The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
203
But the Don had not been so unsympathetic as he pretended. He made inquiries and 
found out what Carlo Rizzi had done with the wedding present money. He had men 
assigned to Carlo Rizzi’s bookmaking operation who would report to Hagen everything 
Rizzi did on the job. But the Don could not interfere. How expect a man to discharge his 
husbandly duties to a wife whose family he feared? It was an impossible situation and 
he dared not meddle. Then when Connie became pregnant he was convinced of the 
wisdom of his decision and felt he never could interfere though Connie complained to 
her mother about a few more beatings and the mother finally became concerned 
enough to mention it to the Don. Connie even hinted that she might want a divorce. For 
the first time in her life the Don was angry with her. “He is the father of your child. What 
can a child come to in this world if he has no father?” he said to Connie. 
Learning all this, Carlo Rizzi grew confident. He was perfectly safe. In fact he bragged to 
his two “writers” on the book, Sally Rags and Coach, about how he bounced his wife 
around when she got snotty and saw their looks of respect that he had the guts to 
manhandle the daughter of the great Don Corleone. 
But Rizzi would not have felt so safe if he had known that when Sonny Cotleone learned 
of the beatings he had flown into a murderous rage and had been restrained only by the 
sternest and most imperious command of the Don himself, a command that even Sonny 
dared not disobey. Which was why Sonny avoided Rizzi, not trusting himself to control 
his temper. 
So feeling perfectly safe on this beautiful Sunday morning, Carlo Rizzi sped crosstown 
on 96th Street to the East Side. He did not see Sonny’s car coming the opposite way 
toward his house. 
* * *
Sonny Corleone had left the protection of the mall and spent the night with Lucy Mancini 
in town. Now on the way home he was traveling with four bodyguards, two in front and 
two behind. He didn’t need guards right beside him, he could take care of a single direct 
assault. The other men traveled in their own cars and had apartments on either side of 
Lucy’s apartment. It was safe to visit her as long as he didn’t do it too often. But now 
that he was in town he figured he would pick up his sister Connie and take her out to 
Long Beach. He knew Carlo would be working at his book and the cheap bastard 
wouldn’t get her a car. So he’d give his sister a lift out. 
He waited for the two men in front to go into the building and then followed them. He 

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