"After so many years." She cupped my face in her weathered hands. "After so many years of silence, the Genovese Family finally has something to celebrate. We will hold a proper feast. A gathering. We will invite everyone, and they will see that this Family still stands."
Her smile was radiant. It was the exact same smile she had worn the day she sent me to the blood-bound union ceremony in my previous life, the day she believed I was entering an alliance that would restore our honor. She had been so full of joy, so certain that Giancarlo Valenti would protect what was left of her world.
And then he never came. He abandoned the ceremony. He shattered the oath in front of every Family in Riviera City. And the shock of that public dishonor, the sheer, annihilating weight of it, stopped Nonna Elisabetta's heart where she stood.
She died on the floor of the chapel, surrounded by white flowers and the whispers of people who had already begun to forget her name.
Not again. Not in this life. I would burn the entire city to the ground before I let that happen again.