His words landed like a command. The associates fell silent, the way they always did when the Boss spoke. They liked his comment. They stopped talking.
Except Rocco.
Rocco, who had been Simone's shadow since they were boys running through the same streets, who had grown up in the Valente household after his own father was killed, who had never once looked at me without making it clear that I didn't belong.
Rocco cracked the knuckle of his right index finger. I could almost hear it through the screen.
Come on, man, don't act like that. She's not worth it. Just cut her loose. You've been with Silvana since high school, and everyone knows you can't let her go. Stop fooling yourself.
He had never liked me. He always thought I wasn't good enough for his brother in all but blood. Not as beautiful as Silvana. Not as sharp. Not as right. To him, I was a Ferrante girl who had married above her station, and the sooner the alliance was dissolved, the sooner Simone could stop pretending.