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?"