The Veto：My Mafia Family Faked My Mother's DeathChapter 3

The next few days, Rafe doesn't leave the house. He sits with me at the wake, hand on my back, playing the part of the dutiful fiancé for anyone who happens to walk in.

Nine days after we bury my mother, I pass out at Mass.

When I come to, there's a doctor at the foot of the bed holding out a lab slip.

"You're about seven weeks along."

I stare at it for a long time.

Rafe gets the call and shows up at the hospital so fast his coat isn't even buttoned. He takes one look at the ultrasound and his eyes go glassy. He pulls me into his chest and won't let go.

"We're having a baby. I'm gonna be a dad."

A year ago, I would've cried for the right reasons.

Right now, I just feel sick.

I want to ask him. Aren't you already somebody's dad? What exactly is new here?

The nurse comes back with a clipboard.

"Okay, Mom. Just a few things for the file."

She runs down the list. Insurance. Allergies. Last period.

Then. "Emergency contact?"

Rafe answers before I can. "Me."

She smiles. "Relation?"

He hesitates. Just half a second.

"Fiancé."

She writes it down. "Perfect. I'll have you listed as next of kin on her chart too. Put a number down we can reach you at, day or night."

I watch him write his cell. The same number Sienna has. The same number that went to voicemail for her last week when the baby had a fever.

The nurse looks up at me, cheerful.

"How exciting. First baby. When's the wedding?"

Rafe's pen stops.

Half a beat. The nurse doesn't even notice.

I feel it in my teeth.

He recovers. Gives her that easy Costa smile.

"We're still figuring out the date. There's been a death in the family."

"Oh, sweetheart. I'm so sorry." She pats my knee. "You take all the time you need."

She leaves.

I look at him.

"So. When's the wedding."

The smile falls off his face.

"Vivi. Your mom just went in the ground."

"It wouldn't look right."

I give him a small smile and don't say anything else.

...

By the next morning, half the North End knows.

The photo of Rafe at the clinic goes out first. Somebody drops it to Page Six.

Nobody stops it.

That's the part people in our world notice. Nothing about this family reaches a gossip column unless we want it to. Somebody let this one run.

By lunch it's clipped and reposted on the blog every Italian wife on the East Coast reads with her coffee.

Costa heir seen at prenatal visit with longtime fiancée. Insiders say the family's quietly furious.

And then. Later that afternoon. The second drop.

A photograph of a marriage certificate.

Nantucket. One year ago.

The groom's name is clear as glass. Rafael Costa.

The bride's name is blurred, but every woman in our circle already knows who she is.

The whisper starts in Costa family drawing rooms by Thursday afternoon.

By Friday it's running down Hanover Street.

She's been his piece on the side for six years. The whole engagement was for show. He's been married to that Moreau girl since before Christmas.

I'm not the fiancée anymore. I'm the mistress.

By the time I walk into Mia's on Prince Street for a coffee I need, two women I've known my entire life look up from their table and look back down without saying hello.

The barista, who's been pouring my espresso since I was fifteen, slides it across the counter without meeting my eyes.

I walk back out. The old men on the stoop across the street stop their card game to watch me go.

In this neighborhood, that's worse than being screamed at.

I get in the car. I call my father.

"Dad. Put out a statement. Rafe and I have been engaged for six years. On record. Everybody in this family knows that."

He's quiet a long time.

"Vivi. Honey. Not right now."

I know. I know they're covering for Sienna. I know Mom isn't dead. I know all of it.

My voice shakes anyway.

"So you're going to let the whole neighborhood call me his mistress? Dad. Mrs. Capella wouldn't even nod at me on Prince Street."

Dante gets on the line.

"Give it a week. These things fade. You're pregnant. Don't make yourself sick over gossip."

Luca, from somewhere behind him.

"And don't go at Rafe. He's got reasons."

...

I print out the Nantucket certificate and drive straight back to the brownstone.

I push the door open.

Dad's face goes white. He kills the call in his hand.

"Vivi. Honey. What are you doing home?"

I keep my eyes on his.

"I could've sworn I just heard Mom's voice."

The room goes dead silent.

Dad hesitates exactly two seconds. Then his eyes go red.

"You're hearing things, sweetheart. I was watching old videos of her."

Dante and Luca come in from the back.

One takes the phone out of my hand.

The other puts an arm around my shoulders.

"You're worn out, Vivi."

"The doctor said it. Pregnant women spiral. It's hormones."

Three of them. Not a single beat out of place.

The image flashes behind my eyes. My mother. Alive. On a screen somewhere.

Something closes up in my throat.

I don't have the energy to tear it open.

Dad is still talking.

"That certificate. Honey, Sienna was in a bad place. Rafe had a few drinks with her up on Nantucket. They both had too many. It got out of hand. One night."

Dante steps in, patient, like he's explaining it to a kid.

"Then she got pregnant. Doing the paperwork up there was simpler. He put his name on it for the baby. That's all it ever was."

Luca just frowns at me.

"It's a piece of paper, Vivi. Six years with Rafe doesn't come down to a piece of paper."

A laugh comes up out of me before I can stop it.

They slept together. They had a baby. They legally married each other in another state. All of it an accident.

Only my six years of waiting counts as the real thing.

I look at Rafe.

"That how you see it too?"

He walks over. He looks exhausted.

"Vivi."

"I was going to end it with her the second she was back on her feet."

"But she just had the baby. Her doctor says she can't handle any stress right now."

I look at him. My voice goes quiet.

"So I can handle the stress. I can be the one every woman on this street looks through."

His face tightens. "That's not what I'm saying."

The smile I give him is not a nice one.

"Then when, exactly, are you planning on telling the truth? Because last I checked, every Costa woman in the North End thinks I'm his whore."

The room goes still.

A few seconds pass before Dante clears his throat.

"We go public with the timeline, Sienna gets dragged into it. She just gave birth. She's got no family to catch her."

Dad's eyes are wet too.

"Vivi. Honey. Sienna's got no parents. This baby is her whole world."

"You've got all of us. You've always had all of us."

Dante again. "Just this once. Let her have this one. Just this once. Please."

My wedding. My fiancé. My son's name on another woman's baby. My house.

I let all of it go.

Now it's my name. My standing in this neighborhood.

Rafe pulls me into his chest.

"A couple more weeks, baby. The second this cools off, I'll make it up to you."

I breathe him in. Cedar. His cologne hasn't changed in six years.

Something in me just stops.

Six years. They have never once given me a different answer.

I guess it doesn't matter anymore.