Chapter 5

When I stepped outside, I ran into Enzo.

"Adriana," he called out, working the brim of his flat cap between his fingers, "Don Salvatore said he acted without thinking, back at the hospital. He asked me to tell you not to hold it against him... He'll come to the house later. To make his peace."

I smiled faintly at him.

"Tell the Don it's all right. And remind him to come home early tonight... I have a surprise waiting for him."

Then I turned and walked away, ignoring the confusion that flashed across Enzo's face.

As I passed the girls' academy that the Family kept as one of its legitimate fronts, I saw Salvatore up on the platform, holding Bianca by the waist as if she were the most precious treasure in the world. The crowd around me murmured, the way a room full of associates murmurs when the boss is watching.

"You hear? Don Vitale and that Marchetti girl just put their names on a 'Self-Respect' endowment. Money set aside for young women who know how to carry themselves with honor."

"Isn't that rich? After the disgrace with his wife... the man must be shaken."

"Of course he is. Who wouldn't be, tied to a woman like that?"

I looked up at the banner strung above the platform. The endowment even bore a name meant to honor the dead.

How touching. I hope this so-called affection survives the night.

Later, once the feast broke up, Enzo made his way to Salvatore and passed along my message.

"She said it's all right," Enzo told him, cap still turning in his hands. "And to come home early. She has a surprise for you."

Hearing that, Salvatore let out a slow breath, a faint smile pulling at his mouth. He rolled the heavy signet ring against his thumb, then let it still.

He was certain of his hold on me. After all, I had nowhere else to go. A woman didn't walk out of the Vitale bloodline. He believed that even when he overstepped, I wouldn't dare leave.

Still... he allowed himself the admission that he'd been too rough with her. She was his wife.

Tonight, he decided, he would set it right.

After a night wrapped in Bianca's arms, he pulled himself loose from her clinging hands and began to dress.

"Be good, Bianca. I'll see you tomorrow."

Before he could finish, the doorbell rang, loud and frantic, cutting through the dark like a blade.

Salvatore frowned and crossed to the front door, scowl already forming. The moment he opened it, Enzo pushed inside, face pale, chest heaving, the cap crushed and twisting in his fists.

He glanced behind him to be sure Bianca hadn't followed, then turned to Salvatore.

"Don Salvatore... something's happened..."

Salvatore's expression shifted in an instant.

"The soldiers who worked her over before... they came back. Broke into the house. Made it last. Then they put it to the torch. She's gone."

Enzo's voice cracked as he forced the words out, the cap nearly torn between his hands. "The neighbors say the men were shouting that the Marchetti woman sent them... And it's worse than that, Don Salvatore. Adriana... she was carrying. Two lives..."