Chapter 3

The stone under my knees is like ice through the thin white dress.

Capos start rolling in. Twos and threes. Some slow down to stare. Some walk past like I don't exist.

"Who's the girl?"

"Nero's. The one that still can't get a blank."

"Oh, right. The American."

"Why's she on her knees?"

"Sabrina's call. Says the girl needs breaking in. Maybe this year the Family bites."

"Ha. Should've been Sabrina in that dress from day one. She'd have gotten a blank first pull."

Low laughter drifts back from the courtyard.

I keep my head down. Out of the corner of my eye I see Sabrina on the top step. Black suit, waist nipped in tight, that little smile.

Nero's next to her. Head bent, listening to one of the old Capos. He hasn't looked at me once.

Sabrina glides down toward the group. Warm laugh.

"Please. Don't tease. Until the Don's wife is properly recognized, I'm only keeping her seat warm."

"When the right one comes into this house, I'll teach her the rules myself."

The right one.

Not the woman he legally married five years ago. The right one.

Like I'm some intern nobody's planning to hire.

I remember my first year in this house.

Sabrina had just been made consigliera. Day one, she wrote a new rule — an unrecognized wife can't touch Family business. The consigliera handles it for her.

Nero thought it was fair.

"She grew up in this, cara. She knows how it works. Let her carry the load."

So for five years I've been the wife on paper and the mistress in the house.

No job. No voice in anything. Not at a single table that mattered.

Sabrina sat in for me at dinners. Stood in for me at every event. Walked into the Sanctum with my name in her mouth.

Someday, when the Family accepted me, she'd teach me how to be a wife.

Five years.

She kept sitting in until the seat became hers.

And Nero got used to her being in it.

Up on the steps, he finally looks up. Sees me through the fog.

His jaw tightens. He comes down.

"Why are you out here?"

Sabrina glides in behind him. "This year's rule, padrone."

"Five years, no blank. The Family's telling us something. She kneels every morning of the Renewal. The Council signed off."

Nero doesn't say anything.

I know this beat. This is the part where I shut up. Every time I've ever pushed, Sabrina purrs it's for her own good. And he tells me to swallow it. For the bigger picture, cara.

Muscle memory. Fighting him goes nowhere.

I try anyway.

"Nero." I grab his leg. "The surgery money. Send it straight to the hospital. Please."

He blinks down at me. Cuts his eyes to Sabrina.

"It's already with her. Family finances run through the consigliera. You don't need to be in it."

"I'm not asking to be in it, I just—"

"Enough."

His voice drops. Gentle on the surface. Iron underneath.

"Five years without a blank, cara. The Family isn't pleased. Kneeling won't kill you."

He crouches. Tips my chin up with one finger.

"When I'm done up there, we'll fly to New York. Together. Go see your mother."

I open my mouth.

The chopper roars up on the pad. Swallows my voice.

"Padrone. We need to move." Sabrina's hand on his elbow.