No Longer the Outsider

Eight years into the Cappello family, and only today did I discover there's a meeting room beneath the estate. Half an hour ago, my husband Julian put on his coat and said he was heading to the New Jersey docks to handle a smuggling shipment. Five minutes after he left, the estate's internal line rang. It was Julian's driver, asking if he should have the car washed. It had gotten dirty from yesterday's rain. Julian never rides in anyone else's car for long trips. If he'd gone to New Jersey, his driver should be behind the wheel right now. I went down to the second-level basement garage. His car was still there. The emergency stairwell beside it was inexplicably open. I followed it down and found a meeting room. Through the half-open door, I saw my mother-in-law Elena pouring whiskey for Mia, the girl I'd taken in from the slums out of pity the year I married into the Cappello family. "Mia, you're taking over the Brooklyn docks starting next week." "Julian will help you clean up all the dirty accounts." The Brooklyn docks. I'd taken two bullets for this family to secure that territory. And now my mother-in-law was handing it to Mia like it was nothing. And Julian, the Cappello heir, my husband, was standing right behind Mia, both hands resting on her bare shoulders. Around the long table sat my father-in-law Victor, Elena, Mia, the family's legal director, and two heads of the operations team. With Julian, that made seven. Every core member of the Cappello family was in that room. Everyone except me.