Of the many Corleone women, Kay is the only one who never accepts the Mafia way of life. Others may fight it for a time, but all eventually give in. Kay moves in the opposite direction. In The Godfather, she does not consent to it, but neither does she strenuously object. Instead, she ignores the truth, using her love for Michael as an excuse to avoid seeing the truth that stares her in the face. But at the very end of the film, as the door to Michael’s office closes on her, we can sense the awakening of realization. By The Godfather Part II, Kay has decided that Michael is a cold, distant, inattentive husband and father, but only after an attempt is made on his life in the family home does she resolve to rebel against him. At first, Kay’s rebellion is silent and private: she aborts the child she is carrying. But later, when she tells Michael that she is leaving him and reveals the truth that her “miscarriage” was really an abortion, she challenges him in a way no one ever has before. Kay becomes the first and only battle that Michael loses (until the very end of the trilogy). Michael may appear to get the better of the argument in Part II—he kicks her out of the house and keeps the children—but eventually Kay remarries and becomes the children’s principal parent. Still, she admits in Part III that, even though she has moved on, she continues to love Michael and always will.