"The doctor says I'm with child. I was so eager to see you that I just..."

"Please don't be so harsh with me, darling. You're scaring me."

Ermanno stood frozen. A long moment passed before he spoke again, his voice noticeably softer.

"You're pregnant? Then why aren't you resting at the safehouse instead of running around? What if something happens to you?"

Katarina gazed up at him with glistening eyes, her red lips pushed into a pretty pout. "I just couldn't wait to share the good news with you... Darling, won't you spend the day with me? Please?"

Ermanno refused, his tone clipped. "I promised Gioia I'd be with her today."

But Katarina wasn't giving up. A flush crept across her cheeks as she leaned in close, whispering something against his ear.

"Don't you miss me at all..."

Ermanno's restraint crumbled. He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her body against his, letting out a low, rough laugh. "You little temptress."

"Same rules. Don't leave any marks."

I watched every shameless second of it, and it felt like a blade twisting between my ribs.

In all our years of marriage, he had only ever been composed and dignified in front of me. The Don, measured and controlled, restrained even in our marriage bed.

I had never once seen him like this.

Ermanno helped Katarina into the back of the black sedan with exaggerated care. The driver pulled away from the curb, but the car didn't get far. It idled at the end of the block, the tinted windows fogged from the inside. They couldn't even wait.

I don't know how long it lasted. Eventually the sedan pulled forward again and merged into traffic.

I followed them the entire way. I watched Ermanno slide an elegant gold pin through her tangled hair and twist it into place. I watched them walk arm in arm through the old neighborhood, past the social clubs and the bakeries where men who answered to him looked the other way. I watched them sit at a corner trattoria and share a single plate of pasta, his hand covering hers on the red-checked tablecloth.

At last they climbed back into the sedan, laughing, and the car turned toward the highway heading out of the city. I looked up and recognized the direction. The safehouse.

So Ermanno could be this tender, this attentive, with another woman after all.

I stared until my eyes burned. Only then did I look away and give the order to my driver.

"Take me home."

"And not a word about today. To anyone."