Chapter 8 - THE FATHER WHO FINALLY SPOKE
Salvatore came to Nora's apartment on a Sunday afternoon.
No bodyguards entered.
No expensive gifts.
Just an old man with a cane and a face full of regret.
Nora opened the door.
He looked at her.
“May I come in?”
She hesitated.
Then stepped aside.
Salvatore sat at her kitchen table.
He looked around.
“This reminds me of Pietro's first apartment.”
Nora said nothing.
Salvatore folded his hands.
“Dante told me about Elena.”
Nora looked at him.
“Did you know?”
His eyes filled.
“No.”
She studied him.
“Would you tell me if you did?”
Salvatore flinched.
“I deserve that.”
Silence.
Then he reached into his coat.
He removed a photograph.
Two boys stood beside a stone wall in Sicily.
One older.
One younger.
Both smiling.
“Pietro and me,” Salvatore whispered.
Nora took it.
Her grandfather looked barely sixteen.
Happy.
Unburdened.
She had never seen him that way.
Salvatore's voice broke.
“He was the better brother.”
Nora looked at him.
“Then why didn't you protect him?”
Salvatore began crying.
“Because I was afraid.”
She swallowed.
“So was he.”
The old man nodded.
“I know.”
Nora looked down at the photograph.
After a long silence, she said:
“I can't forgive you for him.”
Salvatore nodded.
“I understand.”
“But I can let you tell me about him.”
May you like
The old man's eyes filled again.
And for the first time in thirty years, Salvatore Gallo began speaking honestly about his brother.
