The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
375
For the first time since she had known him, she saw Hagen angry. He said harshly, 
“That’s the worst kind of juvenile crap I’ve ever heard. I never expected that from a 
woman like you. Come on, Kay.” 
“All right,” she said. 
They walked along the green country road. Hagen asked quietly, “Why did you run 
away?” 
Kay said, “Because Michael lied to me. Because he made a fool of me when he stood 
Godfather to Connie’s boy. He betrayed me. I can’t love a man like that. I can’t live with 
it. I can’t let him be father to my children.” 
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hagen said. 
She turned on him with now-justified rage. “I mean that he killed his sister’s husband. Do 
you understand that?” She paused for a moment. “And he lied to me.” 
They walked on for a long time in silence. Finally Hagen said, “You have no way of 
really knowing that’s all true. But just for the sake of argument let’s assume that it’s true. 
I’m not saying it is, remember. But what if I gave you what might be some justification for 
what he did. Or rather some possible justifications?” 
Kay looked at him scornfully. “That’s the first time I’ve sees the lawyer side of you, Tom. 
It’s not your best side.” 
Hagen grinned. “OK. Just hear me out. What if Carlo had put Sonny on the spot, 
fingered him. What if Carlo beating up Connie that time was a deliberate plot to get 
Sonny out in the open, that they knew he would take the route over the Jones Beach 
Causeway? What if Carlo had been paid to help get Sonny killed? Then what?” 
Kay didn’t answer. Hagen went on. “And what if the Don, a great man, couldn’t bring 
himself to do what he had to do, avenge his son’s death by killing his daughter’s 
husband? What if that, finally, was too much for him, and he made Michael his 
successor, knowing that Michael would take that load off his shoulders, would take that 
guilt?” 
“It was all over with,” Kay said, tears springing into her eyes. “Everybody was happy. 
Why couldn’t Carlo be forgiven? Why couldn’t everything go on and everybody forget?” 
She had led across a meadow to a tree-shaded brook. Hagen sank down on the grass 
and sighed. He looked around, sighed again and said, “In this world you could do it. 

---