Fox C
On our seventh wedding anniversary, my husband—Don Enzo Cavina—suddenly put a motion before the family council:
The Donna would be barred from taking part in family affairs.
“One vote in favor.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
The motion passed unanimously.
Being forced off the council just as I completed seven years meant the family no longer had to honor its promise to grant me the twenty-percent stake that was about to vest.
I had been reduced to nothing more than an appendage to the Don.
My fingertips turned cold, but my gaze remained steady as it swept over every face around the long table.
“Why?”
Jack was the first to stand.
“You’re nothing but an outsider who married into this family, yet you’ve controlled the port, the banks, and the union for seven years. Who knows how much you’ve skimmed for yourself?”
James sneered.
“If we let you take twenty percent, sooner or later, the Cavina family will become the Medici family.”
I turned to my husband, Don Enzo, seated at the head of the table.
“Is that really what you think?”
Enzo came to me and pulled me into his arms.
“You’ve given seven years of your life to this family. I just can’t bear to watch the council drain you any longer.”
“You won’t have to sit through these pointless meetings anymore. But you will always be my wife.”
Without a seat on the council, I had no say in any decision.
But the Cavinas couldn’t manage their dealings with the Five Families without me.
So that was it.
They still expected me to bear every risk—they just didn’t want to give me the share I had earned.
I smiled, slipped off my wedding ring and family badge, and slapped them both onto the long table.
Three days later, Enzo came to me with every elder who had voted for the motion.
Together, they knelt before me, begging the “outsider who did nothing but steal everyone else’s credit” to come back and save them.