arrangements to persuade his father to let his sister marry, Petie is sideswiped in his sportscar by a member of the Santadios and gunned to death. The fact that the Clericuzio clan is the most powerful family in the world means that the killing of any Santadio would not be by any stretch for personal gain of wealth. The Don of each family lays the seeds for generations to come which helps explain the future killings in this book. It is Don Clericuzio who as an act of revenge plans the total wipeout of the Santadio family. He lets the wedding between his daughter and the Santadio's son proceed sending only his nephew Pippi to go as "representation" of the Clericuzios. All goes well at the wedding as Pippi dances among his foes. Rose and her new husband go to the wedding bed that night and only that night. In the middle of the night a band of the Clericuzios storm the Santadio mansion and kill all of their men. They wear masks to disguise themselves from Rose but it is to no avail as she notices Pippi's wedding shoes. In the end it is Pippi who kills Rose's husband but not before the seeds of life had been planted for Rose's child who was to be named Dante. Don Clericuzio had avenged the death of his son Sylvio. Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the chain of revenge.
             The after effects of the Santadio-Clericuzio war was laid to rest by all of the Clericuzios except for Rose who was deeply in love with her husband. The hurt was evident throughout as she shunned upon the presence of anybody but her dear son Dante. Rose ended up going mad and became a senile old woman by the time she was fourty years old. The Clericuzio family kept the war against the Santadios quiet throughout Dante's life as well as Cross' lifetime. The exception to this was when Dante's mother would often whisper the truth about it to him. For this Dante,"..dreamed of vengeance on Pippi, and t...