The Unacknowledged Donna

For seven years, Viola Conti has served as private secretary to Don Aido Derocchi, a respectable post with a lavish salary. Everyone believes she is a single mother raising her son, Leo, alone. No one knows that the husband she speaks of is Aido himself, and that Leo is the child of their one night together. The old Don forced a secret marriage to keep Derocchi blood inside the family, yet Aido never acknowledged her as his wife, never let her wear a ring, and never allowed Leo to call him Papa.

Now Viola has resigned, telling the secretariat she will take Leo to Melbir to collect her husband's effects. Her clearance needs the Don's own signature. In the corridor she meets Aido with Isabella Bellucci, the woman everyone assumes will be the future Madre, and he greets her only as Signorina Conti. That Christmas Eve, Leo waits for a father who arrives at two in the morning, smelling of the night air, the cake untouched. Viola hands him documents to sign, and his phone rings.