Through the blur of my vision, Lorenzo's boots appeared in front of me again, polished black leather scuffed with another man's blood.
He hauled me up by the collar and forced a capsule between my lips. "It's to save the baby. Once it's born, you get your release from the alliance."
The bitterness flooded my mouth, and only then did I remember. Matteo was the name Lorenzo had chosen.
Back when he first learned I was carrying, he'd been so happy he'd opened the doors of the social club for three nights, wine for every soldier in the borgata.
Every night he drove the twenty miles back from the warehouse district, just to press his ear to my belly and talk to the child.
The name itself he'd taken from the old family Bible, turning brittle pages until he found it.
So how had we ever come to this?
Lorenzo tucked me into a corner and turned to leave.
But I caught the mocking curl of Vittoria's smile.
I strained to read the shape of her lips. She seemed to be saying…
Poison.
The pain dragged me under, and when I woke I was already in the Donna's private rooms.
Celia Romano looked at me, eyes rimmed red. "Adriana, the men I sent didn't reach you in time… your child."
With Vittoria's poison already inside me, the baby could never have been saved.
I gave a bitter smile and signaled to her that I was all right.
"Adriana, you put your body between my people and the Sabini guns. You shielded the women, the children. The famiglia owes you a debt that doesn't get forgotten."
"Is there anything you want? That Falcone girl…"
I cut her off quickly. "Donna, all I want is my release from the marriage."
Seeing the grief in my eyes, Celia Romano agreed, and left me alone to rest.
Marco Greco came to see me. "Signora, your child. I'll send for the underboss to come for you right now."
Before I could refuse, he'd already sent a man.
But a day passed, then two, and Lorenzo never came.
The Donna told me to rest easy, yet the maids' chattering still drifted in through the door.
"Lorenzo Moretti truly does love his woman. The Sabini are barely buried and already he's out riding the streets with his crew, knocking on every doctor's door in the city."
"Right. They say he won't even touch the medicine the Don sent up for his own wounds. Gave all of it to her."
The estate had been in chaos, and I'd been found alone and pulled from the blood; fearing for my standing, Celia Romano had not let it be known I was the underboss's wife.
Listening to the maids' envy, Marco Greco came in, his face stiff, to make his report.
"Signora. There's been no word from the underboss."
I gave a soft sound of acknowledgment, pressing down the dull ache in my chest. "He's busy."
Too busy tending Vittoria. How could there still be room in his heart for me?
After half a month, it was no longer fitting for the Don's estate to house an associate's wife.
Celia Romano sent quiet word for Lorenzo to take me home.
But all that came for me was one battered car and the very enforcer who had once put his boot into my belly.
His face was full of resentment. "The underboss hasn't slept in days, and you had the nerve to run your mouth to the Donna."
"The man who carried her order tore a strip off him in front of everyone. If he weren't honoring what you used to be to him, you'd have been thrown out with nothing long ago, you vicious thing."
"It's Marco Greco I pity…"
His words broke off the moment he caught sight of Marco, a step behind him.
Marco gave him a puzzled look. "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost? See the signora home, and do it gently. The doctor was clear. She can't take the cold right now."
I said nothing, and got into the car.
Outside, once the enforcer had heard the truth from Marco, he came around to my window and struck himself hard across the face. He cracked the knuckles of his right hand, one by one, the hand that had broken me.
I spoke up to stop him before he could beg forgiveness.
If Lorenzo hadn't allowed it, his own enforcer would never have dared lay a hand on me so freely.
In the end, I simply didn't measure up to Vittoria.
When we reached the Moretti compound, the car was brought around to the back gate, the one the trucks used, away from where anyone might see.
The enforcer's face went grim. "I'll go call for the underboss right now."
Before he could move, the back gate scraped open, and Lorenzo came storming out, fury rolling off him, and yanked me down onto the ground.
"I spared you out of mercy, and you go and put your filth on Vittoria!"
