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For Three Years, I Loved the Man Who Betrayed My Mother
NovelShort
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My best friend, Adriana Bellandi, murdered my mother the night before my wedding, ran her down in the dark and called it an accident. Instead of marking her for the vendetta, the man I was promised to...
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第1章
My best friend, Adriana Bellandi, murdered my mother the night before my wedding, ran her down in the dark and called it an accident. Instead of marking her for the vendetta, the man I was promised to stood before the families and flaunted their union like a trophy.
I brought Adriana before the Commission and walked into their sit-down to demand the blood owed for my mother. Instead of finding sympathy among them, I became the joke whispered behind every glass of wine.
My childhood friend, Lorenzo Gallo, knelt before me in front of all of them while I stood at my lowest, swearing he would be the stone I leaned on for the rest of my life. I said yes, and I placed the entire matter of the accident in his hands. I believed him when he told me Adriana had been buried in the joint for twenty years.
Still, in the third year of our union, I happened to overhear him speaking with his Consigliere behind a half-closed door. "Don Gallo, did you truly bind yourself to Francesca Marchetti only for that pardon? It was nothing but a road accident. Why carry it this far?"
"The only way I could swear the blood-family pardon in her name was to marry her. It was the only door that lifted the vendetta from Adriana. As long as she's safe abroad, content, that's enough. As for me, whatever comes of it doesn't matter."
The union I had believed was my salvation was a thing built coldly, brick by brick, in the dark. The pardon written under my name and Adriana's freedom were the only things he had ever wanted from me. It was me who should've walked away from the beginning.
——
Lorenzo stared at the images of Adriana's life overseas glowing on the office screen, smiling with something heavy and regretful in it. "Three years of watching her safe is enough, even if that peace never came from me. As for Francesca, I'll spend whatever's left of my life making it right with her. This matter is closed."
The Family's Consigliere was furious and powerless all at once. "Don Gallo, the famiglia has only just begun to stand on solid ground. How could you stake all of it on a blood matter like this? If the Corsini ever learn what you've done, it won't fall on you alone. Every front, every operation under the Gallo name pays the price. Adriana killed a woman with intent. Why bind yourself to her ruin? She doesn't even love you."
Lorenzo's expression turned cold, his voice cut to the bone. "Enough. I told you this is never spoken of again. I don't believe Adriana meant to kill anyone. It was an accident. I've already seen to Serafina Marchetti's burial myself. It's my way of giving the Marchettis their peace. As long as I could save her, I'd give anything. My own life, if it came to it."
The Consigliere pressed on, anxious now. "And the Don's wife? She's bound to learn of it sooner or later. If she ever goes looking for Adriana behind those walls, the whole thing comes apart in your hands. You used her name to lift the vendetta from the woman who killed her mother. How do you expect her to carry that?"
Lorenzo went still a moment, then drew a cigarette to his lips and lit it, the flame steady in his fingers. "Then I'll make certain she never learns of it. Three years now. Adriana's term should be ending soon. See to the arrangements, and remember, Francesca finds out nothing."
"Don Gallo, as your Consigliere I'm bound to remind you. Justice in our world always finds the man it's owed. What you've done leaves a mark. For a murderer's sake, you're cutting into someone far more innocent. If your wife ever uncovers it, you lose everything."
Tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped from my chin. My hands trembled so badly I could barely hold onto the lunchbox. Footsteps drew closer down the corridor and I slipped into the stairwell, pressing myself against the cold wall.
So my mother's death on that dark road had never been brought before anyone at all. Adriana wasn't behind any walls, wasn't paying for what she'd done the way Lorenzo had sworn. She was living free and easy beyond the reach of the Family, beyond the reach of me.
And all of it had been orchestrated by the husband I had loved with my whole heart. His patience, his deference, every soft compromise, all of it built to save the woman he truly loved.
For three years of marriage I had lived inside a web he'd spun with such care. I thought I was happy. I had been in hell the entire time. How ironic.
My fingers found my mother's thin gold ring and turned it once. Then, stumbling, I ran down the stairs and came to a stop at the doors of his Family's front, the daylight too bright, the world gone quiet all at once.
第2章
I waited five hours, until the last light in the building went dark. Only then did Lorenzo's figure appear. The moment he saw me, he took my hand, all concern. "Why didn't you come up? How long have you been standing out here?"
"Not long. I just got here. I know how busy the Family's kept you, so I brought you something I cooked myself. The man at the door said you were in a sit-down, so I waited."
