phrase.
A warning.
So I changed things.
Office hours.
Anonymous reporting.
Regular staff meetings where managers spoke last.
Visible leave policies.
Not because I was enlightened.
Because I knew what could happen when people believed asking a question carried risk.
Five years after Mia crawled into Alessandro’s office, he proposed.
Not there.
I would have refused on principle.
He took me to the small Bensonhurst street where his family once lived above the butcher shop.
The butcher shop was now a bakery.
We bought cannoli.
Sat on a bench.
No security visible.
Though I suspected someone was two blocks away because Alessandro remained Alessandro.
He looked nervous.
I enjoyed it.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“I had a speech.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“It was excellent.”
“Was?”
“I forgot it.”
I smiled.
He took out a ring.
Simple.
Beautiful.
Not the kind that required its own insurance policy.
I had warned him.
“I spent
