How Does 'A Cultural History Of Cuba During The U.S. Occupation, 1898-1902' End?

I gave Julian Marchetti thirty years of my life after the war ended. I built his empire, raised his children, and held the family together behind the scenes. But when he died, his will didn’t even mention my name. Half his fortune went to our children. The other half went to Lydia Carter, the daughter of the man who’d saved his life in Normandy. The same Lydia who’d stolen my identity.The same Lydia who’d built her entire life on the ruins of mine. All he left me was a single note, scrawled in his familiar handwriting. I loved you. We had thirty good years. But I owe Lydia. This is the least I can do. I dropped dead of a heart attack right there in his study, clutching that pathetic piece of paper. When I opened my eyes again, I was reborn in 1945, when the war had just ended This time I will not swallow my anger and suffer in silence; I will fight back. And I will take back every single thing that is rightfully mine.

On the day my father died, his seven most trusted men all met violent deaths within the same twenty-four hours. Hugh Castillo sacrificed his legs to butcher the gang and put me in power. “Taz, don’t be scared. Those monsters are gone. You’re finally free.” In the years he lay paralyzed, I tried over a thousand experimental drugs and prayed at every church across the country. I hunted down every possible remedy, praying for just one that would bring him back to his feet. When Hugh learned of this, he swallowed a bottle of pills one night to end his life. After he was revived, he smiled and wiped the tears from my face. “Taz, I don’t want to be a dead weight. You deserve a better life than this.” That night, we held each other and wept. We swore that from then on, no matter what, we would never leave each other behind. But seven years later, a sweet-looking girl showed up at my door with a thousand photos I was never meant to see. “Every month, while you were praying to God in churches, Huey was busy trying out new positions with me. “Ms. Sheargold, don’t you know that used goods like you kill a man’s desire? It was no wonder he’d rather play the cripple than touch you.” I looked through every single photo, then put them up for auction underground.

Ever since my husband, the mafia capo Rocco Marchetti, poured all his attention and the family's resources into his brother's widow, the woman whose husband took a bullet for him. I found our daughter Tessy's diary, where she had started writing, "My Papa is gone." A nun from her private Catholic school called, asking about his passing. I paused for a moment. "Yes," I replied. "He passed away a long time ago." On Father's Day, the school organized a trip to the church to light prayer candles. While other children wrote cards praying for their fathers' safety, Tessy neatly wrote just two words on hers: "To Heaven." During the parent-teacher open house, the nuns displayed the children's decorated diaries on their desks. The theme for their entries was My Father. My Papa died in a shootout in the next neighborhood over. A lady there wouldn't stop crying, and then Papa never came home. After every entry like this, she would clutch the crucifix on her necklace, her small hand gripping it so tightly her palm grew slick with sweat. Eventually, Rocco sensed the growing chill at home. He dropped everything and rushed back to the estate with a bouquet of expensive red roses, hoping to celebrate his daughter's birthday with her. The door opened. On the coffee table lay Tessy's new diary, its title scrawled in a childish hand: If Papa Were Still Alive.

I am a maid in the Alarcón mansion. To the Patron and my mother, I am just a servant, but they don’t know my real plan. Every night at the Mascara Club, I put on a silver mask and work for the money that will buy my freedom and my law degree. Now, Mateo has returned from the US and Diego from the UK. Mateo spends his nights at the club, tracking the woman behind the mask, while Diego looks at me in my uniform and sees the girl he can’t forget. I am playing a role in both their lives while my mother carries a secret about the Patron that could burn this entire house down. I just need to get my money and get out before their games become my end.

Dario brought me a silver bracelet engraved with pomegranate blossoms when he returned from Madrid. He pulled me into his arms and nuzzled my temple with the tip of his nose, as tender as every reunion over the past seven years. "Mira, tell me, what does your family value most in a relationship?" I looked down at the bracelet on my wrist, sure he was finally about to keep his promise. Seven years earlier, he'd met me in a whitewashed town outside Granada, moved into the courtyard I'd inherited from my mother, and left a pair of handmade leather shoes beside the front door. I come from a Romani family, and my grandmother's side kept an old custom: when a man truly meant to make a place his home, he left a pair of shoes at the door. If the woman put them outside, the door was closed to him for good. I smiled and answered, "Sincerity, of course. " Dario kissed the side of my neck and chuckled. "I knew it. " "Sofia and I got married yesterday. She's carrying my brother Javier's baby, and the Vega family won't let its first grandchild be born without the Vega name." The smile froze on my face. "Then what are we? Nico is already four years old." He reached up to touch my cheek, soothing me as if I were a child who didn't know any better. "Since when did you start using a piece of paper to pressure people? Don't Romani families care more about family acceptance and building a life together? I never said I was leaving you. So what exactly are you upset about?" I looked at his self-righteous face and suddenly laughed. He had probably forgotten that those shoes were still by the door. My family had lived here for three generations. Yet the moment Dario needed me to excuse his betrayal, he reduced me to a Romani woman too ignorant of the law to deserve recognition in public. Now he simply dressed the same prejudice in a gentle voice and spoke it to my face. All I had to do was put those shoes outside. Then this courtyard, this home, and I would never wait for him again.

A lethal neurotoxin had taken hold of my lungs. My time is running out. My mother, Sofia, was the most connected lawyer in Palermo, excelling in burying crimes and twisting the law. When my brother Vincent mowed me down and shattered my leg, she called in every favor to clear his record. My father, Tommaso, the most feared private doctor in Sicily, faked my medical files, branding me unstable and delusional, all to mold me into the obedient son they needed. Then there was Lina, only daughter of Don Vitali, my wife. She said, “We let him out for Vincent’s liver. What if he says no?” Dad’s voice went cold. “He has two choices: lie quietly on that operating table… or waste away in the sanatorium for what’s left of his life.” I pushed the parlor door open, steady and slow. My voice was flat. “I’ll do it.” Every one of them let out a breath they’d been holding, showering me with hollow words. They didn’t know there was no life left to threaten. I had twenty-four hours. By sunrise, I would be dead either way. Funny… now that I’m in the ground, why are they all crying?