I decided to go to the front office. Aside from being Sebastiano's wife, I was also an architect. I told myself it was to drop off the revised schematics for the coastal development project, but deep down, a darker instinct was driving me. I needed to see him in his element. I needed to see if the rot I had discovered in my home had spread to the operation I helped build.
I walked through the heavy oak doors of the Dalessio real estate firm, clutching the roll of blueprints like a shield.
Usually, my arrival was met with warm smiles and respectful nods. Today, the atmosphere shifted the moment my heels clicked against the marble floor.
The front-desk associate, a young girl named Rosa who usually gushed over my outfits, froze mid-typing. Her eyes widened, darting from me to the private elevator and back. Her hand moved instinctively toward the phone, then stopped. She straightened the stapler, then the pen cup, as if the small act of ordering her desk could impose order on the situation unfolding around her.
"Mrs. Dalessio," she stammered, half-rising from her chair. "We… we weren't expecting you today."
"I'm here to see Sebastiano," I said, forcing a pleasant smile that felt like it might crack my face. "Is he in?"
"He's… he's in a sit-down," she lied. I could tell. She was terrible at it. Her gaze kept flickering to the phone, as if she wanted to warn him.
"That's fine," I said, breezing past her before she could stop me. "I have a key. I'll wait."
I walked toward the private elevator reserved for Family. I reached the top floor. The executive suite was quiet, the plush carpet swallowing the sound of my footsteps. Old photographs of Don Dalessio with senators and cardinals lined the hallway walls, watching me pass. I approached Sebastiano's office, the heavy mahogany double doors looming at the end of the hall.
I was about to knock when I heard it.
It was faint at first, muffled by the wood, but unmistakable. A low, guttural groan. Then, a giggle.
My hand hovered inches from the wood.
"Sssh, quiet down," Sebastiano's voice came through, strained and breathless. "Someone might hear us."
"Let them hear," Catalina's voice purred, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the desk. "I'm tired of being quiet, Sebastiano. You're the Boss's heir. You can do what you want."
"Not yet, baby. Not yet. Just… turn around."
The sounds that followed, the wet, rhythmic friction of skin on skin, the stifled moans, tore through me sharper than any scalpel.
I couldn't breathe. The hallway seemed to spin. I wanted to kick the door down. I wanted to scream until my throat bled. But the humiliation was a heavy, suffocating blanket. If I went in there now, I wouldn't just be the betrayed wife; I would be the hysterical, crazy woman. The Castellano name would become a joke whispered from one crew to the next across five boroughs.
I backed away. My legs felt like jelly, but I forced them to move. I retreated, not to the elevator, but to the ladies' room down the hall.
I pushed into the handicap stall and locked the door, leaning my forehead against the cool metal partition. I gasped for air, trying to steady the violent shaking of my hands.
A moment later, the bathroom door opened. The click-clack of heels echoed on the tiles.
"Did you see her?" a voice whispered.
"I know," another voice replied. "Mrs. Dalessio. She walked right past my desk. She looked… oblivious."
"It's so embarrassing," Gianna said, her voice dropping conspiratorially low even though she clearly thought no one else was there. I heard the sound of water running, the pump of soap. "Do you think she knows? About Catalina?"
"How could she not? Catalina is practically sitting in his lap during meetings. She walks around here like she owns the place. Wearing those tight skirts, giggling at everything he says."
"God, poor wife," Gianna sighed. The pity in her voice was worse than the malice. "She just lost a baby, right? And now her husband is banging his courier in the middle of the workday."
"Men are trash," the second woman said. "But honestly? Bianca is kind of… weak, isn't she? I mean, everyone in the office knows. The associates know. The soldiers on the door know. If I were her, I would have burned this place down by now. But she just smiles and brings him lunch."
"She's probably in denial. Or maybe she just wants to keep the money."
"Should we tell him?" Gianna asked. "That she's here? She might walk in on them."
"No way!" the other girl hissed. "Are you crazy? We'd be cut loose by morning. Sebastiano would blame us for letting her up. Let's just wait. After all, Mrs. Dalessio seems weak. She didn't even confront them when she walked past the office earlier. She probably heard them and ran away."
They laughed. A cruel, sharp sound that echoed off the tiled walls.
The door swung shut. Silence returned.
I sat there, staring at the floor.
Weak.
Oblivious.
Everyone knows.
The shame burned through my veins, hotter than the grief. I wasn't just a victim; I was a spectacle. My entire life, my tragedy, was water-cooler gossip for the associates I worked alongside. They were laughing at me. They were betting on how long it would take for me to break.
I stood up. I wiped the tears from my cheeks with a rough paper towel. I looked at myself in the mirror.
My eyes were red, but they were dry. The woman staring back at me didn't look weak anymore. She looked dangerous.
My right hand drifted to my bare collarbone, fingers pressing the hollow where my mother's gold crucifix used to rest. I had taken it off the night I discovered the truth, and I had never put it back on. The skin there was smooth, empty, final. I let my hand drop.
I didn't go back to Sebastiano's office. I didn't throw a tantrum. I walked out of the bathroom, my spine steel-straight. I walked past the reception desk, ignoring Rosa's panicked look.
"Tell Sebastiano I stopped by," I said, my voice calm, devoid of emotion. "Tell him I left the blueprints. And tell him to enjoy his… sit-down."
I walked out of the building, into the blinding afternoon sun. I hailed a taxi, giving the driver an address I had looked up weeks ago, back when I thought I was just being paranoid.
The consigliere-for-hire kept his office in a glass tower on the other side of the city, far from any territory the Five Families claimed openly. I was ushered into the office of Vincent Palladino, a counselor known for tearing blood-bound alliances apart and making the dissolution stick even when both Families wanted blood.
He looked up from his desk, surprised to see me without an appointment. He reached for the pen beside his legal pad, aligned it perfectly parallel to the edge, and left it there.
"Mrs. Dalessio," he said, standing up. "This is unexpected. Is everything alright?"
I sat down in the leather chair opposite him. I placed my hands on his desk. They weren't shaking anymore.
"I want to divorce my husband," I said, the words tasting like freedom. "I don't care about his assets or anything. File the papers now. I just want it done in three days."
