“Look, you should call Lu and ask her about all of this. I can give you her number …” He trailed off expectantly, waiting for her to agree. Carrie thought about trying to explain her mother's code of loyalty, but even that felt like putting the frosting on the betrayal cupcake. She looked down at the pizza crusts. Paulie reached out and took her hand. “You can't call Lu because of your mama—right?” Carrie nodded. “Women,” he sighed. “Come to think of it, if my mother knew I was talking about this, even after all these years, she'd kill me.”

“Could you tell me what you do know about Ricky Gaspari?” Carrie asked.

Now it was his turn to look down at the pizza crusts. Paulie picked one up as if he was going to chew it, dropped it back in the pan, and then he leaned back in the booth. “All I know is, the boy was going to do the right thing. He and Lu told Mama before they told his family—Lu wanted to get that over with first. The only thing that calmed Mama down a little was that Ricky kept saying he was going to make an honest woman of Lu.” The waiter appeared at the table with the bill, and Uncle Paulie waved away Carrie's credit card, handing the boy a wad of cash. “Then on the day that Mama and Lu and Ricky were supposed to go to his house to tell his family about the baby and Lu and Ricky getting married,” Paulie went on, “on that very morning, everything changed. And to this day, I don't know what the hell happened.”

Chapter 13 - New Haven 1943

MIFALDA WOKE UP with a jolt. Something black and nameless threatened to swamp her, and for a moment she couldn't remember the cause. Then it came to her. This was the day she and Lu would meet Ricky Gaspari's family. The boy was coming to the house at eleven to take them to one of the big mansions in the Gaspari compound—Mifalda didn't know which one belonged to his parents—so all of them could be there when Ricky told his mother and father about Lu being pregnant and the plans for a marriage. Mifalda looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was five-thirty—she'd slept longer than she thought she would. Still, it was early, so she turned on her side and pulled up the covers. She wasn't ready for the day to start yet.

A picture flashed through her mind of Lu standing next to Ricky, announcing in a clear voice that she was going to have his baby. A bastard. Mifalda's daughter was no better than the opera singer who had given birth to a child without being married and left that child in a convent, where the other children called it names and threw rocks at it.