جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

The poison took effect faster than I expected. The last thing I heard was the children stifling their sobs in the chapel.My grandmother sat at the front, her back straight.My mother, Anna Moretti, leaned against her, still clutching the cross my father had given her in his younger days.Sofia Moretti, my oldest brother's wife, held her two children close. Teresa Moretti, my second brother's wife, kept a protective hand over her still-flat belly. Chiara Moretti, my third brother's wife, covered her daughter's eyes with her shawl.No one mentioned the men who had "betrayed" us anymore.Half an hour earlier, in front of everyone, my grandmother had crossed my father's and my three brothers' names out of the family Bible."This family honors men who die fighting, not rats who sell out their own."Since they've turned their backs on the family and its honor, we won't carry their shame for them."At that, my mother finally began to cry.She didn't plead for my father. She just tucked the c

Their "just this once" became the staged betrayal on my wedding day that shook all of Sicily.Before dawn, my father slipped away from the estate with his sons and Eva.Soon after, the council of elders received an encrypted message.It said my father had cut a deal with the FBI and turned state's witness, and that he'd taken the family's money-laundering records and the security plans for its territory with him.My mother read the printout three times over. Then she shook her head."That's impossible. Francesco would never do this. He'd eat a bullet before he sold out the family."But then came the letter my father had left behind.It didn't explain a thing.All he wrote was that he was sick of 30 years of marriage and that Mother shouldn't bother looking for him.Each of my brothers had left a letter too.Marco told Sofia to take the kids and go back to her parents. Paolo told Teresa, pregnant as she was, to get rid of the baby. Vito's was the cruelest. Their marriage was over, he wr

The tiramisu slipped from my father's hands and hit the floor. The box split open, filling the chapel with its sweet scent. No one moved to pick it up.At some point, all 12 candles in the chapel had gone out. My grandmother sat at the front. My mother leaned against her, still clutching the old cross.My sisters-in-law were huddled over the children. I was still in the wedding dress I'd worn all night, waiting for a groom who never came, with ash from the burned marriage contract smudged on one sleeve.My father didn't seem to understand what he was seeing. He even took two more steps in, his voice still light with the relief of being home."Mom, come on. Quit pretending you're asleep. Go ahead, hit me. I won't dodge it this time. Look, I even brought tiramisu for you and Anna."My grandmother didn't look up. My father bent down to help my mother to her feet. The moment his fingers touched her cold hand, he froze."Anna, I know I went too far last night. Come on, get up. You can yell

Twelve lives lost in a single night. There was no covering up that absurd staged betrayal now. By evening, the Commission had sent its enforcers to lock down the Moretti estate.The man leading them was Graham Durand, an old friend of my father's. He didn't even touch the drink he was offered. His very first words hit like a hammer."Francesco, you exploited family orders, confidential information, and the honor of the entire Sicilian Mafia just to stage some ridiculous jealousy game for your youngest daughter?!"His face expressionless, my father took out the gold revolver he always carried, slid off the signet ring that marked his rank, and set them both down hard on the long table."It was my idea. I own it. Don't make excuses for me."Marco spoke up right away."I made the fake ledgers. I'm the one who had the story planted in the press."Paolo's voice was low."We wrote those letters ourselves. Nobody forced us."Vito was blunter."Don't put this all on my dad. All three of us wer

In the end, the Commission didn't hand down any death sentences. None of them had intended to kill, and not one of them had laid a hand on us.But that didn't mean a single "we never saw this coming" could wipe away 12 lives.My father was permanently stripped of his title as Don and all his authority. My three brothers received prison sentences for forging orders, spreading false intelligence, and abusing their authority.For his role in staging the fake betrayal and throwing the Alliance into chaos, Dante was stripped of his position as heir to the Alliance.Eva, who had knowingly taken part, was sentenced to confinement in a convent.The day the sentences were handed down, for once, Eva didn't cry. She just looked at my father across the crowd."Dad, do you regret finding me now?"My father was quiet for a long time. Finally, he shook his head."I've never regretted finding you."Eva's eyes had barely lit up when he went on."What I regret is turning what I owed you into an excuse t