Chapter 2

Late at night, the Long Island mansion blazed with bright lights.

The second I stepped through the front door, booming orchestral music and the sharp, cloying scent of champagne washed over me.

The yard was decked out with bouquets of flowers and balloons, centered around an ornate golden arch emblazoned with large lettering:

Welcome Home, Dearest Mother!

Captains and elder members of New York’s mafia families milled about in tailored luxury suits and designer gowns, clinking glasses and chatting, all celebrating the impending arrival of Maria, the revered Sicilian matriarch.

Tucked away in the farthest, loneliest corner of the garden lay a body draped entirely in a white sheet.

A human-shaped mound bulged beneath the fabric; dark dried blood snaked across the stone flagstones underneath it, stained a rusty brown.

My entire body locked up the second I laid eyes on the corpse.

My heart hammered wildly in my chest, and I opened my mouth to speak—only for a shrill, cutting voice to cut me off mid-breath.

“Well, look who finally dragged herself back here.”

Vito’s younger sister, my sister-in-law Carmela, sauntered over swirling a wine glass in her hand. She raked her eyes up and down my frame, unmasked scorn dripping from every word. “Cecilia, where’s your shameless mother? Why didn’t she tag along to beg for handouts with you?”

I fixed her with a frigid stare. “Carmela, watch your tongue.”

"Pfft!"

Carmela spat and pointed at the white sheet in the corner of the garden, laughing loudly. “Your mother’s lying there like a dead dog right now! What, aren’t you going to hurry over and collect her body?”

Her loud jeers drew every guest’s gaze straight to us.

Vito stepped out from the crowd, one arm wrapped tight around Gina’s waist.

Gina was draped in a couture gown, the diamond necklace that used to be mine glinting around her neck. She pressed herself against Vito’s chest, putting on a trembling, wronged act as if she’d been traumatized.

“Cecilia, you’re finally home.”

Gina dabbed fake tears at the corner of her eyes. “Your mother burst in out of nowhere, smashing everything like a raving lunatic. I only ordered my men to hold her back a little to keep the mansion safe… I never thought she’d be so frail that she’d drop dead right away. You aren’t mad at me, are you?”

Hold on a second?

I looked at the bloodstains on the hem of her skirt that hadn’t been wiped clean yet and let out a cold laugh: “Splitting someone’s head open with a golf club—and you call that ‘a little deterrence’?”

“That’s enough, Cecilia!”

Vito barked sharply, his face dark with rage as he glared me down. “Gina went easy on her! If it weren’t for the tiny shred of consideration I still have for you, I would’ve had the old hag dragged out and dumped in the ocean for the fish ages ago!”

“Consideration for me?”

I lifted an eyebrow, my gaze drifting to the blood-soaked white sheet. “Vito, do you even know who’s lying under that cloth?”

“Who else could it possibly be? A ghost?” Vito tugged at his tie in irritation, disgust plain on his face. “Don’t push your luck, Cecilia! Today’s the day my mother comes home, and I refuse to waste a single second arguing over some low-class old woman.”

“Quit wasting your breath on her, brother!” Carmela fanned the flames beside him. “Her mother tainted our Hale family’s estate—this whole mess is terrible luck. Mom’s gonna be furious when she sees all this blood everywhere!”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Vito nodded in full agreement, then turned to the bodyguards behind him. “Grab the power hoses and wash all this blood off the stones. I don’t want my mother catching a whiff of some nobody’s stench.”

I stood frozen where I was and watched the guards drag out high-pressure hoses, blasting the blood surrounding the sheet without a shred of mercy.

The frigid water slammed hard against the white fabric, and faint muffled crunches—like broken bones shifting—echoed out from underneath.

I watched every second of it in silence.

Vito. Carmela.

I wondered if you two would still carry that arrogant, condescending attitude once you lift that sheet.