At 9:17 P.M., I was the only waitress brave enough to approach table four, where Boston’s most feared mafia boss was slowly dying in front of everyone.

Two weeks after our wedding, the final chapter of our past was formally closed in Boston Federal Court.

Dominic and I sat in the second row of the gallery, our hands intertwined.

At the defense table stood Richard, dressed in a faded orange prison jumpsuit, his wrists shackled to his waist. His hair had thinned, his shoulders slumped in utter defeat.

Judge Harrington banged his gavel, the sharp sound echoing through the packed courtroom.

"For the charges of attempted murder via hazardous chemical agents, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and corporate espionage," the judge declared, his voice booming without mercy, "this court sentences you, Richard Vance, to thirty-five years at ADX Florence federal penitentiary, without the possibility of parole."

Richard dropped his head, sobbing into his shackled hands.

As the federal marshals led him away toward the holding cells, Richard caught a glimpse of us sitting in the gallery.

He looked at me—the waitress he had tried to starve, the girl he had ordered away from table four. Then he looked at Dominic, standing tall and undisputed, with his wedding band gleaming under the fluorescent lights.

There was no anger left in Richard’s eyes. Only the crushing, hollow realization that his greed had purchased him a lifetime in a concrete tomb, while the woman he discarded had inherited an empire of love and honor.

We walked out of the federal courthouse into the bright autumn sunshine.

Reporters shouted questions from behind the brass barricades, their camera flashes illuminating the courthouse steps:

*"Mr. Romano! Is it true the Romano Foundation is donating twenty million dollars to public hospitals?"*

*"Mrs. Romano! How is the expansion of the bakery going?"*

Dominic stopped, wrapping his arm securely around my shoulders. He smiled down at the cameras—a real, genuine, disarming smile that the city of Boston had never seen before.