The Slap That Ended Us

I left the party before it was over and told the driver to take me straight back to the Vitale estate. The moment I got to my room, I tore the place apart. I ripped through the bookshelves, the closets, the storage cabinets, pulling everything out until the room was a mess.

I grabbed a large cardboard box and dug out every single thing Sally had ever given me, throwing it all inside.

The necklace he gave me for my 12th birthday, the custom bracelet he shyly pressed into my hand on Valentine's Day when I turned 13, the jacket he got me for New Year's when I was 15 that he picked out without me having to say a word because he just knew I would love it, and the diary with the pink cover that he gave me when I was ten. I had filled every page with my girlhood secrets and daydreams.

It took an entire box to fit it all.

Once I was sure I had not missed a single thing, I carried the box downstairs, marched right up to the front of the Morelli estate in full view of their guards and staff, and threw the whole thing in the trash.

When I was done, my parents still were not home. I called Mama.

"Hey, baby, what's wrong?"

"Mama. When you get home tonight, go next door and tell Don Tony and Donna Rose that Sally and I are done. And one more thing."

My voice went cold. "Starting today, Sally is not allowed to set foot in our house. Tell him to stay the hell away from me."

When Mama came home, she took one look at the handprint on my face and her expression shifted between panic and fury. I told her everything that had been going on.

By the time I finished, she was livid. She turned around and went straight to the Morelli estate.

Sally's mother, Donna Rose Conti, still had no idea what had happened.

Mama did not waste a single breath. She laid out the entire story, piece by piece. How Sally slapped me hard across the face, how he stood by and did nothing while that Lanza girl bullied and humiliated me for months, and how, in the end, he stepped in front of Fiona to protect her instead of me.

The color drained from Donna Rose's face.

Mama said, "Our Principessa has never been mistreated a day in her life. The code of silence never taught her how to forgive a man who raised his hand to her."

The truth was, our two families had always been close. The bond went back a generation, years and years of friendship and loyalty, and today it cracked because of me.

Still, Mama did not blame me. She pulled me into her arms, gentle and steady. "No one gets to hurt our Gia. Whatever you decide, your Papa and I are behind you."

Everything I had been holding in finally broke loose. My nose stung and my throat tightened as I buried my face against her and cried.

Papa flew back from Sicilica that same night. He saw the mark on my face and said nothing for a long time. His expression was unreadable, hard and still.

The next morning, Don Tony came to our door in person to apologize. Papa refused to see him. The staff stopped Don Tony in the foyer and told him that Papa had left early for the docks to handle a shipment and would not be back for some time.

Don Tony stood in the entryway, jaw tight, face like stone. He knew it was an excuse. Of course he did. But there was nothing he could do except grip his hat and leave.

After that day, everything between the two families went cold. The weekly dinners they used to share stopped entirely.

Business continued on the surface, but everyone could see the truth. The relationship between the Vitale and Morelli families was on the verge of falling apart.