Chapter 23 - CLAUDIA’S MOTHER DIES
Claudia’s mother, Aunt Teresa, died at eighty-eight.
At the funeral, Claudia spoke about envy.
Unexpected.
Not mine.
Hers.
She said her mother had spent decades comparing branches of the family.
Who married better.
Whose children received more attention.
Who sat closer to the senior men.
Claudia had inherited comparison as a language.
Then taught it to herself through Evelyn.
She did not mention Ruby publicly.
Good.
Private harm did not need funeral theater.
Afterward Claudia told me:
“I kept thinking if Evelyn had enough visible things, nobody could call our branch secondary.”
“Did anyone?”
“My mother.”
May you like
There.
Sometimes the Mafia hierarchy survives longest in kitchens.
