The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
258
“Not to me,” Lucy said. “Maybe to everybody else, but not to me.” She was still too weak 
to explain how Sonny had never been anything but gentle with her. He’d never been 
angry with her, never even irritable or nervous. 
Hagen made all the arrangements for her to move to Las Vegas. A rented apartment 
was waiting, he took her to the airport himself and he made her promise that if she ever 
felt lonely or if things didn’t go right, she would call him and he would help her in any 
way he could. 
Before she got on the plane she asked him hesitantly, “Does Sonny’s father know what 
you’re doing?” 
Hagen smiled, “I’m acting for him as well as myself. He’s old-fashioned in these things 
and he would never go against the legal wife of his son. But he feels that you were just a 
young girl and Sonny should have known better. And your taking all those pills shook 
everybody up.” He didn’t explain how incredible it was to a man like the Don that any 
person should try suicide. 
Now, after nearly eighteen months in Las Vegas, she was surprised to find herself 
almost happy. Some nights she dreamed about Sonny and lying awake before dawn 
continued her dream with her own caresses until she could sleep again. She had not 
had a man since. But the life in Vegas agreed with her. She went swimming in the hotel 
pools, sailed on Lake Mead and drove through the desert on her day off. She became 
thinner and this improved her figure. She was still voluptuous but more in the American 
than the old Italian style. She worked in the public relations section of the hotel as a 
receptionist and had nothing to do with Freddie though when he saw her he would stop 
and chat a little. She was surprised at the change in Freddie. He had become a ladies’ 
man, dressed beautifully, and seemed to have a real flair for running a gambling resort. 
He controlled the hotel side, something not usually done by casino owners. With the 
long, very hot summer seasons, or perhaps his more active sex life, he too had become 
thinner and Hollywood tailoring made him look almost debonair in a deadly sort of way. 
It was after six months that Tom Hagen came out to see how she was doing. She had 
been receiving a check for six hundred dollars a month, every month, in addition to her 
salary. Hagen explained that this money had to be shown as coming from someplace 
and asked her to sign complete powers of attorney so that he could channel the money 
properly. He also told her that as a matter of form she would be listed as owner of five 
“points” in the hotel in which she worked. She would have to go through all the legal 

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