Josie Marchetti is six months pregnant with twins when her husband's best friend drags her onto the stage at the family's anniversary gala and auctions her off as a joke: "Rent-a-Marchetti-wife, one whole month! She cooks, she cleans, and she's already pregnant. Starting bid, one dollar!" Two hundred guests laugh. Her husband Rafe, heir to the Marchetti crime family, leans in and tells her to play along. Then the ballroom doors open, and every man in a black suit stands up. Celeste Marchetti is Rafe's mother. She can't open a jar. She can't peel her own shrimp. She calls her husband in tears when the power goes out. And twenty-five years ago, while her husband sat in prison, she ran the entire family while pregnant. The city still calls her "the Lady." Celeste slaps the best friend. Then she slaps her own son so hard he crashes into the champagne tower. What follows is a war nobody saw coming. Frankie Russo, the "one of the boys" best friend who has been at Rafe's side since they were fourteen, isn't just cruel. She has been stealing from the family for years, even from the widows of men who died for it. Rafe has to learn the difference between loyalty to a friend and loyalty to his wife. Josie has to stop apologizing for being hurt.
