Chapter 4 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT BROKE HIM
Dante arrived at the hospital at 2:14 a.m.
Elena met him outside Rosa's room.
She held the photograph in both hands.
He looked exhausted.
“Is your mother safe?”
Elena nodded.
“Yes.”
Then she handed him the photograph.
Dante stared.
Two young men.
A lake.
A summer afternoon.
Gabriel had been laughing.
Dante remembered the day.
It was the last summer before everything fell apart.
He turned the photograph over.
Read the handwriting.
Then stopped breathing.
Tell Dante I'm alive.
His knees nearly buckled.
Elena caught his arm.
“Dante.”
He looked at her.
His eyes were wet.
“That's his handwriting.”
Elena swallowed.
“I'm sorry.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
His voice broke.
“Don't be sorry.”
He stared at the photograph again.
Then whispered:
“He was alive.”
Dante sat beside Rosa's bed.
For the first time in years, he looked like a man who didn't know what to do.
Rosa studied him.
“You look like your brother.”
Dante swallowed.
“People used to say that.”
Rosa's eyes filled.
“He was frightened.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Of what?”
“Of the people who brought him there.”
“Did he name them?”
Rosa hesitated.
“He mentioned Whitmore.”
Dante's jaw tightened.
“Richard?”
Rosa nodded.
“He said Richard Whitmore had betrayed him.”
Silence.
Then she added:
“And he said your father knew.”
Dante went completely still.
His father, Vittorio Moretti, had died five years earlier.
Dante had spent years trying to understand the old man's secrets.
Now he was beginning to realize how many of them had been buried with him.
Outside the hospital room, Elena found Dante standing near a vending machine.
He held the photograph.
His hands trembled.
“Dante?”
He looked up.
“I buried him.”
Elena stepped closer.
“I know.”
“I stood beside his grave.”
His voice broke.
“I promised I'd protect our mother.”
He looked at the photograph.
“And all that time…”
Elena touched his arm.
He closed his eyes.
For a moment, he leaned into the contact.
May you like
Then whispered:
“If he's alive, I'll find him.”
