At dusk, my car pulled up outside Lorenzo's heavily guarded private estate.

The vast lawn was covered with expensive champagne towers and falcon banners symbolizing the family's glory. A massive, ornate iron gate was draped with a banner of gold thread.

"A Tribute to Our Great Madre, Welcome Home!" Beneath it, capos from every district and family allies were already gathered, glasses in hand.

As I walked past, my gaze fell on a shape near a pile of refuse by the service entrance, carelessly wrapped in a cheap tarp.

I froze, staring at the bloody limb peeking out from under the fabric.

Just then, Ava, wearing a low-cut evening gown, sauntered over, her eyes red, feigning a look of distress.

"Donna, I honestly just wanted to teach your mother a lesson. Who knew she was so fragile? Her heart gave out suddenly, and we couldn't save her."

"You're a magnanimous Donna. Surely you won't hold this against a humble secretary like me, will you?"

So, she had tortured my mother-in-law to death.

My heart pounded. I was about to speak.

But Lorenzo strode over, gently patting Ava's back and whispering an intimate reassurance in her ear.

"Ava, this isn't your fault. You did all of this to defend my authority."

"If anyone's to blame, it's her mother. A cheap life, and she still went looking for trouble."

With that, Lorenzo's gaze swept over to me, dark and menacing.

"The only reason I'm not making you compensate Ava for her distress is because you're my wife. Consider that my final favor to you."

"Dying on my property, she not only scared Ava, but she's cast a pall over the welcome-home banquet I spent half a year preparing for my Madre."

"But," he said, his arm wrapping around my waist, "as long as you weren't hurt, that's all that matters."

Looking at his arrogant face, I felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up inside me. I stared him dead in the eye, raised my hand, and pointed to the bloody tarp, enunciating every word.

"Lorenzo, I'm warning you. Take a good, long look at who is actually under that tarp."

Lorenzo's brow furrowed in a knot of disgust. "Who else could it be? Some dead civilian. You think I'm going to look at that myself?"

"Don't let her wretched blood stain my custom-tailored suit!"

Standing nearby, my socialite sister-in-law, Bianca, swirled her wine glass and sneered.

"My brother bought this entire estate for our mother's return. Madre hasn't even set foot inside, and yours is already here to cash in. How disgusting."

"If you ask me, getting beaten to death with a club is just part of the Mafia's rules. It saves us the embarrassment of her walking down the street and shaming the Falcone family name."

"My brother must have been crazy to marry you. Trash like you should never dream of climbing into our world."

Seeing that Lorenzo and Bianca had sided with Ava, the sycophantic mobsters around them began to pledge their loyalty.

"Exactly. These low-class people who try to ride our coattails are just leeches, sucking the family dry."

"Today she just broke a rule. If we let her get away with it, the other families will say the Falcones have no standards."

"Damn right. If we don't make an example of her, people on the street will think the great Falcone family has turned into a soup kitchen."

"I'd say Ava acted decisively. She was eliminating a threat to the Don."

In an instant, the party was filled with voices praising the secretary.

It was as if the person she had tortured to death was some unforgivable traitor from a rival gang.

And Ava herself had become the greatest hero, the defender of the family's honor.

Ava shot me a triumphant glance before turning and leaning timidly against Lorenzo again.

"But Don, the person you dealt with was the Donna's own mother. What if she uses her hidden connections to get revenge on me? Or what if she leaks this to the media..."

Lorenzo looked down at her, his eyes full of pity.

"Don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, no one in the entire Falcone family can touch a single hair on your head."

As soon as he finished, Lorenzo snapped his fingers. An underling immediately handed him a statement bearing the family crest, which he tossed in front of me.

"Helen, your mother overstepped first. Her death is her own damn fault, you can't blame Ava for it."

"Out of respect for our marriage, I won't hold you responsible for your mother trespassing on the Don's estate and ruining my Madre's welcome banquet."

"But you must sign this statement. Guarantee that this matter ends here, and you will never trouble Ava again. Once you sign, you will have cut all ties with your low-class family. From now on, you will have no one but me."

Bianca crossed her arms, looking down at me.

"Helen, your mother brought this on herself. Don't you dare try to pin this on Ava. Just be a good girl and sign the paper."

The siblings held their chins high, waiting for me to put my name on the line.

I reached out and gently pushed the paper back toward them.

My voice was calm, without a ripple of emotion. "A statement like this can only be signed by a Falcone. I wouldn't dare overstep."

Lorenzo took my refusal as open defiance. The air around us instantly dropped to freezing.

"Helen, don't test my patience. My tolerance for you has its limits."

"Your mother was a useless old woman, worth less than dirt. Ava is my right hand. Are you really going to defy me over a corpse?"

Bianca rolled her eyes in annoyance. "That's right. Someone like your mother was just a drain on the family's resources. Ava was practically taking out the trash for us."

"The least you could do is thank her, and instead you're trying to extort us?"

I explained coolly.

"You misunderstood me. I said the body under that tarp is your birth mother. If her killer is to be forgiven, you are the ones who must sign."

Hearing this, Bianca shrieked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"Helen, are you looking to die? How dare you curse Madre with such venom at her sacred welcome ceremony?"

Lorenzo was incandescent with rage. "Helen, it seems I've spoiled you rotten these past few years. So much so that you've forgotten the most basic respect for your elders."

"My mother is the one person in this world I would die to protect. Anyone who dares disrespect her will pay in blood. Even if you are my wife, even if I love you this much, I will never allow you to curse her like this!"

After shouting, he spun around and barked at a nearby bodyguard.

"Take her body and dump it in the city landfill!"

The bodyguard hesitated, glancing at me. "Don, she's the Donna's mother. This... this might break the code, right?"

Lorenzo jammed his gun against the man's head and roared.

"She won't sign, will she? She likes cursing my Madre, does she? Today, I'll show her what happens when you disrespect the Falcone family's Madre!"

"Do as I say. If the sky falls, I, the Don, will hold it up!"

The bodyguard no longer dared to hesitate and turned to carry out the order.

The high-ranking mobsters watching from the sidelines began to whisper, their voices impossible to suppress.

"Helen really stepped on the Don's last nerve this time."

"Everyone knows the Don's father died young and his Madre raised him and his sister alone. The Don values his Madre above all else. Who in the gang would dare to anger the old woman? Helen must be insane. You don't cross the Madre, especially not at a party in her honor."

"No wonder her mother died. Raising such a brainless fool who doesn't know when to quit, she'll get her whole family killed sooner or later."

The vicious curses hammered into my ears like nails.

But I didn't move. I ignored all the pointing and judgment.

I stared into Lorenzo's eyes and asked him one last time.

"Lorenzo, are you sure you want to do this? There's no coming back from it."

The man holstered his gun and reached out to touch my face. When I flinched away, his eyes turned to ice.

"Helen, you brought this upon yourself."

"Your mother died because she was cheap and ignorant, trying to get her hands on our money."

"You shouldn't have made a scene over something so petty at my mother's sacred ceremony, spouting such nonsense."

"If you ask me, it's a good thing your mother is dead. Without her, you can finally cut your old ties and be my Donna, once and for all."

Just as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded from the entrance.

My mother, Sofia, wrapped in an old woolen shawl, walked slowly onto the lawn. Her calm gaze swept over the crowd as she asked, "What's all the commotion? Who died?"