You Said Die Quietly, So I Did

na

live. Exactly ten minutes later, my hu

te, watching Dante pace. He was the Capo of Chicago, the

ed at me wit

id casually. "She carries th

ion of our marriage lik

e IV cancer that made standing agony. But he just rolled his e

he safe house where we fell in

t if I'm dying?" he didn't eve

he said. "I have eno

I d

s. And I went to a civilian cemetery to buy a plot und

cold stone bench

keletal hand and realizing I weighed nothing but bon

the trash, where I had

ver met Dant

dirt, begging a headstone for f

pte

live. Exactly ten minutes later, my hu

ach through my socks and chill my bones, but the cold inside my chest was far worse. This house was a fortress. I

ante Vitiello

who controlled the unions, the ports, and the lives of anyone who breathed in his city. When we met, he was just a street soldier with bruise

, and I was just a gho

dangerous, barking orders about a shipment in the South Side.

f my safety. Now it sounded like a judge reading a

ant S

n is a man with a target on his back. When the doctors told us the issue lay with me, Dante had stood in fro

m. That was before he decided that love w

uttoning his cuffs. "She is entering the second tri

moving a piece of furniture, not moving the w

was crystal, imported from Italy. I

t shattered into a th

ked at the mess, then at me, wit

g like a ch

r. From the cancer eating my pancreas. From the pain radiating in

e mother of the future Don. It is a business arrangement. You know th

nd poured a drink. He looked exha

divorce,

tight and suffocating. In the Mafia, you do not divorce. Yo

on his lips. It was a look I had seen him gi

tables? Everything you wear, everything you eat, the

nt to leav

ical. You are jealous. I get it. But do not threaten

and set the glass he

wl. "For the name. Once the boy is born, Sienna will be compen

hroat. He wanted me to raise

aid, clutching my stomach as a

d gripping my midsecti

ctim here. I am the one keeping this city from

ked his

na has an ultrasoun

rain to tie my shoe because I had a blister. The man who

e," I

hand on the

I'm dying

n around. He

he said. "I have eno

e walls. I pulled the medical report from my pocket, the p

dar on the wall. Day