The Mafia King Kneels For His Ex-Wife

lvatore Vitiello, the most

y miscarriage and subsequent hysterectomy were the

summit, my brother whispered

ices of the family surgeon

tilation six years ago as a calculat

sickening truth, Salvato

ss, Serena, forcing me to surr

er the mistress, kicking me to the f

peel over a hundred shrimp for the woman carrying

giveness for a trap my parents set, desperately loving th

o him, and he had mutil

harbored for him snap

t cry o

heavily fortified estate in the dead of night,

pte

Ross

heir glasses to my husband, my brother Leo inclined his

rvices of the family surgeon to have your

ushed a silver platter of iced seafood i

the words scarce more than a vibration in his throat, "or what remains of

ot like acid, but like a slow-acting p

n, staring until the white threads began to swim and blur in a painful, wate

en around my ribs, making it i

a high-backed chair, sat Salvatore Vitiello,

not built, but quarried from

, patient stillness of a re

in the room

underworld wanted

he one chai

ng the imminent collapse of our family's illic

r, a fine powder was

bed, the forced conception a gambit to secure a marr

nfamiliar, dark-smelling sheets, a profound c

e telephone a month later, when a rival

with him to

more than laugh th

ption," he had told me, his tone devoid of all wa

e cold concrete floor

a blur of pain from which I pr

the surgeon informed me my uterus had suffered sever

d it was a tragic conseq

empting to earn Salvatore's forgiv

llow spaces of my mind, and the fou

elf had ordere

k, weighed the strategic advantages, and with the same gold-nibbed pen that

y hands, a fine, un

band, but Salvatore w

eliberate, theatrical possessiveness on the s

o the triennial Syndicate summit, parading h

ena wore a crimson silk dress that Salva

s broad shoulder, the very pic

ing absolute silence with a near-i

s imminent arrival reverberat

apos leaned forward in their chairs, a collecti

position as his lawful wife was me

e a barren,

g laughter erupted from

up my neck, but my heart felt lik

ed a single, manicured finger at the massi

d, her voice carrying across the room, "b

gesture for a wa

k, paranoid gaze

peel them for the m

eft, my parents s

uthed the wo

sture beneath the damask cl

it was not a confession, but a weapon, a desperate tactic to force my

ave the inte

s washed over me, quieting the

r Salvatore Vitiello for six years did not evapor

uite simp

r glass, but my finge

stal slipped

he table, sending jagged shards casc

ilenced the enti

s constricting until they were nothi

wering frame casting a lon

hat chair," he ordered,

ngs to a woman who can p

ountless times she had paraded about

he grand staircase, resulting in Salvatore

t her first

sure his mistresses took c

keep this one, for the exp

hred of dignity afforded by the Sy

private dining room, desperate to slip out and

is chest a solid, immovable wall of muscle

oice a low sneer. "Afraid of departing

g open before

of an older, disgruntled Vitiello Capo, ent

Serena on the new life!" she ann

he screen illuminated with a notification from a private Family channe

irrevocable disrespec

peaceful life I had painstaki

ngering look with his mistress,

ntion to me, her voice drip

el to be the only woman in the Cosa No

tion, their faces pale with panic as they prepared to sacrifice me to their master onc