All Chapters of The Corleone Wife Who Died and Disappeared: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Then someone inside glanced toward the door and spotted me.“Don,” he said with a half-laugh, “looks like your wife came after all.”The voices inside paused.Zane looked up and saw me standing there. “So you came after all,” he said, his voice low with drink. “What, you cooled off and came to take me home?”I said nothing.Behind him, Susan looked up in surprise. “Weren’t we staying out all night? Didn’t you say we were going to the next place after this?”Zane didn’t even look back at her when he answered.“Not tonight.”Then he turned to me again, his tone already shifting into something softer.“There’s a storm coming in later. Thunderstorms.She hate thunder. I’m going home with her.”It was said so naturally, as if nothing had happened. As if all he had to do was stand up, decide the night was over, and everything between us would return to the way it had always been.He picked up his coat and stepped out of the booth.No explanation. No apology.We walked across the street to wh

We arrived at the restaurant at six o’clock that evening. We’d barely sat down when Zane’s phone rang. He answered it, then turned to me with an apologetic look.“I’m so sorry, Seraphina. Something urgent came up. I have to go handle it, but I’ll be right back, I promise.”He left.I waited until nine o’clock, until the food on the table had gone cold, until my stomach ached with hunger. He never came back.I was just standing up to leave when a familiar figure slid into the seat across from me.Susan.She looked me up and down, a cruel smirk on her face. “Well, Seraphina. At the end of the day, Zane still chose me. He left you alone on your wedding anniversary to come running to me. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe you’re the problem?”When I said nothing, she leaned forward, her voice sharp with triumph. “Let’s make a bet. Which one of us is gonna be the Donna of the Corleone family? It’s almost sad, really. All your hard work’s just gonna be my legacy. You should just fol

For years, I buried myself in data and experiments at the facility.As time passed, the pain Zane had caused me faded, until I felt nothing at all when I thought of him.The work was hard, but it was fulfilling. For the first time since my parents died, I felt like myself again. The brilliant, unapologetic woman I’d been before Zane’s love had shrunk me down to fit into his life.After several years, Professor Ross and I led our team to a groundbreaking scientific breakthrough. The project was officially declassified, and I was free to leave.I moved to Sicily, into my family’s ancestral home, and took over the hundred-year-old family winery. I spent my days making wine, walking the vineyards, and for the first time in my life, I was truly at peace.One quiet afternoon, I checked my personal email, and found a series of messages from the steward, sent over the years I’d been offline.The first attachment was the security footage from the restaurant, the night of our anniversary. It s

A few months later, Professor Ross told me about a brilliant young student he’d been mentoring. The student had practically shouted with excitement when he’d heard my name, and the professor was convinced we knew each other.I agreed to meet him, and was shocked to find Vincent, my childhood best friend from New York, sitting at the café table.We’d run the streets of Little Italy together as kids, until his family moved to Sicily when we were teenagers. I hadn’t seen him since.“Seraphina. Long time no see.” He smiled, and I was instantly thrown back to the sunny, carefree boy I’d known growing up.We walked along the lake for hours, catching up on the decades we’d missed. I was surprised to learn he’d never married.I’d thought it would be awkward, that we’d have nothing to say to each other, but we talked like no time had passed at all. We loved all the same things: winemaking, long walks, classical Sicilian concerts. We fell into an easy, comfortable friendship, and spent more and