"Don't do this again. You're not strong enough to wear yourself out like this. If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself." He spoke as he drew me into his arms and kissed my forehead. Every motion was as gentle, as devoted as it had always been, but I could no longer feel any warmth in it. Could a man really go this far for another woman?
He settled me into the passenger seat, then mentioned it lightly as he drove, the way a man mentions a thing he has rehearsed. "By the way. Adriana's vendetta is being lifted soon. The two of you were close once, and she's paid what was owed. Besides, the Gallos have business running with the Corsinis these days. So perhaps—"
"It's fine. It's all in the past. I won't go looking for her. Don't worry."
He exhaled, relief loosening his shoulders, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Thank you for understanding, tesoro. Having you is a blessing."
I turned my head to the window and watched the dark streets slide by, tears streaming silently down my face.
Back at the estate, I unlocked his laptop while he showered. The password was Adriana's birthday. The wallpaper was a photograph of the Maldives, where Adriana had lived for the past three years.
I logged into his accounts. His profile picture was a photo of him and Adriana. He followed only one person.
I clicked through. There were countless images of Adriana and the life she lived abroad. The jewelry at her throat came from a house the Gallo Family owned. The shawl over her shoulders was from their newest line.
Even the villa she tagged belonged to the Gallos' overseas hotel holdings. That hotel had gone up three years ago. It was the only territory the Family had ever taken beyond the water.
My hands trembled as I opened the transfer records. The recipient was always the same. One million dollars a month. Tribute, paid for three years without a single gap.
I went through every line, and my heart grew colder with each one. I remembered the single word Lorenzo kept beneath his name. "Waiting."
I once asked him what it meant. He said it was nothing, something he'd written without thinking. I knew the answer now.
Three years of marriage, and we had no photographs together except the wedding portrait on the wall. No matter how I cried or argued, Lorenzo only ever said we saw each other every day, so there was no need for keepsakes.
Only now did I understand. It wasn't that there was no need. It was that I was never a necessity to him.
I let out a bitter laugh and stopped looking. Instead, I booked a one-way passage out of the country in three days, beyond the reach of the Family. I filed to cancel all my identification.
Three days. That was all I needed to say goodbye to three years. I set the countdown as my phone's wallpaper, a reminder each time I looked at it.
I was already lying in bed when he came out of the bathroom. He stayed quiet, assuming I was asleep. I didn't sleep a moment all night.
I went out to wash up near dawn when my phone rang. Lorenzo's voice came through, puzzled. "Francesca, why are you cancelling your documents?"
I crossed the room and took the phone, calm as still water. "It's nothing. My ID lapsed, so I made an appointment to renew it. Don't you have a meeting with the men this morning? Go handle it."
He thought nothing of it. He only pulled me into a tender hold and murmured against my ear, "Thank you, tesoro. Marrying a woman as kind and understanding as you is the greatest blessing of my life."
I smiled faintly and said nothing.
第3章
"As a reward, how about I give you a big gift today?"
"Sure, I'll wait for you at home."
He was going to any lengths to stop me from going after Adriana. This three-year-long charade needed to end. The moment his car pulled out past the gate soldiers, I went straight to begin severing my identity from the Family registry.
After filling out the paperwork that would erase my name from the rolls, I sat across from a Consigliere in a quiet office that smelled of old leather and cigar smoke. When I asked about the blood-family pardon, he only said that a blood relative's signature carried the same weight as the wronged party's own. It was sworn. It was binding. Once given, no vendetta could ever be reopened. It couldn't be undone.
I didn't ask further. Instead I had him draw up two copies of the severance of our union. With the papers in my bag, I went to Lorenzo's offices, the legitimate face the Gallo Family wore over everything beneath it.
The moment I crossed into the lobby, I caught the low hum of men gossiping near the elevators. "Isn't that Mrs. Gallo? I heard she just came back from across the water. Look at her. No wonder she turned the Don's head. Even I'm a little jealous."
"Has to be her. Look at that bag. Brand new, only ten of them made in the whole world. The Don picked it out himself in his office. Bought it for her. Tender, isn't he."
"You think that hotel he built overseas was for her? They say the two of them go back to childhood. Even the old stories wouldn't dare write it this way."
When I reached the top-floor office, I stood at the door and heard a familiar voice through it. "These three years. How have you been?"
