Vow to Bury

CHAPTER THREE

MINA

My aunt reacts to my forced marriage by checking the coffee inventory.

“How many people?” Jo asks.

“For the wedding or the retaliation?”

“If you don’t know, I’ll plan for forty.”

She stands in the funeral-home kitchen at seven in the morning wearing plaid pajama pants, a Vassallo I have mistaken him for a single motive. We are both going to be inconvenienced.

He signs first.

I smooth the edge of my sleeve, take the pen, and write Mina Bianca Vassallo beneath his name.

The middle name feels like a witness.

Gabe watches the final stroke.

“Saturday,” he says. “Seven.”

I close the folder.

“Try not to be late. I have a funeral on Sunday.”