Chapter 3

A sudden chaos of heavy footsteps came pounding down the hallway.

A handful of mid-tier capos — men who had all bet everything on Luca — burst into the hospital room.

Carlo was at the front. He was one of Luca's most important money men, and his eyes were red with panic.

"Where is Master Luca? Why isn't he here yet?!"

Rossana whipped her finger toward me. "It's her! It's all this useless Vera's fault! She couldn't even get Luca to come back!"

Carlo's composure shattered. He snatched up a thick stack of family ledgers from the table and hurled them at me.

"Vera Marino, what the *fuck* do you do all day?!"

"Every one of us has staked our lives, our entire fortunes, on Master Luca."

"If he misses this ring tonight, every drop of blood we shed, every brother we buried, every enemy we made — it all goes down with him!"

"You stupid, worthless woman!"

I said nothing. I let the papers scatter at my feet.

You bet on the wrong man, gentlemen.

But that — I couldn't say. Not yet.

Before Carlo could finish his cursing, the cardiac monitor by the bedside let out a sharp, urgent alarm.

Every heart in the room seized.

The attending physician lifted his head from his stethoscope and let out a heavy sigh.

"Gentlemen... Mr. Corleone has, at most, twenty minutes left. I suggest you act quickly."

Twenty minutes.

Truthfully, if Luca would just glance at his phone, take one call —

From the East River pier to Mount Sinai on the Upper East Side, ten minutes was more than enough.

A flicker of hope rose in Rossana again.

With shaking hands, she picked up the phone again, her voice ravaged to a hoarse whisper.

"Luca... baby... this time, you *have* to pick up Mommy's call..."

Meanwhile, on the East River.

The forty-million-dollar private yacht was gliding gently beneath the Manhattan skyline.

Brilliant fireworks bloomed across the night sky, one after another, lighting up the entire city.

On the open-air deck of the yacht's top level —

Sofia was nestled against Luca's chest. Her slender fingers pointed at the phone that wouldn't stop vibrating.

"The ringtone is so loud, my head hurts... Luca, could you turn it off, or, better yet, throw it into the river for me?"

She lowered her lashes, looking more pitiful by the second.

"For these thirteen minutes and fourteen seconds of fireworks, your entire world needs to be just me. Can you do that for me?"

Luca paused for a moment. The words from the call earlier flashed across his mind: *Your father's been in a serious car accident.*

But when he looked up and saw Sofia, her eyes slightly red from the river wind, those eyes brimming with dependence on him —

every last doubt evaporated.

Just Vera Marino, picking another fight out of jealousy.

His father was as strong as a lion. There was no way he was actually dying.

"Okay."

Luca bent and kissed her forehead, his voice tender enough to bleed honey.

"As long as my princess is happy, even if the sky falls, I'll be right here."

He raised his arm. Without a moment's hesitation, he hurled the vibrating phone over the railing and into the black water of the East River.

A faint *plop*.

Swallowed completely by the roar of the fireworks.