00:02three days before my due date my husband came home and told me he was marrying another woman
00:09for one second luca looked at me like i'd spoken another language
00:13then his face settled into tired patience area we've lived three years ago i had a vicious fight
00:21with my father he wanted me to marry the heir of an east coast alliance to keep the commission
00:25boat stable i was sick of marriages built out of last names territory and profit i drank two
00:30mouthfuls the soup was warm everything inside me was turning cold when did it start you and bianca
00:37his fingers tightened around his glass i put something in the soup a small dose to suppress
00:45contractions don't be scared it isn't meant to hurt the baby they don't then all i could do was stay
00:51conscious and wait i pressed my palms flat against my belly and whispered to my daughter
00:57hold on little one your grandfather for her title for his don seat not because she tricked him because
01:03it had been so easy one pretty lie from her lips my child could be pushed into the shadows behind
01:08another woman's baby the man who ran through that doorway was the most powerful figure in the
01:14underworld aria daddy's here stay with me and he dropped to his knees whoever hurt you three days
01:20later the meretti estate hosted the most extravagant wedding chicago's underworld had seen in years
01:24white roses covered the chapel walls guests from every major mafia family everyone had come to
01:29witness the alliance vincent castellano walked down the aisle like he owned the ground under it
01:33because he did every family in this chapel paid tribute to him one way or another men who had
01:39ordered killings over i appeared behind my father seated in a wheelchair pushed by his private
01:45physician i wore a black velvet gown a white i let my physician roll me down the aisle his men
01:53had
01:53cleared passed hundreds of guests too afraid to breathe i stopped in front of him my father's chief
02:01guard stepped forward open your eyes the castellano crest the chairman's personal guard the family
02:09cry because we both knew the answer if he'd known my name he would have dropped bianca voss in a
02:16heartbeat and called it love three years ago i looked at him and let every word land but you lied
02:24first
02:25you negotiated with the voss family behind my back and when you knew i was she forced another drug down
02:32my throat while you stood here preparing to put a ring on her finger every sentence landed heavier
02:39than the last i looked at luca and felt no triumph only a tired coldness she is alive she's in
02:48the
02:48castellano medical center before anyone could breathe a sob tore through the chapel bianca suddenly crawled
02:55forward and grabbed the edge of my father's coat chairman castorano bianca sobbed so hard her
03:01makeup ran down her face in black streaks the baby isn't yours he's marcos my cousins the words hit
03:09the chapel i had begged him for one night to simply listen to me now the whole city would spend
03:14the rest
03:14of his life making him listen you told me it was safe you looked me in the eye you don't
03:20even clear
03:21your throat luca barely seemed to hear any of it he only stared at me aria i was wrong i
03:28wasn't choosing
03:28her because i didn't love my father's voice wasn't loud but every head in the room bowed lower the
03:34voss family tampered with medication and attempted to harm a castellani heir effective immediately the
03:39when i turned to leave luca tried to come after me one of my father's guards kicked him back to
03:46the floor
03:47he lay on the red carpet the carpet that was outside the light hit my face
03:54it was a clear day three days ago i'd been bleeding out on a carpet being told by the time
04:00we returned
04:01to the castellio estate night had fallen when i left three years ago i thought this place was a gilded
04:08cage
04:08now as the what's her name i look through the glass at my daughter's tiny fist mia mia castellino
04:18my father nodded he turned back fury burning in his eyes you're still protecting him i'm not
04:25my voice was calm killing him would be too kind i moved back into my old bedroom everything was
04:33exactly as i'd left it three years ago even the hair clip i'd tossed on the vantry before running away
04:39the moretti voss scandal tore through the underworld in less than a day luca lost his inheritance in public
04:45and was locked inside the moretti main house by the old dawn bianca's baby underwit a paternity
04:50he's still outside should i have him removed i ran my fingers over the fresh scar on my lower deli
04:56and smiled no tell him even a month later my body had recovered enough for me to walk downstairs
05:04my father had a small greenhouse built behind the estate inside were tomato plants basil and straw when
05:10he couldn't see me luca wrote letters one after another they arrived at the estate stuffed with
05:14handwritten apologies toys for mia trust documents he had signed for her and at the bottom of one box
05:20mia had been moved from the incubator into my room she was tiny when she slept her brows drew together
05:28as if she was taking some difficulty she had lost so much weight that her expensive clothes hung on her
05:33body
05:34her once proud blonde hair was tied back carelessly and dark circles bruised the skin
05:39on she said it like a tragedy that had happened to her not a bill coming due not consequences just
05:48bad
05:48luck falling unfairly i was wrong i know i was wrong i was scared scared of having no title scared
05:54people would laugh at my child i was wrong i know i was wrong scared of having no title three
06:00months later
06:00my father finally agreed to let me move out of the main estate he refused at first flatly then i
06:07sat
06:07in his study all afternoon with maya in my arms in the mornings birds woke mia before they woke me
06:13i
06:13would hold her and open the window watching this drift over the lake while the air smelled of grass
06:19and damp soil he wore a black shirt washed so many times it had faded gray he was much thinner
06:24than
06:24before a long scar ran from the corner of his left eye down to his jaw dust clung to he
06:30shook his head
06:30despair pooling in his eyes i know i don't deserve forgiveness i just want to stay nearby like
06:36before i can fix fix the fence chop wood water the plants anything when i opened the door the next
06:42morning he looked up a small humble hope lit his eyes every morning after that he watched from across
06:53the water i'd see him in the distance while i watered the plants or carried mia into the sun
07:00everything goes back no matter how much he did it couldn't erase the terror of the night i gave birth
07:08people in our world my life went on and it went on well i built frames for the tomato vines
07:16in the
07:16morning in the afternoon i held mia and then listened to a button and a grandfather who never stopped
07:23waiting as for luca moretti he became nothing more than a shadow across the water my father asked
07:29what
07:30you
