etta

remembered the day

slit her wrists for the fiftieth time. She wanted my mother's plac

bortifacient to kill the child in her womb, a final capitulation

read. He had promised my mother that Serena was no more to him than a sis

ion of the lips. She had nodded, silently handing

ed mafia marriage contract off the wall and smashed it against t

ehouse after that day, casti

he city to celebrate her new status as the presiding lady of the house. He sent a formal invitation to my mother, an embossed card ne

That night, he stood at the docks and lit the sky with my mother's favorite firew

gitimate daughter in the Family ledger as my older sister, an indelible mark of disgrac

ispered that my mother

he stayed glued to Serena's side and officia

th year. And Gabrie

well further, a roug