Chapter 9
I called Evelyn myself.
Not from Lorraine’s phone.
Mine.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
For a moment I could not speak.
My brother’s daughter.
A voice I had never heard because adults decided twenty years ago what truth I could survive.
“My name is Roman Valenti.”
Silence.
Then:
“I know.”
That surprised me.
“Lorraine told you.”
“My father told me first.”
Of course.
“What did he say?”
Another pause.
“That you were the one person he regretted leaving.”
My throat closed.
I looked away from everyone.
“Did he think I hated him?”
“Yes.”
One word.
Twenty years inside it.
I breathed slowly.
“He was wrong.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Your father wrote him.”
I froze.
My father had found Matteo eventually.
He apologized.
Not enough to bring him back.
Enough to tell him I had never been told the truth.
My brother kept the letters.
Another secret Lorraine did not know.
I almost laughed at the symmetry.
“Evelyn, the old council knows you have the ledger.”
“I assumed.”
“They may come.”
“I know.”
No fear in her voice.
That worried me more.
“Do not try to prove anything.”
She laughed softly.
“You sound like my dad.”
That hurt.
Good hurt.
“I want to meet you.”
Silence.
“Not as boss.”
Longer silence.
“As what?”
I looked at the photograph of Matteo.
“As the uncle who should have known you existed.”
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
Then:
“Tomorrow.”
Not tonight.
Her choice.
“Where?”
“I’ll send it.”
She hung up.
Lorraine stared at me.
“You’re going alone?”
“If she asks.”
“You can’t.”
I looked at my mother.
That phrase.
Again.
“You still don’t understand.”
She frowned.
“This is exactly why Matteo left.”
I walked toward her.
“He was tired of people calling control love.”
May you like
Lorraine’s face collapsed.
For once, I did not rescue her from the sentence.
