The Godfather’s Contract Bride

1.

I ripped the contract to shreds in front of my father and the entire family.

The pieces fluttered down like pale snow, landing on the white linen tablecloth of the Michelin-starred restaurant.

I threw the fountain pen. Its nib pierced the cloth, and the ink bled out like a pool of cooling blood.

The private room fell silent.

The cigar dropped from my father’s fingers, hissing into a porcelain bowl of half-melted ice cream―like the sound of some small life being extinguished.

Then, the d