At first light, the man stood in the doorway with a thermos of food in his hand.
"Adriana, I have to leave the country next week.
"I'll clear some time this Saturday. We'll sit down with your family, talk about the union—"
I cut him off before he could finish.
"No need."
Lorenzo went still. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I smiled and lied. "They've gone to handle business in another territory. Not back yet."
He kept his eyes fixed on me, like he had more to say. Lucky for both of us, his phone rang. Some matter from the social club, no doubt, one of those calls that always mattered more than I did.
He shut the door without a second's hesitation.
Friday. My last day attending to the Family's front operations.
I'd barely stepped out of the building when Lorenzo hauled me into the car, no arguments allowed. His soldier held the door, eyes lowered, and the locks clicked shut around me like a verdict.
In a restaurant the Marchettis owned through three shell names, he cut my steak for me and asked, "Which wine do you want?"
I scrolled through my phone, bored, and said offhandedly, "Whatever you pick."
My distraction darkened his handsome face. "Who are you talking to?"
"No one."
He took my phone anyway. In this world a man took what he wanted and called it concern.
He flipped through it for a while, his expression unreadable, then asked, "When did you change your lock screen?"
For all our years bound together, my lock screen had always been a photo of the two of us.
Now it was a picture of my family's little dog.
I didn't feel like answering, so I just got up and went to the restroom.
When I came back, Lorenzo was gone.
All at once the lights cut out.
A server wheeled out flowers and a cake, moving slowly toward me.
The cart stopped at the table beside mine, and a moment later my phone lit up.
A birthday message from the phone company.
Walking out of the restaurant, I heard a familiar, syrupy voice.
"Ahh~ Lorenzo, you're so strong, push me higher—"
It was Gianna on the swing outside, shrieking with delight, begging Lorenzo to push her higher and higher.
She got greedy, and two pushes later she tumbled straight into his arms.
They looked at each other and laughed, clinging together, neither one willing to let go, and only then did they notice I was there.
Lorenzo's face flickered with plain annoyance at the interruption. He looked at me without expression.
"Adriana, this swing is so much fun, come ride with us—"
Halfway through, Gianna's face flushed bright red. Shy, she let the hand draped over Lorenzo's shoulder slide down, like she wasn't quite ready to. She pressed her other palm flat against her chest, as if the fright still pained her heart, the gesture coming a half-second too smoothly.
"Adriana, please don't get the wrong idea, Lorenzo only held me to save me—"
Lorenzo ruffled her dark hair fondly and gazed at her with feeling. "Silly girl, what's there to explain? As long as you're not hurt."
Once he'd finished soothing her, all the tenderness drained out of him. He looked at me coldly. "Done eating already?"
I didn't bother answering. I walked toward the Ferris wheel not far off.
They say if you make a wish on a Ferris wheel on your birthday, it's bound to come true.
Watching my back, Gianna's eyes flashed with a sneer, and she quickly tugged Lorenzo along after me. "Wow, a Ferris wheel, Lorenzo, I want to ride this too—"
When the attendant said there were only two seats left,
Lorenzo didn't so much as glance at me. He took Gianna's hand and grabbed the seats first.
Twenty minutes later.
Back on the ground, the man searched the entire grounds and never saw me again.
Eight o'clock that night.
I walked out of the bedroom with my suitcase.
I tucked the note that said 【it's over】under the keys, set them down with slow, deliberate care, and let my fingers leave them completely.
And I left without looking back.
……
Eleven at night, my phone rang.
It was Lorenzo.
I was in the front room talking with my father and mother and didn't see it.
An hour later, he called again.
I darkened the screen, turned the phone off, and went to sleep.
I slept until noon the next day. When I powered the phone back on, I was startled to find more than a dozen missed calls.
On a hunch, I opened my messages.
And there it was. Lorenzo, always so cold, the Don whose silence men feared more than his temper, had for once sent one message after another.
【What's with the keys and the note?】
【So I forgot your birthday. That's all. Ignoring my calls, not answering my texts, is playing hard to get fun for you?】
【Adriana, you have one hour to get back here, or don't ever come back.】
The last message had been sent three hours ago.
I let out a breath from somewhere deep, moved my finger, and deleted Lorenzo outright.
A knock at my door.
When I said come in, my mother carried in a glass of milk.
"Adriana, your stomach's bad. Drink it while it's warm."
I'd come home with my suitcase out of nowhere last night, into a house that had kept its honor by keeping its quiet, and my mother and father hadn't asked a thing. They just looked after me the way they always had.
I held on to my mother's arm, sniffed against the sting in my nose, and said, "Mamma, I found a place I like. It's small, outside Marchetti ground, but it's enough to be a place of my own."
My mother smiled. "Then buy it. How much do you still need? We'll cover the rest."
Even though I shook my head, smiling, and said the money was enough,
my mother sent two hundred thousand in untraced cash anyway.
A daughter with her own roof and her own means, she said, is the only kind who really stands on solid ground.
So I called the seller right away and set the signing for Monday.
That evening, my father not only cooked a whole table of good food, he bought a cream cake and threw me a makeup birthday for the one before. Before he said a word that mattered, he slid a glass of aged grappa across the table to me, and the gesture said the family stood behind me long before his voice did.
In front of the lit candles,
I pressed my palms together and made a wish with all my heart.
That my father and mother stay healthy. That everything turn out for the better.
But not long after I blew out the candles, I got a message I never saw coming.
