LOGINMy soul was still there.Drifting through the Corleone family’s mansion, watching Caitlin run the family, the Corleone family slowly recovered, and the sun rose and set over Sicily.Sometimes I wonder if I had not agreed to go out with Lisa that day, or tried to protect her, or had been firmer when I told Ron that something about Lisa felt wrong…However, the dead would have no chance to regret.Caitlin sometimes sat in my room. She had not changed anything in there. The wedding gown still hung in the wardrobe. The engagement ring was still on the vanity, and the diary was still open on the desk.On the last page, there was a line of words:[Ron smiled today because Lisa drew a painting. I hope he’ll smile for me one day too.]Caitlin stares at that sentence for a long time, then closes the diary.“Silly girl,” she murmured. “He didn’t deserve you.”Then she stood up, turned off the lights, and left.The room returned to darkness.My soul began to fade, like morning mist dis
Silence.It stretched on like an entire century.Then, Lisa suddenly laughed.Not the sweet smile she used to wear, but a mocking, icy, almost cruel laugh.“Yes,” she said calmly, as if discussing the weather. “I did it. I lured her to the area near the cold storage. She was so naïve that she actually believed the kidnapping was really about her. She even begged the kidnappers to let me go and said she would stay instead. I knew what she was capable of, so I hurt her Achilles tendons first, broke her fingers… and in the end, I pulled the trigger myself. Before she died, she looked at me and said, ‘Tell Ron my death has nothing to do with him. Tell him not to blame himself.’ Pathetic, right? Loving an idiot like you even at the very end.”The conference room fell deathly silent.The report slipped from Ron’s hand and hit the floor.“Why?” he asked, his voice trembling.“Why?” Lisa stood up and wiped the tears from her face, her movements crisp and decisive. “It was my mission. A
Ron was not relieved at all, even after Caitlin left.I watched helplessly as the look in his eyes shifted from indulgent affection to suspicion, then to pain, and finally to a cold, sealed-off indifference.He seemed to have made up his mind. No matter what the truth was, he would protect Lisa.Only, the truth was often far crueler than anyone could expect.The butler pushed open the door to the conservatory and looked at the two of them trimming flowers together. His tone was calm.“Don Corleone, the Elders request your presence and Miss Lisa as well.”The council of elders convened at midnight.Seven old men sat around a long table. Ron took the center seat while Lisa sat beside him, like a delicate flower leaning on his side.When Caitlin entered, every gaze in the room turned to her.“I have evidence proving two things,” she said bluntly. “First, Wendy Marino was innocent. She did not betray the family or kidnap Lisa. She was murdered.”She played a video.On the screen
That DNA report shook Ron’s thoughts, and it terrified Lisa.From that day on, she cried constantly, telling Ron, “I have nightmares every night. I dream that Wendy wants to kill me because I stole your attention from her.”I could not understand it. From the moment Lisa appeared, I had never felt any hostility toward her. I had even tried my best to take care of her in ways Ron could not. I did not know why she was doing everything she could to steer Ron into hating me when I had done nothing at all.However, the truth always comes out.While Ron was feeding Lisa, Caitlin’s call came in.Her voice was shaking. “Ron, I’m in the Naples slums.”That was where Lisa had supposedly lived while she was “lost.”Ron stood up immediately and left Lisa’s room.I glanced at the resentment flickering across Lisa’s face and drifted after him.“Ron, she isn’t our sister Lisa at all,” Caitlin said. “She’s the adopted daughter of Antonio Rizzo, the Don of the Naples branch of the Ndrangheta.”
On the day the DNA results came out, a rare torrential downpour hit Sicily.When Caitlin burst into Ron’s study with the report in hand, he was watching Lisa paint. Lately, to cope with post-traumatic stress, she had taken up oil painting. The subject was the Corleone mansion’s garden. Its colors were so bright they were almost blinding.“The results are in.” Caitlin threw the envelope containing the document onto the desk. “A 99.98% match. It’s Wendy.”Lisa’s paintbrush froze midair.Ron did not touch the envelope. He stared out at the rain hammering against the windows. Only after a long while did he say, “The Marino family has all the means to forge a DNA report.”Caitlin took a deep breath. “I chose the coroner. I arranged the lab. I personally delivered the samples. No one from the Marino family was involved at any point.”“Then maybe you were deceived too.”That sentence plunged the study into dead silence.Caitlin stared at him in disbelief. “Ron Corleone, how long are y
When the fish in the cold storage at the fishing harbor began to rot, my body was finally discovered.It was not Caitlin but a janitor who had come to dispose of the expired goods.He opened the innermost freezer and ran out screaming.The police arrived and sealed the scene. By the time the news reached the Corleone family’s mansion, Ron was having breakfast with Lisa.“Don Corleone, the Palermo police are on the line,” the butler said nervously, “They found a female body in the old harbor’s cold storage… the age and build… closely resemble Miss Wendy’s.”The fork slipped from Lisa’s hand and clattered against the plate.Ron stood up. “Are they sure?”“The police request that a family member come to identify the body.”On the way to the morgue, Ron did not say a word. Caitlin sat beside him, silent too. Lisa stayed back in the mansion, claiming she felt unwell. She cried so hard, saying she did not dare to look at the body, and even nearly fainted.Of course, she would not da







