Salvatore didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He even smiled at me.
"Babe, what's yours is mine, isn't it?"
I didn't have the patience to argue with him. My eyes went straight to Carmela.
"I already gave you a pass on the first two cars."
"This Cullinan wasn't even insured yet. So how exactly do you plan to pay me back?"
Carmela flinched like a startled doe, her eyes going red in an instant.
She shrank into her shoulders, tears dropping one after another.
"Donna Vitale, I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to."
"Even if I have to sell everything I own, I'll pay you back, I swear."
I said it flatly.
"Eight million."
The color drained from her face.
"I... I..."
Her lips trembled, but she couldn't get out a single complete sentence.
The next second, Salvatore pulled her behind him.
His tall frame planted itself in front of her, like he was shielding some priceless treasure.
"Adriana, that's enough."
"It's just a car."
He pulled a tribute line out of his wallet and held it out to me, the matte black plastic that drew straight from the Falcone vault.
"Take it."
"Go buy yourself a new one."
His tone was light, like eight million was nothing but a string of numbers.
"Forget one Cullinan."
"Carmela could wreck ten more and I'd still cover it."
I looked down at the card.
I'd just reached for it when Carmela suddenly lunged forward and slapped it out of his hand.
A sharp crack.
The card skidded across the polished marble floor, loud in a room that had gone too quiet.
She glared at me with red-rimmed eyes, like she'd finally worked up the nerve.
"Donna Vitale, every cent you spend was earned by the Boss."
"Now that something's gone wrong, how do you still have the nerve to take his money?"
The answer came a half-second too fast, and her smile widened a fraction at the edges, the eagerness to be believed louder than any of her words.
The office went quiet for a beat.
Salvatore didn't stop her. He let out a soft laugh instead.
"That's just how she is. Never satisfied."
I looked down at the card on the floor, and I almost laughed.
So that was how it was.
Pay me back with my own money.
And in the end, call me greedy for it.
How very entertaining.
The reason I married Salvatore in the first place was that he was clever enough, and obedient enough.
But now I could see it.
Once a man gets propped up too high, he forgets how he climbed up there in the first place.
I lifted my eyes to him.
"Salvatore."
"You've stopped being good."
He visibly froze.
Like he hadn't expected me to say something like that.
But I didn't have the patience to explain anymore.
I didn't pick up the card on the floor.
Because starting today, it was about to be a dead piece of plastic.
After I left the office, I called my right-hand man.
"Notify the risk control men at the Falcone vault."
"Freeze every Vitale tribute line and credit account, effective immediately."
"Salvatore included."
A two-second silence on the other end.
Then a respectful reply.
"Yes, Donna Falcone."
I hung up and drove straight to the dealership.
If the car was gone, I'd just buy another one.
Half an hour later, I drove off in a brand-new Phantom.
I took the long way, letting the air clear my head.
And the whole time, my phone never stopped ringing.
Every call was from Salvatore.
I didn't even glance at them. I just put it on silent.
It wasn't until I got home that evening.
The moment I pushed open the door, I found the whole Vitale bloodline seated in the living room of the family estate.
Salvatore's father, his mother, and his sister Bianca Vitale.
Like they'd been waiting just for me.
I hadn't even changed out of my shoes before Rosaria Vitale spoke up first. She set down her fork at the Sunday table and folded her hands with deliberate precision.
"Adriana, it's not that I'm criticizing you."
"Carmela accidentally banged up one car. Did you really have to freeze every account in the family?"
Bianca jumped right in.
"Exactly, Adriana!"
"I took some friends out this afternoon, and when I went to settle the tab, the line just got declined."
"Do you have any idea how humiliating that was?"
"I was completely mortified!"
She flipped her hair back and lifted her chin, as if posture could stand in for the standing she'd never actually held.
Vincenzo Vitale's expression wasn't any better. He tapped his cane twice on the floor, the way he once had to silence a room.
"This is what comes of Salvatore spoiling you all the time."
"A woman with a worse temper than anyone."
I stood in the doorway, watching them quietly.
From start to finish, not one of them asked me why I'd frozen the accounts.
And not one of them cared about the wrecked Cullinan.
What they cared about.
Was only that their own money was no longer there to spend.
Just then Salvatore came over and slipped an arm around me, drawing me in.
His voice was so gentle, as if the man who'd called me greedy this afternoon hadn't been him at all.
"Babe."
"Don't be in a mood about this."
"Just turn the lines back on."
"We're all famiglia here. Nobody's going to hold it against you."
Bianca lifted her chin and added her piece too.
"Adriana, since it's your first time slipping up, we'll let it go this time."
"But you can't pull this again."
"Mom and Dad are patient, but everyone has a limit."
"What if you really set them off one day and my brother decides he doesn't want you anymore?"
I couldn't help laughing out loud.
Doesn't want me?
Did they still not understand, even now?
Exactly who couldn't live without whom.
I looked at Salvatore.
"This afternoon, at the office."
"Your little courier said every cent I spend comes from you."
"You didn't just stay quiet. You called me greedy."
"Fine. From now on, we each spend our own money."
"Nobody lives off anybody else."
The living room went silent in an instant.
Every face in the Vitale bloodline changed at the same time.
Because they'd finally realized.
With the Falcone lines frozen, the millions they bled through every month would now have to come out of their own pockets.
Ever since the marriage alliance was sworn.
Every member of the Vitale family had carried a Falcone tribute line.
No spending limit.
Over the years, they'd long since gotten used to spending without a second thought.
And I'd never said a word.
But now.
I didn't want to give anymore.
Whatever I could hand them, I could just as easily take back. All of it.
Salvatore's tone finally softened. His hand found my shoulder and gripped, harder than the moment called for, the way it always did when he was least sure of himself.
"Babe, half the crew was watching."
"You could at least leave me a little face, couldn't you?"
I reached up and straightened his tie, then patted his chest lightly.
The gesture was gentle.
The words that came out carried no warmth at all.
"Salvatore."
"You can't have it both ways."
"Since you were so tough at the office this afternoon."
"Then now, be tough all the way through."
