Chapter 7 - The Price of Becoming HonestLeo pleaded guilty to five federal charges.
The newspapers called it shocking.
Nora did not.
There was nothing shocking about consequences.
The surprising part was that Leo accepted them.
His cooperation dismantled trafficking networks, bribery operations, and protection schemes extending far beyond the Rossi family.
Dozens of arrests followed.
Some people called him courageous.
Others called him a rat.
Leo disliked both descriptions.
“I’m neither,” he told Nora.
“What are you?”
“Late.”
That answer stayed with her.
Sentencing was scheduled six months later.
Six months of uncertainty.
Six months where every breakfast could be one of the last breakfasts they shared before prison.
They did not move in together.
Leo wanted to.
Nora refused.
“Why?”
“Because you need to learn how to have a normal relationship.”
“What does living separately accomplish?”
“It gives me somewhere to send you when you annoy me.”
“I own three houses.”
“You may not own them much longer.”
“Cruel.”
“Realistic.”
Asset forfeiture took most of them.
Leo sold the brownstone voluntarily.
The legitimate companies were reorganized.
Employees who had nothing to do with criminal operations kept their jobs.
For the first time since childhood, Leo had no organization answering to him.
He hated it.
Then slowly, he didn’t.
He began helping at the café.
Badly.
The first time Nora let him use the espresso machine, he nearly destroyed it.
“You ran an empire.”
“Yes.”
“You cannot steam milk.”
“My empire did not require foam.”
“Your empire lacked standards.”
Customers began recognizing him.
Some left.
Some stared.
One man called him a murderer.
Leo accepted it.
Nora wanted to defend him.
He stopped her.
“He has the right to hate me.”
“That doesn’t mean he gets to abuse you.”
“No.”
Leo looked at the man.
“But I don’t need you rewriting my past because you love me.”
Nora understood.
Love could not become denial.
That night, they sat on the floor after closing.
“Are you afraid of prison?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What part?”
“All of it.”
“Good.”
Leo looked at her.
“Good?”
“You finally answer questions like a normal person.”
“I’m evolving.”
“Slowly.”
Sentencing arrived in March.
The courtroom was full.
Leo stood before the judge.
Nora sat behind him.
Carlo sat two rows away.
The prosecution acknowledged Leo’s cooperation.
The judge acknowledged the seriousness of his crimes.
Both things could be true.
That mattered.
Leo received thirty months.
With credit and cooperation considerations, he could serve less.
Nora closed her eyes.
Thirty months.
Nine hundred days.
More or less.
A lifetime measured in Tuesdays.
Outside the courthouse, reporters shouted.
Leo ignored them.
He found Nora.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Thirty months.”
“You didn’t sentence yourself.”
“I created the reasons.”
“Yes.”
He flinched.
Nora touched his face.
“And you’re finally paying your own debts.”
He laughed quietly.
“Arthur would enjoy that.”
“He’d complain about the coffee in prison.”
“Absolutely.”
Leo had three weeks before surrender.
They spent none of them doing anything extraordinary.
No expensive vacation.
No dramatic farewell tour.
They worked.
They ate takeout.
They argued about Nora’s bookkeeping.
They watched terrible television.
One Tuesday at 7:15, Leo sat on the stool.
Nora poured coffee.
“This is our last Tuesday,” he said.
“For a while.”
“Nora.”
“For a while.”
He did not argue.
On the morning he surrendered, she drove him.
Carlo offered.
Leo refused.
They parked outside the federal facility.
Neither moved.
“I don’t want to go inside.”
“I know.”
“I could run.”
“You could.”
“You’d hate me.”
“Yes.”
Leo smiled.
“You really are terrible at comfort.”
“I’m excellent at truth.”
He leaned over and kissed her.
When he pulled away, Nora handed him three dollars.
“What’s this?”
“Your next coffee.”
He stared at the bills.
“I can’t spend this inside.”
“I know.”
“Then?”
“Bring it back.”
Leo’s eyes filled.
Nora hated that she was crying too.
“Bring it back,” she repeated.
He closed his fingers around the money.
Then he got out of the car.
He walked toward the entrance.
Halfway there, he turned.
Nora raised one hand.
Leo did the same.
Then he disappeared inside.
Nora sat alone for twenty-seven minutes.
Exactly twenty-seven.
May you like
Then she started the car.
And went home.
