After They Let My Father Die, I Left Him for Good

Aurelio sat in the middle of the couch with Marilyn, the new dancer from the bar, on his lap.

And I, his wife, sat quietly off to the side and handed him a glass of vodka packed with ice.

Aurelio took a mouthful of vodka, then passed it into Marilyn's mouth with a kiss.

It was a deep, hungry French kiss, and the liquor spilled from her lips onto her full breasts.

His men whistled and hollered.

Before we got married, Aurelio used to kiss me that way. Now he was kissing another woman exactly the same way.

I watched, perfectly calm.

When he finally let go of a breathless Marilyn, Aurelio licked his lips like he wanted more.

"I'm marrying Marilyn," he said, but his eyes never left me.

Everyone froze for a second. Then his men burst into cheers.

I smiled and clapped too. "I wish you and Marilyn all the happiness in the world."

Aurelio raised an eyebrow, a little surprised. "So well-behaved this time?"

Raymond Costa, his underboss, laughed and chimed in. "That's the Don for you. He even managed to tame Adele Silvestri, the thorniest rose in Italy.

"Back in the day, she'd have torn the place apart."

Plenty of others laughed along, all of them looking at me.

For a moment, my mind drifted back to our wedding.

Aurelio had slipped the ring onto my finger as though it were sacred, looking at me like I was the only person in the world. "Adele, I love you. From now on, I'll always be good to you. You're the only one I'll ever love."

Everyone said Aurelio had found true love.

Before he met me, he never slept with the same woman twice. Then he cut ties with all of them, stayed faithful to me for three years, and married me.

But only a year after the wedding, Aurelio brought the first woman home.

In the bed where we used to make love, they went at it so hard the sheets were soaked through, and used condoms were all over the floor.

I lost my mind. I smashed a vase over Aurelio's head and pointed a gun at the woman, telling her to get out and never come back.

Aurelio gave a soft laugh and turned to the naked woman beside him. "You heard her. My wife wants you gone."

Then he turned back to me and, ignoring the blood streaming down his face, pulled me hard into his arms. His voice was soft.

"I'm sorry, Adele. But I love you."

Then he brought home a second woman. In a rage, I took a baseball bat to everything in the house.

It did no good. Then came a third, a fourth...

Every time, I fell apart and made a scene. I ran those women off. I even held a gun to Aurelio's head.

But he would just hold me, calm as ever.

"I'm sorry, Adele. I can't be with just one woman.

"But they're only for sex. You'll always be my wife.

"My heart will always be yours."

Aurelio's arms were warm and strong, but my heart was in agony.

I knew all too well that I still loved this man. So I waited. I waited for the day my love would finally run out.

I thought we'd go on tearing at each other like that forever, until Aurelio brought Marilyn home.

That was when I pointed my gun at her and told her to get out.

The next second, Aurelio grabbed my wrist so hard I thought he was going to crush it.

The look in his eyes was ice cold. "Apologize to Marilyn."

It was the first time Aurelio had ever hurt me for another woman.

Tears ran down my face, but I refused to say a word.

He held the young, beautiful Marilyn in his arms, his voice glacial. "The first clause of the contract. Did you forget?"

I remembered.

We'd signed that strange contract right after the wedding. Its first clause said I had to respect Aurelio's private life. No interfering, no scenes, or I'd face the consequences.

I'd thought it was just one of those strange agreements you had to sign to marry a Mafia Don. I never gave it a second thought.

But the next day, Raymond threw my father, who'd been lying in a coma in the hospital with heart and lung failure, out onto the street like trash.

I carried my father on my back to every hospital in the city, and every single one turned us away.

In the end, for my father's sake, I had no choice but to go back to Aurelio's study and apologize to Marilyn.

Marilyn flaunted the marks their night together had left all over her body and said, "It's no big deal. I love Aurelio so much. For him, I can put up with anything."

Aurelio dropped a light kiss on top of Marilyn's head. He didn't even glance at me.

From then on, everything spiraled out of control.

If I showed even a flicker of resentment toward Marilyn, even a quick glare behind her back, my father was thrown out of the hospital until I apologized to her.

After that happened enough times, I didn't dare show any resentment at all. I followed the first clause of the contract to the letter.

Respect Aurelio's private life. No interfering, no scenes, or face the consequences.