"Thank you, Godmother," Liliana said politely, as she always did, accepting Serafina's favoritism with the practiced grace of a girl who had learned early that gifts in this world came wrapped in obligation.
Watching the exchange from where I stood near the credenza, my daughter hesitated. I could see the way she steadied herself, the way her small body drew up as though she were about to address someone far above her station rather than the woman the world believed was her mother. Then she gathered the courage to speak. "Mom, tomorrow's my birthday too… could I maybe get a new pair of shoes?"
I looked down and noticed her worn-out sandals, their soles practically falling apart. The leather had cracked along both sides, and the left strap had been re-stitched with thread that didn't match. A detail no one in this house had ever cared to fix properly.
The shoes had once belonged to Liliana, cast-offs from the previous year, and Serafina had gleefully declared that Arianna should wear them, as though handing down scraps to a stray was an act of generosity.
For an entire year, they had been her only shoes. Even in the cruel bite of winter, with her feet numb from frostbite, she continued to wear those tattered sandals through the compound's marble corridors, where the cold rose through the stone like something alive.
"You worthless wretch! You're only fit to wear these rags! Do you want a birthday celebration? Do you even deserve it?!"
Without another word, Serafina began to lash out at my daughter again. Her open hand connected first, then her voice, each blow underscored by words designed to strip the child of whatever fragment of self she had managed to keep. I watched the right corner of Serafina's mouth lift, just slightly, a heartbeat before the worst of it landed, the way it always did when she was about to turn cruelty into a lesson no one had asked for.
Her harsh words and my daughter's cries filled the house, reverberating off the walls. The sound carried through the sitting room's high ceilings and into the foyer, where two of Salvatore's soldiers stood at the front entrance. Neither moved. Neither would. What happened inside the Don's household was the Don's business, and beneath that, it was the women's business, and beneath that, it was nothing at all.
I stood there, numb, watching the scene unfold in silence. My hands found a linen napkin on the credenza's edge. I folded it once, then again, pressing each corner into a perfect square with slow, exact movements while the sound of my daughter's crying thinned into something barely human.
Salvatore tried to intervene, his frustration mounting. He set down his glass of amaro with a deliberate sound and stepped forward, the signet ring on his right hand catching the lamplight as his thumb worked it in a slow rotation. Even Liliana moved toward them, her fingers rising instinctively to the small St. Christopher medal at her throat, pressing it flat against her collarbone as though its silver could ward off what she was witnessing.
Finally, perhaps to avoid further scaring Liliana, Serafina yanked her daughter away and dragged her out of the house. The front door closed behind them with a sound that was too quiet for what had just happened. One of the soldiers outside shifted his weight but said nothing.
The following day, it was Liliana's birthday.
Serafina arrived, her arms laden with gifts and a cake from the bakery on Mulberry Street that the Family kept on retainer for occasions like this, knocking on the compound door with an eager smile. The boxes were wrapped in cream and gold. The cake was three tiers, obscene in its elegance for a girl turning eighteen. She carried it all as though she were delivering a sacrament.
When she stepped inside, Salvatore noticed she was alone and frowned. His thumb paused on his signet ring.
"Where's Arianna? Today's her birthday too. Why didn't she come?"
With a dismissive shrug, Serafina replied, as though it were no big deal, "Oh, her? I broke her leg yesterday. She's unconscious now."
Her words were laced with an unsettling lightness, her smile almost smug, as if the cruelty of breaking my daughter's leg was a badge of honor. She said it the way someone might mention leaving a coat at the cleaner's. The room absorbed the information in silence. Salvatore's hand went completely still at his side, the ring frozen mid-turn, and for a moment the only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock against the far wall.
