The day my SAT scores arrived, I walked into the dining room carrying a metal box.
Inside were five hundred and seventy-six slips of paper, each stamped with a black seal.
My father called them permission slips. In Newark, a capo’s daughter couldn’t leave the territory or get extra cash without one. He’d turned his protection into a system of rewards and punishments that only applied to me. Finish my chores, get an A, keep my mouth shut about family business—each task earned me a single slip. Five hundred slips, and I could finally ask to take one trip outside our territory.
It had taken me three years to save them.
“I got a 1580 on the SATs,” I said, laying the score report on the table. “And I received a conditional offer from Westbridge Institute of Technology for their cybersecurity program. I’ve met all your conditions. I’ve earned my graduation trip.”
“So, when are we going to the Caribbean?”
The question landed like a stone. Marco stopped twirling his car keys.
Ava lowered her head.
After her parents died, the Ferraro Family had registered her as a protected orphan. Her travel, tuition, and security were all covered by the Family. She wasn’t subject to the permission slip system my father had designed for me.
My mother set down her coffee cup.
“Romy, you know Ava’s scores aren’t as good as yours. Why would you say that in front of her?”
“She’s already lost her parents. Do you have to remind her that in this house, everything she has depends on our charity?”
I froze.
To prove Ava wasn’t a charity case, my family gave her a credit card with no limit, a personal driver, and a full security detail.
Meanwhile, I—their actual daughter—had to hand over one of my father’s signed slips just to buy clothes, get new school supplies, or leave our guarded house on a weekend.
Their graduation gift to Ava was a full suite of the newest Apple devices, worth over ten thousand dollars.
They also bought her every birthday gift she had missed, from birth to age eighteen.
The next day, a new itinerary appeared in our family group chat.
The Caribbean cruise was off.
They were taking Ava to Orlando instead. My father assigned two cars and four guards, a full detail to ensure nothing happened to the girl the Family had publicly sworn to protect on her first trip out of New Jersey.
No one asked if I wanted to go.
I threw the metal box in the trash.
My parents always said Ava was a responsibility the Family owed the dead, so she deserved the best of everything.
But I had parents. A brother. I was a Vitale, same as them. And somehow, I was always the one left to fend for myself.
If that was the way it was going to be, then there was no reason to go back to a home that only recognized my obligations, but never me.
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 13 Later, my mother told Marco that it was the first time she had truly considered the life I’d been living all those years. She had always believed Ava was a sacred duty, a responsibility left by the dead. She thought that being stricter with me, overlooking me,
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 13 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 12 Ms. Albright turned to my mother and father. “I heard from Romy that you wanted her to give up her place at Westbridge to stay with Ava at a local college.” Ava forced a smile. “Romy’s always been impulsive. California is far away, and it’s outside the
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 12 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 11 On the other end of the line, Marco swore. “What the hell is she talking about?” My father stood at the school gate, his face a dark thundercloud. Just then, Ms. Albright came out of the school, carrying her bag after finishing her work for the day.
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 11 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 10 My mother didn’t answer right away. She held the phone, her breathing so soft I could barely hear it. My father, who had overheard what I said, took the phone from her hand. “How long are you going to keep this up?” “You saw us taking better
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 10 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 09 My father, mother, Marco, and Ava got out of the car. At that same moment, my mother received a banking notification that I had confirmed the five-thousand-dollar transfer. She visibly relaxed. To her, as long as I accepted the money, I was still accepting the Vitale family’s
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 09 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 08 In the school office, Ms. Albright looked at the campus work-study application I’d submitted. “You’re leaving so soon?” “The teachers wanted to take you out for a celebratory dinner. You could at least leave tomorrow.” I shook my head. The long-distance bus to California had a discount
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 08 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 07 She grabbed my mother’s hand. “Don’t blame Romy.” “She must have had her reasons for secretly accepting an offer from a school in California.” “If you go now, she’ll only be upset when she sees you. It’s better to wait until she gets home and let her
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 07 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 06 At that exact moment, our neighbor Carol knocked on my family’s front door. “Maria, your daughter is incredible!” “A 1580 on the SATs—that’s one of the top scores in the state! And she got into Westbridge for cybersecurity.” “She’s giving the graduation speech on the school’s livestream
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 06 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 05 I never replied. My mother put her phone away. She probably thought I’d do what I always did—walk to the end of the block and come back. She thought that blood ties and my father’s protection were enough to guarantee my eventual obedience. She put the permission
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 05 Read Post »
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 04 I stayed in the hospital for the next few days. Every day, one of my father’s men would appear at my door, sign the visitor log, and leave almost immediately. It wasn’t care. It was just making sure the protection records showed that the local capo hadn’t
The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 04 Read Post »
