The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
372
Book Nine 
Chapter 32 
The bloody victory of the Corleone Family was not complete until a year of delicate 
political maneuvering established Michael Corleone as the most powerful Family chief in 
the United States. For twelve months, Michael divided his time equally between his 
headquarters at the Long Beach mall and his new home in Las Vegas. But at the end of 
that year he decided to close out the New York operation and sell the houses and the 
mall property. For that purpose he brought his whole family East on a last visit. They 
would stay a month, wind up business, Kay would do the personal family’s packing and 
shipping of household goods. There were a million other minor details. 
Now the Corleone Family was unchallengeable, and Clemenza had his own Family. 
Rocco Lampone was the Corleone caporegime. In Nevada, Albert Neri was head of all 
security for the Family-controlled hotels. Hagen too was part of Michael’s Western 
Family. 
Time helped heal the old wounds. Connie Corleone was reconciled to her brother 
Michael. Indeed not more than a week after her terrible accusations she apologized to 
Michael for what she had said and assured Kay that there had been no truth in her 
words, that it had been only a young widow’s hysteria. 
Connie Corleone easily found a new husband; in fact, she did not wait the year of 
respect before filling her bed again with a fine young fellow who had come to work for 
the Corleone Family as a male secretary. A boy from a reliable Italian family but 
graduated from the top business college in America. Naturally his marriage to the sister 
of the Don made his future assured. 
Kay Adams Corleone had delighted her in-laws by taking instruction in the Catholic 
religion and joining that faith. Her two boys were also, naturally, being brought up in that 
church, as was required. Michael himself had not been too pleased by this development. 
He would have preferred the children to be Protestant, it was more American. 
To her surprise, Kay came to love living in Nevada. She loved the scenery, the hills and 
canyons of garishly red rock, the burning deserts, the unexpected and blessedly 
refreshing lakes, even the heat. Her two boys rode their own ponies. She had real 
servants, not bodyguards. And Michael lived a more normal life. He owned a 
construction business; he joined the businessmen’s clubs and civic committees; he had 

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