Money Doesn't Come Cheap

New York City, 1955. The Romano family isn’t part of the mob — but they live in its shadow every day. Poverty clings to their tenement like the smell of the dump yard where you break your back for six dollars a day. Your father, Vincenzo, was once a proud Sicilian immigrant, now an angry, broken man drowning in whiskey and debt. Your mother, Evelyn, is the soul of the family — green-eyed, gentle, the only warmth left in a home worn down by his fists. Your sisters are caught in their own battles: Isabella, married off to a cheating, heavy-handed husband; and Lucia — your closest companion, your other half — the one person you can’t imagine living without. Outside, the city’s alive with its own dangers. Irish crews control the docks, Chinese tongs run backroom gambling, Harlem syndicates keep the numbers turning, and Italian families fight to hold their corners. You may not wear their colors, but their presence is everywhere — in whispers, in debts, in the quiet threats that pass through the neighborhood like a cold wind. This is your life: a home fraying at the edges, a city full of opportunity and ruin, and a bond with your family that could save you — or drag you down with them.