Mama's Special Red Sauce

A Short By Mark Christopher: Currently in Development

In a dim, silent kitchen, an aging hitman prepares a pot of marinara—and contemplates his mark. Toledo, a weary enforcer with too many ghosts and not enough time, has been ordered to clean up a mess: Bello, the young lieutenant he once raised like a son, went off-script and killed a man with ties to the wrong crew.

As the sauce simmers, Toledo and Bello cook, eat, and circle the truth. Each ingredient brings memory, regret, and unspoken threats to the surface. The gun lies on the table. The past bleeds into the present. And the future depends on one final decision: Will Toledo follow orders—or give Bello the crown by making himself the mark?

Set in Toledo’s kitchen over one meal, Mama’s Special Red Sauce is a slow-burn noir chamber piece about loyalty, legacy, and the fatal price of brothership in a world that only pays in blood.