Chapter 5 - THE DAUGHTER WHO WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO EXIST
I didn't sleep that night.
I read the letter until the words stopped looking like words.
Then I searched every document my grandfather had left.
Birth certificate.
School records.
Medical forms.
Guardianship papers.
Most looked ordinary.
Until I noticed something I'd never questioned.
My birth certificate had been issued two years after my birth.
It was marked as a delayed registration.
I had always assumed that was because my parents were careless with paperwork.
Now I wasn't sure.
The next morning, Dante returned.
I met him downstairs.
"Your mother disappeared in 1999," I said.
He nodded.
"Yes."
"I was born in 2003."
He frowned.
"I know."
"Then the baby in the photograph can't be me."
Dante studied me.
"Not unless the date is wrong."
I shook my head.
"Pietro never got dates wrong."
We stood silently.
Then I asked:
"Did your mother have another child?"
Dante looked away.
"My father always said no."
"Do you believe him?"
He didn't answer.
We arranged to meet a retired attorney who had handled old immigration and guardianship matters.
Her name was Margaret DeLuca.
She was eighty-one.
And when she saw the photograph, she began crying.
"Oh, Lucia."
Dante leaned forward.
"You knew my mother?"
Margaret nodded.
"Yes."
I showed her the letter.
She read it carefully.
Then looked at me.
"Who are you?"
"Nora Rossi."
Her face changed.
"Rossi?"
I nodded.
She covered her mouth.
"My God."
Dante stood.
"What?"
Margaret looked at him.
"Your mother had a daughter."
The room went silent.
Then she looked at me.
"But that daughter wasn't born in 2003."
I stared.
"Then who was she?"
Margaret's voice trembled.
"She was born in 1999."
I looked toward Dante.
May you like
He looked back.
And suddenly, I understood that the photograph was only the beginning.
