Bride of the Syndicate:When Love Died and I Left Him Forever

Lorenzo Falcone looked faintly sheepish. "You needn't worry. Gianna only came to the estate today to see an old acquaintance."

I didn't press the matter. Halfway through the sit-down, weary of the endless toasts and the low murmur of made men trading favors over wine, I had Rosa help me out to the garden behind the compound.

Past the still water of the fountain, I saw Gianna kneeling deferentially before Isabella.

So she was one of Isabella's people too.

When she saw me coming, Isabella neither flinched nor turned away, only watched me with open amusement.

"Well? Losing a child doesn't sit easy, does it?"

"Carmela Greco, all these years I went to such lengths to make my dear cousin Lorenzo despise you. And still you clung on, refused to leave. Truly shameless."

"Did you think a child would carry you straight to the top? Let me tell you, you can forget it."

"Even if I don't want my cousin Lorenzo, there will only ever be one woman in his heart. Me."

I had no patience for any of it. "Whatever makes you happy."

The retort caught Isabella off guard. She laughed, a half-beat too quickly, her chin lifting as the color rose hot in her face.

"You really are a shameless mongrel!"

"Let me tell you something. Your child could have lived."

"But I was afraid you still hadn't given up. So the servant I planted in the house smothered your child to death."

I stared at Isabella, unable to believe it. "You, you..."

Isabella stepped closer over the manicured stone, gloating as she spoke. The garden had gone very quiet, the kind of quiet the Family keeps over its worst work.

"Oh, and one more thing. The moment your child was being smothered, Lorenzo was right next door, tangled up with Gianna."

"Though the name on his lips that night was mine."

"Stop it!" I lost all control and seized Isabella by the throat.

A great force flung me into the fountain.

Lorenzo had his arm around Isabella, his gaze frigid as he looked at me. The signet ring on his right hand caught the light, unmoving. "You really never learn."

I clawed desperately at the wet stone along the edge and screamed up at him.

"The child, it was the child..."

Before I could finish, Lorenzo kicked me back down again.

"Still trying to milk pity out of that child!"

"Carmela Greco, you stay in that water and reflect on yourself. The moment you admit your fault is the moment I let you out."

With that he swept off, shielding Isabella as he went, and the soldiers near the doors lowered their eyes and let him pass.

It wasn't until deep in the night that Donna Abate had me fished out, my whole body bruised blue with cold.

The Family's doctor said the chill had sunk into my bones; my leg would leave me crippled for life.

Donna Abate sighed and pressed a thick fold of cash into my hand besides.

When I was carried into the car and saw my mother, parted from me for ten long years.

I could no longer hold back the tears, and I threw myself into her arms and wept.

...

After three days and three nights of revelry with Isabella across the City, Lorenzo finally remembered me.

He made up some excuse to return to the estate, only to be told that I had never come back.

His mind heavy with unease, Lorenzo went to the compound and crossed the courtyard to the doors of Donna Abate's wing.

He was about to have one of the men announce him when Isabella's familiar voice drifted out from within.

"Auntie, just let me come back to the City. That business of running off with a man and abandoning my cousin Lorenzo was ten years ago. No one will ever know now."

"As for Carmela Greco, the child she doted on so carefully is dead. She's certainly never coming back."