The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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bedroom. She tried to bite his hand and he grabbed her by the hair to lift her head up. 
He slapped her face until she began to weep like a little girl, with pain and humiliation. 
Then he threw her contemptuously onto the bed. He drank from the bottle of whiskey 
still on the night table. He seemed very drunk now, his light blue eyes had a crazy glint 
in them and finally Connie was truly afraid. 
Carlo straddled his legs apart and drank from the bottle. He reached down and grabbed 
a chunk of her pregnant heavy thigh in his hand. He squeezed very hard, hurting her 
and making her beg for mercy. “You’re fat as a pig,” he said with disgust and walked out 
of the bedroom. 
Thoroughly frightened and cowed, she lay in the bed, not daring to see what her 
husband was doing in the other room. Finally she rose and went to the door to peer into 
the living room. Carlo had opened a fresh bottle of whiskey and was sprawled on the 
sofa. In a little while he would drink himself into sodden sleep and she could sneak into 
the kitchen and call her family in Long Beach. She would tell her mother to send 
someone out here to get her. She just hoped Sonny didn’t answer the phone, she knew 
it would be best to talk to Tom Hagen or her mother. 
It was nearly ten o’clock at night when the kitchen phone in Don Corleone’s house rang. 
It was answered by one of the Don’s bodyguards who dutifully turned the phone over to 
Connie’s mother. But Mrs. Corleone could hardly understand what her daughter was 
saying, the girl was hysterical yet trying to whisper so that her husband in the next room 
would not hear her. Also her face had become swollen because of the slaps, and her 
puffy lips thickened her speech. Mrs. Corleone made a sign to the bodyguard that he 
should call Sonny, who was in the living room with Tom Hagen. 
Sonny came into the kitchen and took the phone from his mother. “Yeah, Connie,” he 
said. 
Connie was so frightened both of her husband and of what her brother would do that her 
speech became worse. She babbled, “Sonny, just send a car to bring me home, I’ll tell 
you then, it’s nothing, Sonny. Don’t you come. Send Tom, please, Sonny. It’s nothing, I 
just want to come home.” 
By this time Hagen had come into the room. The Don was already under a sedated 
sleep in the bedroom above and Hagen wanted to keep an eye on Sonny in all crises. 
The two interior bodyguards were also in the kitchen. Everybody was watching Sonny 
as he listened on the phone. 

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