Chapter 4: The Family Pew

The anniversary Mass for my mother was at six that evening, and I had not missed one in eleven years.

I wore her pearls over a black dress Gaspare's sister had lent me, and I walked into San Domenico on my husband's arm.

Every family in the underworld knelt in those pews.

Their heads turned all together when the door opened.

The Ardizzone pew was the second from the altar.

My brother sat in it with Nerina on one side and Tullio on the other.

I went up the aisle and stopped at the end of that pew.

"Move down," I said.

Nobody moved.

"This is my mother's pew," I said. "She paid for the kneelers herself. Move down, Nerina."

Nerina slid along the wood with her face crumpling, and Tullio went with her.

Massimo stared straight ahead at the altar.

Santo sat beside me, and he knelt when I knelt.

When the priest said my mother's name, I did not cry.

I lit the candle at the end and watched the flame bend and stand up again.

On the church steps afterward the families waited in knots under the lamps, holding their phones low.

Massimo came out last.

He stopped one step above me so that I had to tilt my head back.

"Listen to me, everyone," he said, loud enough for the whole square.

The talking stopped.

"My sister chose her husband last night. She has chosen to leave her family."

"From this hour she is no longer an Ardizzone."

"Anyone who feeds her or shelters her has decided to be our enemy."