Book 3, Chapter 13 Summary

By Christmastime, Billy Van Arsdale has been dating Francesca Corleone since Thanksgiving. He's met and charmed her entire family, but she still worries that he's only dating her to shock his blue-blooded parents. By shock, she means because she's an ethnic Italian, not because her family is the Mafia. Francesca still has no idea how shocking her family actually is. She and Billy drive to New York from Florida in his new Thunderbird. Her family only permits them to go off alone together after they swear they will drive straight through and not stop at any motels. By noon the next day, they've registered at a roadside motel as man and wife. Francesca stares at herself in the mirror, as if she were a stranger. A scared, vulnerable stranger about to lose her virginity. She gathers her courage, and as an...