Chapter 7 - THE SECRET BENEATH THE OLD HOUSE
Dante arranged temporary security for my apartment.
He also helped me contact an attorney.
Together, we reviewed my mother's old documents.
One address appeared repeatedly.
A small house in upstate New York.
It had belonged to Isabella's aunt.
I remembered visiting once as a child.
The house had been abandoned for years.
Dante offered to accompany me.
I agreed.
We drove north with Orion sleeping in the back seat.
The house stood at the edge of a forest.
Its windows were dusty.
The porch sagged.
Inside, everything smelled of old wood.
I wandered through the rooms.
Then stopped in the kitchen.
A loose floorboard near the stove caught my eye.
I knelt.
Lifted it.
Beneath was a metal box.
My hands shook.
Inside were photographs.
Bank statements.
Letters.
And a small cassette tape.
Dante stared.
“Olivia.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He picked up a document.
His face changed.
“This is my father's signature.”
I swallowed.
He turned the page.
Then went completely still.
Because beneath Lorenzo Moretti's signature was another name.
VINCENZO MORETTI.
May you like
Dante's uncle.
The man who had raised him after his father's death.
