The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 29
Four years passed faster than I expected.
I was accepted into a graduate program and also received a full-time offer from a security technology company.
My job would be designing data protection systems for medical and educational institutions.
It was a career that had nothing to do with the Vitale name and needed no doors opened by the Ferraro Family.
A week before graduation, Marco emailed me.
*Can Mom and Dad come?*
I looked at the sentence for a long time.
Then I replied:
*The ceremony is public.*
*But I won’t be doing a family dinner, and I won’t be taking a family photo.*
Marco responded with only one word:
*Okay.*
It was the first time he hadn’t asked me to reconsider.
On graduation day, Ms. Albright took the earliest flight to California.
The moment she spotted me from a distance, she lifted a bouquet of white flowers.
“Romy, over here!”
I ran over and hugged her.
She straightened the collar of my gown and checked my tassel, her expression just as serious as it had been on the day of my high school speech.
My father, mother, and Marco stood a few steps away.
My mother watched Ms. Albright fix my collar, and her eyes slowly reddened.
She didn’t walk over or interrupt.
When the ceremony began, we all entered the hall.
They sat in the family section.
Ms. Albright sat there, too.
I didn’t turn around to see who had come.
When the dean read my name, I straightened my back and walked onto the stage.
There were people watching from below.
But even if there hadn’t been, I still would have walked this path.