After leaving him, I needed to start over. So I found a job—not through connections, not through the Rossetti family name. I walked into a hotel, filled out an application, and got hired on my own merit.
Front desk at The Langham, a five-star hotel in midtown. Probation period, six thousand a month, full benefits. Employee dorm on the twenty-second floor with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the whole city.
A single room. Small. Bare. A bed, a desk, a closet. When I opened the door, I stood there for a long time.
No one to wait for. No one to come home to. No one to lie to me.
It felt like freedom. Heavy, lonely, terrifying freedom.
Five days later, my mother called.
"Vittorio jumped into the river."
I was standing at my window, watching the headlights crawl across the expresswa
