Chapter 4 - HIS FATHER’S WARNING
Antonio Moretti had been dead for eleven months.
Now his father’s handwriting stared up at him from a black leather ledger.
“Where did you get this?” Luciano asked.
Bernadette held it against her chest. “Your father kept secrets from all of us.”
“Give it to me.”
“Not until you calm down.”
Luciano almost laughed.
“Mom, you forged my signature, stole from my son, tried to ship him to boarding school, and hid his phone. Calm is the only reason this conversation is still happening.”
Her face tightened.
Marcus appeared at the bottom of the stairs with an ice pack against his mouth.
“You always were dramatic.”
Luciano pointed at the ledger. “Dad wrote my name on that.”
“He was confused near the end.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
Marcus’s jaw flexed.
Luciano noticed.
He descended one step at a time.
“What did Dad know?”
Marcus glanced at Bernadette.
Too fast.
Luciano saw that too.
Then Theo’s voice came from behind him.
“Daddy?”
Luciano turned sharply. “I told you to stay in the room.”
“I heard yelling.”
Theo clutched the locomotive in both hands.
Bernadette stared at it.
Not at Theo.
At the train.
Luciano followed her gaze.
And suddenly he remembered something.
The locomotive had been built from a block of walnut taken from Antonio’s workshop. Antonio himself had drilled the axle holes. Years ago, while Luciano sanded the roof, his father had laughed and said, “Never throw this thing away. One day it may be worth more than the house.”
Luciano had thought it was a joke.
Now Bernadette was looking at the toy like it contained a loaded gun.
“Theo,” she said softly. “Bring Grandma the train.”
“No.”
“Theo.”
Luciano stepped between them.
Marcus moved toward his nephew.
Luciano didn’t raise his voice.
“Take one more step and you’ll leave this house in an ambulance.”
Marcus stopped.
Luciano took the train from Theo and examined it under the chandelier.
One broken wheel hung crookedly from the axle.
Behind it was a tiny brass circle he had never noticed before.
A keyhole.
Bernadette whispered, “Don’t.”
Luciano looked at his mother.
That single word told him everything.
May you like
There was something inside.
* * *
