Nine Years of Silence

At the DeLuca Family banquet announcing its new advisor, Matteo said he was going to end nine years of secrecy and finally acknowledge our relationship in public. I stood in the back row of the banquet hall, so nervous I'd crumpled my prepared speech into a ball. Over nine years, I'd cleaned up the port books for him three times, negotiated two cross-border shipping routes, and taken a bullet for him. Everyone knew the DeLuca Family had a female advisor who never showed her face, but no one knew I was that woman. I thought that after tonight, I would finally stop being his shadow. Until the screen at the front of the banquet hall lit up. There was no photo of us. Instead, there was only a single line of gilded text: Welcome Cecilia Costa as the Deluca Family’s New Advisor. May the Black Serpent and the Silver Fox Share in Glory From this Day Forward. Cecilia was my sister. Our parents sat at the head table, beaming with pride as they led the applause. Matteo produced the black diamond ring that marked the matriarch of the DeLuca Family and slid it onto my sister's ring finger. I moved to confront him, but my mother, Viviana, seized my wrist.

"Elena, don't you dare make a scene. Nine years, and if Matteo had ever really intended to marry you, you'd have been at the head table a long time ago." I stared at her in disbelief. "You all knew?" My mother's expression faltered for a split second before she looked away. "Matteo discussed it with us a long time ago. He needed a wife who could publicly represent the Costa Family. Your sister was the better choice." I looked down at the red marks the crumpled speech had pressed into my fingers, remembering what Matteo had said nine years ago when he'd hidden me away in that safe apartment in Brooklyn. "Bear with me for now. Once my position as Don is secure, I'll show every last one of them what it looks like when I favor someone." The favor I'd waited nine years for had already gone to my sister. And I was the last to know.