"Pretty good, actually. I wake to the sight of the ocean every morning. The air smells like freedom. I should thank you. If it weren't for you, I probably would've—"
"Don't mention it. It's all in the past. I believe you never meant to hurt anyone. Helping you was helping myself."
Adriana laughed, bright and easy. "You haven't changed a bit. If Francesca knew you were quietly looking after me all this time, she'd make a scene over you." A small pause, the soft tap of a manicured nail against a box. "This is too expensive. I can't take it. You should give it to Francesca. If I keep it, she might bring the Commission down on me again."
That was Adriana to the bone. Take everything, then play the gracious one, as though she were the one extending forgiveness while laying every sin at my feet.
Three years ago, at the wedding, I had named her for what she was in front of the whole sit-down. A murderer. I broke with her and with Salvatore Corsini that day. And every guest in that room closed ranks behind her, calling me hysterical, a girl who didn't understand how things were done.
I became the joke of the territory. Lorenzo stepping forward had been the only thing that pulled me out of it. And now he was the one feeding me back into the dark.
A secretary opened the door right in front of me and hurried in with a stack of contracts. Lorenzo's eyes flickered, caught off guard. "Francesca? When did you get here? Don't read into it. Adriana just got out and we were only catching up. That's all."
"Francesca. Long time no see," Adriana said, rising. She wore something new and couture from the Gallo luxury line, the kind of dress that cost more than most soldiers saw in a year.
Her face glowed, her skin flawless and delicate. She looked nothing like a woman who had just walked out of twenty years owed and somehow unpaid.
I nodded and smiled, swallowing it all down, and said, "It's nothing. I was shopping nearby and thought I'd stop in. Since you're busy, I'll head back first."
Lorenzo thought I was angry and came after me into the corridor, explaining for a long while. "Don't be like this. I was only asking how she'd held up inside. She's a woman, after all. It can't have been easy in there. It's been three years. Shouldn't every old grievance be laid to rest by now? Didn't you just say it's all in the past?"
Watching the worry on his face, I couldn't help but laugh. To save Adriana, he had sacrificed our marriage and played out this whole performance with me. Now that she was safe and whole again, who exactly was he still pretending for?
"Yes. It's all in the past. Don't worry. I'm not unreasonable." My thumb found the thin gold ring on my finger and turned it once, slow, the way my mother's rosary oil still seemed to cling to it. "I keep my word."
第4章
"You go ahead. I'll wait for you at home."
He visibly relaxed and ordered his consigliere to personally walk me down to the car. Before I left, he reminded me about the sit-down tomorrow night at the Corsini estate. It was to welcome Adriana home.
After all, as Don of the Gallo Family, he had appearances to keep. To the made men and their wives, the story was that Adriana had spent three years abroad on Family business. No one ever spoke of the vendetta that had hung over her, or how it had been lifted. Omertà closed over that the way earth closes over a grave.
I nodded and gave him my word that I would behave, that I would not make a scene before the whole Family. Only then did the tension leave his shoulders as he sent me off.
When I got home, I took our wedding photograph down from the wall, cut it apart slowly with a pair of scissors, and dropped the pieces into the trash.
That night, Lorenzo didn't come home. Instead, Adriana woke her social media account from its long silence and posted for the first time in years. A candlelit dinner for two.
The man's face wasn't shown, but part of his wrist was. The pale band where a wedding ring used to sit stood out faint against the tan of his skin. It was Lorenzo.
Just as she wanted, I liked her post. Then I turned off my phone and began packing my bags. Early the next day, Lorenzo's consigliere delivered a dress for me to wear to the sit-down. I opened the package and looked at it. Last season's rejected design, the kind they gave to women they did not intend to see again.
By the time I arrived that evening, Salvatore Corsini had just finished speaking. He announced to the assembled Families that Adriana would now oversee every joint venture between the Corsini and Gallo coffers, every front, every shared racket.
The room was thick with admiration and envy, men murmuring about Adriana's luck. Two Dons who had loved her since girlhood, both treating her like a queen. When I walked in, the room went still. Conversations died mid-sentence. Every eye turned to me with the look of people who had come expecting a show.
Lorenzo was working the floor, kissing rings and pouring respect into the right ears, and had no time for me. Adriana, though, played the gracious hostess in his stead. She drew me aside and led me up to the rooftop terrace, away from the soldiers stationed at the doors.
