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Chapter 10 No Revenge

The secret meeting between the heads of the five New York families and all the other important families in America took place in a large room above a bank. Everybody sat around a large table, each head with his Consigliori sitting close behind. Don Corleone, who had invited them all, was the first to stand up and speak.’How did things get so far?’ he said. ‘It’s so unnecessary.’ He looked at the small man with dark, oily hair and shadows under his eyes who was sitting opposite him. ‘Tattaglia, you’ve lost a son. I’ve lost a son too.

Why can’t we stop this foolish war now before more people die?’

A handsome man with silver hair who sat at one end of the table began to speak. This was Barzini. ‘We all know Don Corleone is an honest man,’ he said. ‘We can trust him.’

‘Yes, ‘Tattaglia said to Barzini. ‘He has many important friends. But he refused to share them with us.’

‘I only ever refused to help you once,’ Don Corleone looked at Tattaglia.

He was thinking about the meeting with Sollozzo. ‘I refused to help you because I don’t like the drugs business.’

‘Times have changed, ‘Barzini said.’ A man who refuses to help his friends is not a true friend. Don Corleone must share his important friends in Law and Government with us. We will pay him well for his help, of course.’

The Godfathers talked for a long time. Finally Don Corleone said: ‘I’m a man you can trust. I’ll do whatever I can for peace.’

‘Then we all agree,’ Barzini smiled. ‘The drugs business will be permitted, but controlled. And Don Corleone will share his important friends with us.’

‘If Don Corleone promises not to take revenge on us for his son’s death, ‘Tattaglia said.

Don Corleone looked sadly at Tattaglia. ‘Is revenge going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me? I promise, there will be no revenge.

But only if my youngest son is permitted to come back safely. He has had to live abroad since that Sollozzo business. I want him home. But I warn you, if anything happens to my son - if he mysteriously falls off the boat on his way home, or if he’s hit by lightning after he returns — then I will blame some of the people in this room. That, I will not forgive. But if my son is permitted to return safely to New York, then I promise I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.’ At this, he stood up and opened his arms to Tattaglia. Tattaglia stood up too, and the two men walked around the table. They met behind Barzini’s chair and hugged each other warmly. Then all the Godfathers in the room stood up and began to hug and kiss each other, congratulating each other on the end of the war.