Chapter 3 - THE SONG THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST
Clara had never published the piece.
That made everything worse.
“I wrote it when I was nineteen.”
Dante stared.
“Who heard it?”
“My professor. A few students.”
“Recorded?”
“Once.”
“Where?”
“A conservatory recital.”
“What conservatory?”
“Bellmont.”
Dante stood so suddenly the bench shifted.
His late wife, Sofia Moretti, had studied at Bellmont.
Not piano.
Music therapy.
Years before Clara attended.
But the archives overlapped.
Clara returned to Bellmont the next day.
The original recital recording was missing.
The catalog showed it had been checked out six years earlier.
Borrower:
S. MORETTI.
Clara stared at the screen.
Sofia had heard her music.
Why?
Leo provided the answer.
“My mom had blue songs.”
He led Clara and Dante into Sofia's old music room, which had remained locked since her death.
Dante opened it for the first time in five years.
Dust covered the piano.
Leo went directly to a cabinet.
Inside were dozens of labeled recordings.
Some contained music.
Others contained voices.
Sofia had been recording sessions for a project.
One tape was marked:
L.M. — FOR LEO WHEN HE IS OLDER.
Dante couldn't move.
Clara asked Leo:
“Do you want to hear it?”
“Yes.”
Dante closed his eyes.
Clara pressed play.
Sofia's voice filled the room.
Warm.
Calm.
Alive.
“If Leo is listening to this someday, then I hope his father finally stopped locking everything important in drawers.”
Dante made a broken sound that might have been a laugh.
Leo sat on the carpet.
Sofia continued.
“I've been working with the Moretti Foundation on a program for children who communicate differently. Music isn't a cure. It isn't supposed to be. It's another door.”
Clara looked at Leo.
He listened without moving.
Then Sofia's tone changed.
“But something is wrong with the foundation accounts.”
Dante's head lifted.
“Millions of dollars allocated to therapy programs never reached the clinics.”
Clara looked at him.
He whispered:
“I never knew.”
The tape continued.
“I told Carlo I was going to Dante.”
Dante froze.
Carlo Moretti.
His uncle.
Chairman of the family foundation.
The man who had managed Sofia's charitable work.
Then the recording abruptly stopped.
May you like
The next tape was gone.
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