The Blood Debt He Could Never Repay

Ten years bound to the Falcone Family, and Lorenzo Falcone had taken nearly every woman I called friend, every wife who kissed my cheek at the Sunday table.

I pretended not to see it. I kept to my routine instead, carrying my eight-month belly to the Family physician for my checkups like a woman who still believed she had a place. Until the day I was on my way to one of those appointments, and his newest darling ran me down in the street.

I bled and couldn't stop, and I begged him to take me to Dr. Bruno.

Lorenzo looked at me with a face full of disgust.