Mark Winegardner - The Godfather returns

When Michael first told Kay his schedule was tight and asked her to take the kids to New York herself this time, she’d said it was impossible. When he told her about the inaugural ball and said Kay could go, too, she declined. Washington had a lot of bad memories for her. Though she hoped he’d find a way to make it work so he could take Mary and Tony. And, no, having some button man come to Maine and drive them to New York was not an option.

Everything changed when Kay heard about Jules Segal. He’d been her doctor in Nevada. She’d recommended him to a friend who’d moved there and learned that he’d been shot more than a year ago-the victim of a botched burglary, according to the newspapers.

So now, the day of the ball, Kay waited in a room at the Essex House, in a suite overlooking Central Park. The kids were watching TV. They didn’t have a set at home anymore. Seeing them transfixed by it here confirmed for her that this had been a good idea. She looked at her watch. He was late. Some things never changed.

Finally, she heard voices in the hall. Michael and-of course!-Al Neri opened the door.

“Why isn’t he dressed?” Michael asked, pointing at Tony. Michael already had his tux on.

“I’m not going to your stupid ball,” Tony said.

Kay had been so distracted that she hadn’t noticed that Tony had taken off his suit and changed back into the blue shirt and chinos he wore to school every day.

Mary leapt from the bed to go hug her father. “I’m going!” Mary said. “Don’t I look like a beautiful princess? Because that’s who goes to balls is why.”

“You do, sweetheart. You really do. C’mon, Tony. You’re going. You’ll love it.”

Kay told Tony to put his suit back on. The boy snatched it up and trudged to the bathroom, muttering. Neri sat down on the sofa, apparently content with the cartoon program that was on. Mary twirled around, showing off her dress. Kay told her to go watch the rest of the show on TV, she needed to have a word alone with Daddy. Then she steered Michael into the adjoining bedroom and closed the door.

“I did it, Kay. I’ve retired from-well, from the dangerous aspects of the business I inherited from my father. I promised you that I’d make all my business dealings legitimate, and I’ve done it.”

She frowned. “You made that promise ten years ago. ” She presumed it was a clumsy ploy to get her to come back to him. Still, she hoped for the kids’ sake he was telling the truth. Sooner or later, he was going to be killed or go to jail, and she hated to think how it would affect Tony and Mary when he did. “I’m happy for you, though, Michael. I really am.”

“You look great, Kay. Maine, teaching: it’s really agreeing with you.”

“Michael, I have to ask you something. I want you to tell me the truth.”

In a split second, his face became an expressionless mask.

“Did you have Jules Segal killed?”

“No.”

No hesitation. Just no. Isn’t that exactly what a liar would do when the answer is yes ?

“I don’t think I believe you,” Kay said.

“I told you a long time ago not to ask me about my business, Kay.”

“This isn’t your business, it’s our business. You had Dr. Segal killed because of me, didn’t you? Because of the-”

“Don’t say it.” At least now he had an expression on his face. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Abortion. Are you going to slap me again?” The way he had when she’d told him: the slap that had ended their marriage, in a different hotel, but in Washington, where he was about to go.

“No, Kay,” he said. “I’m not.”

“Because if that burglary was your handiwork-”

“I don’t want to talk about this subject.”

“-you should know that it wasn’t him.”

“Kay, stop it. We both know that when you-when that happened, he was the doctor you went to. We own that hospital, Kay.”

“So it shouldn’t have been too hard to get my records and see that I had a miscarriage.”

“Oh, sure. You flew to Las Vegas so you could have a miscarriage, and the attending doctor just happened to be the same man who performed the abortions every time Fredo-”

Her stomach felt like it had been twisted by a pair of strong hands. “Oh, God, Michael. I knew it. I knew it. You just… I was so angry. I was scared. It was terrible to live in fear of what might happen to you, but I realized there was nothing I was more afraid of than you-”

“Me? I have protected this family, our family, ahead of anything and everything else.”

“Michael, you married into another kind of family a long time before we started ours. Even your first wife was your second wife. I was your third.”

“Nothing could have ever happened to you. Or our children. Nothing ever will.”

“Come on, Michael. Our house in Nevada was attacked, like some target in a war zone. Did you promise Apollonia nothing would ever happen to her, too? I suppose we should count our blessings we weren’t blown to smithereens.”

“Kay-”

“And what do you mean, Nothing ever will ? What sort of protection, what kind of goons do you command in your capacity as a legitimate businessman? Legitimate businessman. We’ll see. Do you really expect me to believe that anything about you has changed, that anything about you will ever change? Calling yourself legitimate won’t change what you’ve done.”

He kept his eyes on her as he reached into his jacket pocket. For a terrible moment she thought he was reaching for a gun or a knife. He took out a cigarette and lit it.

“Are you through?” he said.

“You don’t understand. I’m not like you, Michael. I could have never killed our… our son. I flew to Las Vegas to help organize a fund-raiser for the art museum, and right after I got there I had a miscarriage. I didn’t have any word from you for two weeks after that happened. Two weeks. No woman should have to live through that alone. I decided to leave you. I had other reasons, bigger reasons, all the reasons we’ve talked about, but that was the last straw. I knew you’d never give me a divorce. So I told you I’d had an abortion. I wanted to hurt you, and I told a lie to do it. I wanted to see that look on your face, and I saw it. I wanted to see what you’d do, and you hit me.”

Michael lowered his head and, very slightly, nodded.

“Jules Segal was my regular doctor, Michael. Do you really think that anybody, especially him, a man who knew who you are as well as anyone in Las Vegas, would have performed an abortion on the wife of a-of a man in your position? Segal wouldn’t have… I don’t know… lit a cigarette without your blessing. I never in my wildest dreams, my wildest nightmares, thought you’d send your goons-”

“We need to go,” Michael said. “I’m going.” He turned and went into the other room. “Come on, Mary, Tony. Who wants to go for an airplane ride?”

Mary shouted that she did, she did, and Tony didn’t say anything, but within moments her children had both kissed her and said their good-byes. No one turned off the television.

Kay Corleone-an accessory to murder before the fact-collapsed onto the bed.

She had no one to blame but herself. Michael was a killer. She’d fallen in love with him not in spite of that but-as he told her about what he’d done in the war-because of it. She knew in her heart that he’d killed those two men in the restaurant. She knew about a lot of other killings, too, and pretended not to. She married him and changed religions -leaving one that allowed divorce for one that prohibited it-so that she could go to confession and try to live with herself for loving a killer. When she’d finally worn Tom Hagen down and gotten him to tell her that the house in Lake Tahoe had in fact been torched and bulldozed because the FBI had bugged the beams and foundation, she’d actually thought, This is the last straw. But no. She’d stayed. She’d rebuilt. When men with machine guns opened fire and nearly killed her children, she left the house but stayed with him. Not until he abandoned her when she lost the baby and hit her and killed his own brother did she do what a truly innocent person would have done years ago.