The Oath

The Oath Parte 8

— What a woman Olympia, Frank; as good-hearted as she is courageous; you must be proud of having her by your side: our Lord Jesus Christ has united two beautiful souls.

— Nothing and nobody they will make me separate from my wife, don Nicò: Olympia it is the only great fortune I have had in my life.

« Closing this parenthesis, and going back to what I said before, the next morning I woke up very early, and when I left the house I instinctively took the road to the company. As soon as I noticed the mistake, I stopped abruptly! "This is no longer my way!", I said to me, and I went to stop in front of a bar: I had felt the need for another coffee.

I had just finished sipping it, when Pasquale called me, "Where are you?"

"To the Del Castello bar!", I replied.

"Wait there, I'll join you!", he said.

He arrived shortly after, and "Let me get the coffee first, and I'll tell you later!"

I waited outside, thinking about what he had to tell me: anything could be expected of him.

And in fact, as soon as he came out, "Do you have the check on you?", he asked me.

"Yes, why...?", I asked.

"Let's go to the People's Bank: so I'll exchange it, and pay you with the other one!", he said.

"Ah! Also in that bank..., do you have any money?", I asked in amazement.

He didn't answer and invited me to go with him.

At the bank, after receiving the requested new checks, he filled out one and we exchanged them.

After I put it in my pocket I said, "Pasquale..., your brain needs to be regulated, because your neurons... act, and make you think in a wicked way! You, you could very well have paid me with the check you gave me now, but you didn't; surely so as not to let me know, before I signed the deed, that you had money also at the People's Bank!". And then, continuing, "Last night..., you even bothered my friend the director of the Bank of Commerce so that he would open the branch and bring you a checkbook from the notary, making me believe that you had your... money only in that bank there, or were you afraid that coming to know before, about this other bank, I would not sign anymore?", I reproached him bitterly.

And then I accused him "Pasquà, I have always known that you stole; not exactly how much, but that you did it I had the proof a few years ago, at the Agricultural bank; by furtively reading the book of the securities, I discovered that you had much more money than me: almost double!

As you can see Pasquale, unbeknownst to you, I also knew about this other bank, besides the Bank of Commerce; And this morning another one came out: the People's Bank; who knows what capital you have there!"

Faced with these accusations of mine he remained mute, and I gave him the final blow, telling him: "Pasquà, the money with which you have now paid me, is nothing but a share of what you have fraudulently stolen from me over the years that we have worked together; You paid my shares in the society with money which, than if you had been honest, would have been mine!"

Before I left him, I said "If Dad had still been alive, he would have spit in your eye!", and I left.

I deposited the check to the bank, and how to invest the money, I would have thought about it later.

Sitting in the car, with a lit cigarette and shedding a few tears, I reflected for a while, and then took the road to the farm: my future was in that place. »

— Don Nicò, of that famous non-competition clause... I later learned that it was not legal, as inserted in the deed.

— Ha! And..., how is the fact?