From Maid to Madre

Gianna moved back to 13th Street. The place still held traces of her grandmother and memories that belonged to their youth.

Matteo had once said, "Gigi, I'll keep this house forever. When we're old and tired of all the fighting and killing, we'll come back here and plant flowers."

She curled up on the old couch, clinging to memories to survive. Not long after, an eviction notice appeared on the front door.

It bore the all too familiar wolf head seal.

The reason was simple. The Ricci Principessa had her eye on this land. She wanted to build a private live fire shooting range here to practice the marksmanship she had shown off at her engagement party.

Gianna had no choice but to go to Matteo and beg him to save this home.

"Hiding in that filthy place to nurse your wounds, not even answering your phone. Gigi, you're getting more and more willful."

Neither of them mentioned their past argument. He still treated her gently, drying her damp hair with a towel.

"Are you really going to tear down Grandma's house for her?"

"That place is too rundown. The foundation is sinking, and the area is dangerous. It's not suitable for you to live there."

He turned and pointed to the renovation blueprints on the table. He refused to budge.

"I already had people pick out a plot of land for you in the southern suburbs. I'll hire the best designer to recreate Rosa's old house exactly as it was. All the furniture, decorations, and even the tree in the yard… I'll have everything moved there for you."

"Recreate?"

Tears instantly flooded Gianna's eyes. "Can you recreate memories? You used to say..."

"You need to move on." Matteo seemed somewhat impatient now. He picked up his cigar again and took a drag. "Since she asked for that land, I can't refuse. This affects my future authority in the family."

"Matteo, my grandma saved your life!"

For the first time, she used that debt as leverage, begging humbly.

"She pulled you out of a pile of corpses and fed you back to health, spoonful by spoonful. For the sake of that life she gave you, please don't tear it down. Please? I'm begging you!"

Watching the injured woman drop to her knees, intense conflict flashed in Matteo's eyes. However, he received a call from Lucia just then. "Baby, have they started yet? I can't wait to run wild on my new turf!"

He quickly made his decision. "Gigi, stop this. I'll remember her kindness for the rest of my life, but that doesn't conflict with what Lucy wants. Be good."

His heart had completely turned toward another woman! All that gratitude could not compete with Lucia's passing whim.

When Gianna rushed back to the old house, construction had already begun. She broke through the warning line and threw herself in front of the bulldozer without hesitation.

"You can't tear it down! No one touches this house!"

"Crazy woman, you got a death wish?" The driver jumped in alarm. The bucket stopped less than three feet above her head.

"Move!" The foreman walked over and shoved her impatiently. "This is a Gray Wolf famiglia project. If you want to die, go somewhere else!"

"I'm not leaving!"

She knelt on the ground, her voice shrill. "Under the tree in the garden, my grandmother's ashes are buried there! You can't tear it down!"

Matteo had personally buried the urn under the tree because they could not afford a cemetery plot. Rosa had also said she could not bear to leave home.

"Ashes?"

The foreman frowned, then spoke into his phone for a few moments.

A moment later, Matteo's cold, distorted voice came through the speakerphone.

"Dig them up and send them to a public cemetery. Don't let something this trivial delay the construction schedule."

Gianna stopped crying. Her eardrums buzzed, and she wondered if his response was just a hallucination.

When Rosa died, he had been grief-stricken.

Only two years had passed. Rosa, who had loved him like her own grandson, had become something trivial he no longer wanted to deal with.

"Move!"

The foreman had his orders. He had no more concerns.

Several Soldati rushed forward and forcibly dragged Gianna away from the tracks.

The bulldozer started again. The bucket fell mercilessly. The walls collapsed, and the old locust tree was uprooted.

"No!"

Gianna watched helplessly as her loved one's resting place was crushed under steel treads. Overwhelming grief tore through her body and soul.

The cramping in her stomach intensified. Blood spilled from her mouth. The world spun around her, and the roaring sounds gradually faded away.

"Someone help! She's dying!"

She collapsed there in front of the ruins.