My Mafia Husband Faked Amnesia, So I Took His Empire novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Forty-One Envelopes

Sheridan tells the widows their envelopes are cut; Mara pays every one from her own pocket, the widows turn their backs on Sheridan, and Teo asks his wife to walk with him.

On the first of every month for six years, I stood in the basement hall of a Bay Ridge church and handed out envelopes.

Each one held cash for the widow of a man who had died working for my husband.

There were forty-one women that month. Some brought grandchildren. One brought a casserole.

Two days earlier, Sheridan's first wire had cleared, four hundred thousand to Benny's cousin's garage.

My nine bookkeepers had marked it, and every release after it, in the ledger only I could read.

Sheridan had signed three more since, and Benny had thanked her for each.

That morning I was not on the list of people allowed to touch the cash box.

I came anyway, in my plainest black dress, and sat at the back with a paper cup of church coffee.

At ten the hall doors opened, and Teo walked in with Sheridan on his arm.

Benny came behind them, carrying the cash box in both hands.

The women fell quiet. They knew Teo, and they knew the rules. A Don doesn't come to the church hall.

Sheridan stepped up to the folding table and smiled at forty-one widows.

"Good morning, everyone," she said. "I'm Sheridan. I'm helping Mr. Landolfi through a difficult time."

A few women nodded. Most did not.

"The Family is tightening its budget this quarter," she said, in her soft voice. "The envelopes are suspended until further notice."

Nobody spoke.

The oldest widow in the room, a woman who had buried two sons, put down her cup.

"Suspended," she said.

"Only for a short time."

"My rent is due Tuesday."

"I'm sure we can find a solution," Sheridan said. "Mr. Landolfi is doing his best."

I looked at Teo.

He was staring at the wall above the women's heads with the face he used when he was making someone else do his dirty work.

Benny set the cash box on the table and put his hand over the lid.

Behind them, I stood up.

My chair scraped on the tile. Forty-one women turned to look.

"Mrs. Landolfi," Benny said, without any warmth. "You've been relieved of this duty."

"I know," I said. "I'm not here for the duty."

I walked down the middle of the hall with my purse over my arm.

I opened it and took out the white envelopes I had stuffed that morning from my own savings.

I had counted them in the cab. Forty-one.

"For your rent," I said, and I put the first envelope in the oldest widow's hand.

"Mara." Her fingers closed on it. "Honey, you can't."

"It's only money."

Sheridan's smile slipped. "Mrs. Landolfi, this is irregular."

"It's a church hall," I said pleasantly. "I thought the ladies might like some coffee."

I moved down the row.

I gave an envelope to a woman with a toddler on her hip, and another to a girl no older than nineteen who had lost her husband on the docks last winter.

I knew every name, and every child's name, and every rent date.

Benny stepped in front of me. "That's enough."

He lowered his voice so only I could hear. "You want to play church lady, do it on your own time."

"This is my own time, Benny. It's my own money, too."

"The boss won't like it."

"The boss doesn't know me," I said. "Ask him."

Then I raised my voice, so the back rows could hear. "Take it from me, then."

I held out the last envelope to him, between two fingers.

Forty-one women watched him.

He did not take it.

Sheridan's cheeks flushed pink. She turned to Teo.

"Teo, say something," she whispered, and then, louder, so the room could hear her: "He doesn't remember. It's not fair to make him choose."

The widows looked at her.

Then the oldest one stood up from her chair with her envelope held against her chest.

She turned her back on Sheridan.

The woman with the toddler turned. The nineteen-year-old turned.

Forty-one women faced the wall and said nothing.

It was the loudest silence I had ever heard in that hall.

Sheridan looked for Teo's face.

He was not looking at her.

He was looking at me.

He looked at my hands, still full of envelopes, and at my plain black dress, and at the women standing around me and not around him.

His expression fractured for an instant, then closed shut again.

"You paid them," he said, low, "from your own money."

"I don't have anyone else's," I said. "Not today."

A muscle moved in his jaw.

He had a tell. When he was lying, his left eyebrow, the one with the scar, went still.

It was perfectly still now.

"Benny," he said. "Take Miss Wellington to the car."

"Teo," Sheridan said.

"Now."

Benny took her elbow, hard. She looked back at me once over her shoulder, and for the first time her face was not kind at all.

Then they were gone, and the doors swung shut.

Teo came down the aisle through the women's silence.

He stopped in front of me and held out his arm.

"Walk with me, Mrs. Landolfi," he said.

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