Chapter 4

The banquet hall fell silent.

A heavy tension filled the room. Somewhere near the bar a glass was set down too gently, and no one moved to fill it.

Then Regina's expression darkened. "Lorenzo, know your place!"

"My place?" I let out a cold laugh. "You mean, the so-called consort of the Falcone line?"

"I couldn't care less about that title."

Her face froze, voice sharp as ice. "You don't care?"

"You don't care, yet you quietly bleed my tribute to keep your father in silk, letting that gutter-born old man ride the streets in a Rolls-Royce that isn't his?"

"If you really had any self-respect, you wouldn't lean on stolen cash flow to dress your blood in luxury."

I had always been cautious. I'd asked my father to keep his head down, to draw no eyes, so as not to shame her before the Family.

I never imagined she'd twist it into a tale of theft, into a debt of gratitude, believing my people were feeding off her wealth like scavengers at her table.

I looked at her and chuckled softly. "Regina, you really don't know me at all."

Before she could answer, the old widow, Concetta, scoffed and chimed in, her rings clicking once against the arm of her chair, her eyes full of disdain.

"You've always thought too highly of yourself."

"If you hadn't been lucky enough to be taken into the Falcone name, how would a man like you ever live so soft?"

"You should be grateful for everything you've enjoyed under this roof. Stay in your lane. Be a good kept man, and stop humiliating yourself with this nonsense."

The assembled Capos and their women pressed in, eager to feed the fire.

"He's got no gratitude in him. Regina runs the strongest rackets this side of the river. You know how many men would kill to be brought into her house?"

"If it were me, I'd kiss the ring of every man she walked in on her arm, so long as I got to keep sleeping in that mansion."

"When you marry into a Family like this, you learn your role. Don't confuse the roof over your head for a seat at the table."

"It's always the useless ones who throw a tantrum. No cash, no rank, nothing but pride."

As the laughter and scorn swelled, Regina looked at me with thinly veiled disgust.

"I know why you're doing this. You're jealous of Rocco."

"But Rocco isn't nobody. He comes from a family with blood and standing, sharp, educated, capable in ways you'll never touch. Without him, the Falcone name wouldn't hold half the ground it holds today."

"You? You raised a boy. And now you can't even manage that."

"What right do you have to measure yourself against him?"

I laughed, a low, bitter sound.

Rocco? The reason the Falcone empire still stood?

If I hadn't worked in the dark all these years, quietly moving the tribute, shielding this house from the enemy Families that would have carved it apart, there'd be nothing left but a name on a headstone. Rocco was a pretty face they'd propped up on a chair. Nothing more.

Then he had the nerve to lean in close to Regina, tugging once at the knot of his tie, and murmur with a grin that came a half-second too fast.

"Regina, you always said Lorenzo had a gift for raising the boy. But looking at Matteo now, I think that's just your blood showing through."

"He's set to top his class, marked as the anointed successor of the Falcone line."

"I only worry that with Lorenzo's temper, the boy might catch the wrong ideas."

His words lit something in Regina's eyes. She turned to me with a chilling glare.

"Lorenzo, I was going to let you raise the child I'm carrying, since you did well enough with Matteo."

"But look at the mess you've made. He didn't come home last night. He won't answer my calls."

"I don't care what troubles you've got. Don't you dare put your hands on my son's future."

"I brought every powerful name in this city here tonight to build his network, to give him a future worthy of the Falcone throne."

"My son will grow into someone feared and respected. Just like me."

Her voice carried through the hall, thick with pride, heavy with conviction. Men straightened where they stood as she spoke.

And yet, it made me feel nothing but sorrow.

I looked at her and said quietly. "Stop pretending to be a good mother.

"If you truly cared about him..."

"You wouldn't have left him stranded in the pouring rain, on the morning of the exam that was going to carry him out of all this blood."