Chapter 2

At dusk, my car pulled up outside Lorenzo's heavily guarded private estate.

The vast lawn was covered with expensive champagne towers and falcon banners symbolizing the family's glory. A massive, ornate iron gate was draped with a banner of gold thread.

"A Tribute to Our Great Madre, Welcome Home!" Beneath it, capos from every district and family allies were already gathered, glasses in hand.

As I walked past, my gaze fell on a shape near a pile of refuse by the service entrance, carelessly wrapped in a cheap tarp.

I froze, staring at the bloody limb peeking out from under the fabric.

Just then, Ava, wearing a low-cut evening gown, sauntered over, her eyes red, feigning a look of distress.

"Donna, I honestly just wanted to teach your mother a lesson. Who knew she was so fragile? Her heart gave out suddenly, and we couldn't save her."

"You're a magnanimous Donna. Surely you won't hold this against a humble secretary like me, will you?"

So, she had tortured my mother-in-law to death.

My heart pounded. I was about to speak.

But Lorenzo strode over, gently patting Ava's back and whispering an intimate reassurance in her ear.

"Ava, this isn't your fault. You did all of this to defend my authority."

"If anyone's to blame, it's her mother. A cheap life, and she still went looking for trouble."

With that, Lorenzo's gaze swept over to me, dark and menacing.

"The only reason I'm not making you compensate Ava for her distress is because you're my wife. Consider that my final favor to you."

"Dying on my property, she not only scared Ava, but she's cast a pall over the welcome-home banquet I spent half a year preparing for my Madre."

"But," he said, his arm wrapping around my waist, "as long as you weren't hurt, that's all that matters."

Looking at his arrogant face, I felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up inside me. I stared him dead in the eye, raised my hand, and pointed to the bloody tarp, enunciating every word.

"Lorenzo, I'm warning you. Take a good, long look at who is actually under that tarp."

Lorenzo's brow furrowed in a knot of disgust. "Who else could it be? Some dead civilian. You think I'm going to look at that myself?"

"Don't let her wretched blood stain my custom-tailored suit!"

Standing nearby, my socialite sister-in-law, Bianca, swirled her wine glass and sneered.

"My brother bought this entire estate for our mother's return. Madre hasn't even set foot inside, and yours is already here to cash in. How disgusting."

"If you ask me, getting beaten to death with a club is just part of the Mafia's rules. It saves us the embarrassment of her walking down the street and shaming the Falcone family name."

"My brother must have been crazy to marry you. Trash like you should never dream of climbing into our world."