The moment we were alone, the mask came off. Her face twisted with mockery and malice. "Francesca, after all these years, you're still as useless as ever. I spent these past three years abroad. Thanks to your husband, I lived the most comfortable life imaginable. Don't tell me you actually believed Lorenzo married you out of love? Let me set the record straight. If it weren't for that pardon you held over us, he wouldn't have spared you a single glance. Francesca, you're nothing but a joke."
Anger flared within me, and I couldn't help but slap her across the face. She sneered coldly and took a few deliberate steps back. Then she tumbled down the stairs. Screams erupted from the hall below, and the low buzz of a hundred dangerous men rising at once.
Lorenzo was the first to reach her, scooping her into his arms. When he looked up at me, his eyes were filled with fury. "Francesca, what the hell are you doing? Are you out of your mind? Adriana was trying to be kind to you. Why did you push her? You gave me your word you wouldn't drag up the past again. So what is this?"
I stared at him coldly, my voice devoid of emotion. I turned my mother's thin gold ring once around my finger. "I'm the one causing trouble? Lorenzo, don't you think you owe me an explanation for what happened back then?"
He frowned, a hint of panic flashing across his face. His thumb went to the heavy signet on his right hand and turned it. "What explanation? Adriana already spent three years atoning for her mistakes. What more do you want? Nothing that happened before gives you the right to put your hands on her tonight. Francesca, apologize to her. Now."
Before I could speak, Adriana was already weeping into his chest, all wounded innocence. Her hand pressed flat to her collarbone, the thumb tapping too quick against the bone. "Don't... don't be hard on Francesca. Everything that happened back then was my fault. I'm the one who wronged her. Let tonight be my way of making it right. If she hates me this much, then from now on we should just keep our distance. I don't want to put you in an impossible place."
My fingernails dug into my palms until the blood dripped down. As I watched the two of them walk away, wrapped in each other, I knew it was over for us.
第5章
The Corsini soldiers walked me off the estate without a word, the way men escort a problem they've been told not to mark. Two hours passed before Lorenzo's message finally reached me.
[Adriana just got out. She's still shaken, so don't hold it against her. Making you apologize tonight was only for the Corsinis' benefit. I'll settle everything and come home to make it up to you, alright? I told you I had a gift waiting. Don't stay angry, cara.]
I knew the performance had nothing to do with the Corsinis. It was for me. Lorenzo had been staging this devotion for three years. Now it was time to bring the curtain down.
I waited at home with the severance of the union until the small hours, but he never came. Instead, the whispers ran the length of the territory before dawn: the Don of the Gallo Family had turned a hospital ward upside down, all for the sake of one woman.
Adriana had barely a scratch on her, yet Lorenzo had assembled a circle of the finest physicians the Family's money could summon, more than a million spent without a flicker of hesitation. The photographs showed him cradling her against his chest, his eyes soft with a tenderness I had never once seen aimed at me.
When the light came gray over the rooftops, I called him. He didn't greet me. He was busy giving orders to his man.
"Don Gallo, are you certain about signing the overseas hotel over to Signora Bellandi? The Family stands to lose more than a billion. You should reconsider."
"No need. Do as I said. It's the tribute I owe her. And draft another pact while you're at it. Half the rackets, transferred to Adriana's name."
Only then did Lorenzo notice the open line and answer. "Francesca? Forgive me for keeping you waiting. I'll be home soon. Did you need something?"
I looked down at the severance papers in my hand. "No. Nothing. You're busy. I won't keep you."
"Good girl. Wait for me at home. I won't be long."
I didn't want to wait any longer. So I signed the papers, packed my bags, and left.
At the precinct, where the Family's reach ended and the Feds' began, I asked for a copy of a document I had long suspected existed. Once it was in my hands, I made a duplicate and mailed it to Lorenzo. By my reckoning, he would hold it just as my plane lifted off the ground.
I hadn't gone home for a day and a night. Neither had he. When the timer on my phone counted down to nothing, telling me it was time to board, he finally sent a message.
[Francesca, I had my man leave the gift at the house. Why won't you open the door? Still sulking? Stop it. Be good. I'll be home soon.]
Adriana's newest post showed her still in the ward. In the photograph Lorenzo was lifting a spoon of broth to her lips, gentle as a man who had never carried a gun. I didn't answer. When word came that my papers had been canceled and there was nothing left to tie me to this name, I erased every trace of him from my life.
Lorenzo's man came through the hospital doors fast, the duplicate Francesca had mailed crushed in his fist. The color had drained from his face. "Don Gallo. It's bad. The Signora found the forged pardon from three years ago. I've been trying to reach her. She won't pick up."