Don Bowed To Me Chapter 01
I was countersigning a ten-million-dollar patent license under a Department of Defense classification stamp when my mother called.
“Isabella’s marrying into the Marchettis this weekend. You must come home.”
Click. She hung up.
The Marchettis. One of the Five Mafia Families.
For a Vitale girl to marry a Marchetti was what my mother had been praying for for twenty years.
I opened the friends-and-family group chat I’d had muted for a long time.
My brother Elliot had actually mentioned me for once.
【Every Don on the Eastern Seaboard is going to be at that wedding. Wear something decent. Don’t embarrass Isabella.】
Ethan Colombo, who’d grown up two houses down from ours, jumped in right after.
【Ten years out of high school. If you’d worked half as hard as Isabella and gotten into an Ivy, you’d have your foot in the Marchettis’ door by now. Instead you’re pulling espresso shots in some hole in Queens.】
I scrolled down.
I stopped at a message from Melanie Ricci, the girl who used to be my best friend.
【Hazel, Isabella’s going to be a Marchetti in five days. If New York isn’t working out, come home. Ask Isabella to put in a word. The Marchettis can place you somewhere respectable. Hostess at the club. Anything is better than what you’re doing to the Vitale name.】
I lowered my eyes.
The Marchettis.
Over the last three months, Don Salvatore Marchetti himself had reached out to me three times through back channels, requesting a thirty-minute meeting.
Every request went unanswered.
The group chat kept pinging.
I couldn’t be bothered to read the rest. I typed back:
【OK. I’ll be there.】
Isabella sent a Venmo payment within seconds.
$0.01.
The memo read: 【For your flight home ❤️ Can’t wait to see you, Hazel!!】
Elliot’s voice message came in immediately after.
【With everything Isabella’s spending on this wedding, how do you have the nerve to actually accept that? Send it back.】
Ethan followed up.
【Just because Isabella pulls two hundred grand a year at McKinsey doesn’t make her your personal ATM. Have some pride. You’re a Vitale.】
I was about to type a reply.
Melanie dropped in with a sighing emoji.
【Come on, guys. Out of all of us, she’s the one who brought the most shame on the Family. Now she’s finally coming home. Let her come home.】
I stared at the screen, quietly clenching my fist.