge of the table.
Her nails dug into the white linen.
“Hazel Vitale. You whore. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
She whipped back toward me.
Her eyes were bright with something unhinged.
“I don’t know what you did to get here.”
“But I’m telling you now. Sebastian Marchetti has been mine since he was seven years old.”
“Give him back. Tonight.”
“Or I’ll make sure every Family on this coast shuts every door in your face. I’ll make sure everyone knows exactly how the Vitale reject threw herself at the next Don Marchetti.”
I lifted the water glass.
Took a sip.
I looked at her.
“Chiara. Are you finished?”
Chiara stared at me.
“Excuse me?”
I gave her a small, easy smile.
“I never said a word about my relationship with him. You walked over here and started throwing slurs.”
“You’re going to pay for what you just said.”
Chiara’s face turned red.
She pointed at me, ready to say more.
Sebastian brushed her hand away.
He pulled out his phone.
He didn’t look at Chiara.
He dialed.
“Nonno.”
Short. Clipped.
“We’re at Le Bernardin. Yes. Chiara Barone. She’s just threatened and insulted Dr. Vitale.”
I couldn’t hear what Don Salvatore said on the other end.
Sebastian listened.
Then, one word.
“Good.”
He hung up.
Chiara went pale.
“Sebastian. You called Don Salvatore?”
Sebastian looked up.
“Chiara. Sit down.”
Chiara didn’t move.
“I said. Sit down.”
Slowly, Chiara lowered herself into the empty chair at our table.
Sebastian looked at her.
“A lot has happened while you’ve been away in Positano.”
“You have two choices.”
“One. You apologize to Dr. Vitale. You leave this restaurant. You go home and wait for your father’s call.”
“Two. You keep talking. And you find out what happens next.”
Chiara lifted her chin.
“Sebastian Marchetti. Are you threatening me?”
“I don’t threaten women,” Sebastian said. “I give them choices.”
Chiara ignored him.
She turned her furious gaze back on me.
“Who do you think you are?”
“Look at you. You look homeless. And you think you deserve to sit across from Sebastian?”
“Since I was twelve, I—”
She didn’t finish.
The doors of Le Bernardin swung open.
A cold gust of air cut through the room.
Every diner turned toward the entrance.
Don Salvatore walked in.
Behind him, one man.
A man in a pale suit.
Chiara’s father.
Don Rocco Barone.