etta
remembered the day
slit her wrists for the fiftieth time. She wanted my mother's plac
bortifacient to kill the child in her womb, a final capitulation
read. He had promised my mother that Serena was no more to him than a sis
ion of the lips. She had nodded, silently handing
ed mafia marriage contract off the wall and smashed it against t
ehouse after that day, casti
he city to celebrate her new status as the presiding lady of the house. He sent a formal invitation to my mother, an embossed card ne
That night, he stood at the docks and lit the sky with my mother's favorite firew
gitimate daughter in the Family ledger as my older sister, an indelible mark of disgrac
ispered that my mother
he stayed glued to Serena's side and officia
th year. And Gabrie
well further, a roug
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