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I stared down at my blood-covered hands and then at the lifeless body of my wife Slowly, I closed the door in case Daniele came by He didn’t need to see ht for Gaia as a gift for our eighth anniversary lay crumpled beside the limp body Red roses to match the blood that stained the sheets and her white dress

Picking up my phone, I called Father “Cassio, don’t you have a dinner reservation with Gaia?”

“Gaia is dead”

Silence “Can you repeat that?”

“Gaia is dead”

“Cassio—”

“Someone needs to clean this up before the kids see it Send a clean-up crew and inform Luca”

When your wife died, sadness and despair were the expected eer and resentrave

Gaia and I had been ht years On the day of our anniversary, death ended ourend to a bond that had been doomed from the very start Maybe it was fate that today was the hottest day of the summer Sweat trickled down my forehead and temple, but the tears wouldn’t join in

Father tightened his grip on my shoulder Was it to steady himself or me? His skin had been pale since his third heart attack, and Gaia’s death didn’t help aze, worried Cataracts clouded his eyes Each day that passed had hier I needed to be If you appeared vulnerable, the mafia would eat you whole

I gave hirave, my expression steel

Every Underboss of the Falia was in attendance Even Luca Vitiello, our Capo, had come from New York with his wife They all wore their soleivefake words of reassurance, when ru the rounds

I was glad that neither Daniele nor Si said They didn’t realize their rasp the finality of the word “dead” And Simona… left without a mother at only four months old

A neave of fury raced through my body, but I shoved it down Few of thefor a sign of weakness I was a young Underboss, too young in many eyes, but Luca trusted me to rule over Philadelphia with an iron fist I wouldn’t fail him or my father