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Chapter 4

Auteur: Jasmine Flower
It was nearly midnight by the time I finished packing. My shoulders ached, and my fingers were stiff from folding clothes and locking trunks.

I had just sat on the edge of the bed when the telephone rang downstairs. I went down and answered it myself. Matteo's voice came through the receiver.

"Serena, Tommy likes the engine very much. I spent the whole evening helping him build the railway bridge. Bianca asked me to thank you."

Midnight. My husband was still in Bianca's house, building the birthday gift he had never found time to build with his own son.

Worse, he was passing along her thanks as though the gift had been mine to offer.

I nearly laughed, not because anything was funny, but because he remained completely unaware of the hurt he caused.

"There is no need to thank me," I said. "That construction set was never mine to give."

"It was Luca's favorite birthday present. He has been waiting for his father to build it with him for months." Matteo went silent.

I did not wait for his reply. I put down the receiver and returned upstairs. I was tired. The ending had already been decided.

The next morning, Matteo returned unusually early. It was barely eight when the front door opened.

He came in wearing the same suit from the night before, his coat draped over one arm.

The moment he stepped into the parlor and saw the neatly arranged trunks by the wall, he stopped.

"Are all of these for a short trip?"

Panic sharpened his voice, but it eased when Luca obediently confirmed that we were going somewhere. Matteo told us he had ordered the family stables closed to outsiders that afternoon.

The chestnut pony would be saddled, and the riding master would wait for the three of us.

"Just the three of us," he said, looking at Luca.

Nearly a month had passed since Luca's birthday, when Don Moretti had dismissed the same wish as childish. Luca knew that, but hope still came back at once. He gripped my sleeve.

"Mom, I want to go."

Before I could answer, Don Moretti cleared his throat.

Bianca had heard about Luca's seat at the family dinner and worried that Tommy would be upset, he explained, so the dinner would have to wait. Luca's grip loosened.

"Oh," he said. His father kept talking, promising they could hold the dinner another time, as if a later promise could repair the one he was breaking.

Don Moretti did not know that we were leaving New York the next day, or that this was the last chance we had allowed him.

Luca stared at his hands for a long time before we both agreed. Relief spread across Don Moretti's face.

"Good. I'll tell Bianca now. Three o'clock at the stables."

At the door he glanced back at us with an affection that arrived far too easily. "My wife. My son. You are both so good to me."

After he left, Luca took the satchel he had packed the night before from the wardrobe. His eyes were red, but his voice did not shake.

"Mom, I don't want Papa to come with us anymore. Can we leave today?"
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  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 11

    When I woke the next morning, the corridor outside our room was empty. Matteo had gone, but the hotel clerk brought up an envelope bearing his handwriting."Serena. Luca. I will not give up on us." I read it once and dropped it into the wastebasket.Luca sat at the small table beside the window, eating bread with strawberry preserves. He glanced toward the basket. "What did he write?" "Nothing important," I said. "A weather report." Luca smiled.It was the first real smile I had seen from him since we left New York.Over the following year, Bianca's case was the first part of our old life to be settled.The nurse who had entered Tommy's room reported what she had seen to the hospital superintendent.The physician documented the severity of the boy's reaction, while the remaining almond biscuits and their paper wrapping were handed to the police.An investigator from the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children interviewed Tommy.He said his mother had known the biscui

  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 10

    Matteo left the hospital and drove straight to Grand Central Terminal. By then, the last evening train to Boston had already departed.He stood beneath the great iron clock while porters and travelers passed around him, his coat still carrying the sharp smell of hospital disinfectant.He questioned the station clerks, the ticket office, and the porters assigned to the Boston platform. One of them finally remembered Serena and the little boy beside her.They had boarded the three o'clock train with several trunks and a small leather satchel. The porter also remembered Luca tearing a bundle of photographs into pieces before boarding.Matteo said nothing when he heard that. He merely placed several bills in the man's hand and walked away.Outside the station, he ordered one of his men to telephone every hotel near Boston's central railway terminal.Another was sent to question the Moretti family's business associates in the city. Within an hour, they had found the hotel where Serena and L

  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 9

    The nurse sent both adults into the corridor while the physician worked on Tommy.Once the door closed, Bianca wiped her face and looked at Matteo without the helpless expression she had worn for years."Yes, I did it deliberately," she said. "I needed you to come.""You poisoned your own son because you wanted my attention.""What choice did I have?" Bianca snapped."I have a child and no fortune of my own. You came whenever I said I was frightened. You liked being needed, Matteo. Do not pretend I forced you to neglect your wife."Matteo's face lost what little color remained."You told me your husband deceived you. You said your family forced you to leave New York.""I left New York for an Englishman who promised me estates, servants, and money. When his fortune disappeared, so did I. By the time I returned, you were Don Moretti. I knew exactly what your name could give me.""You came back for my money.""For your money and your protection," Bianca said. "Serena helped too. Every tim

  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 8

    It was after eight when Matteo returned home.He opened the door still clinging to the hope that Serena had taken Luca to her mother's house, or perhaps gone to Boston simply to frighten him.She might be furious enough to leave for a few days. Surely she could not mean to stay gone. The entrance hall told him otherwise.Serena's shoes had disappeared from beneath the coat rack, along with Luca's little boots. Only Matteo's black leather shoes remained.He walked into the parlor and found the same careful absence everywhere. The matching cups Serena and Luca used at breakfast were gone.So was the photograph from their summer by the sea.Luca's toy soldiers no longer crowded the hearth, and someone had cleared away his books, his wooden horse, and the box that held his building set.Nothing had been left in disorder. Serena had packed slowly and deliberately, taking everything that belonged to her and Luca.Matteo stood in the middle of the room for some time before forcing himself ups

  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 7

    Matteo drove toward the family stables himself. The streets were crowded. Carriages, motorcars, delivery trucks, and streetcars blocked one another beneath the afternoon sun.The traffic moved like a river of iron that had forgotten where it was going. He kept one hand tight around the wheel. The other rested beside the horn.At the first telephone booth he passed, he stopped the car so sharply that the vehicle behind him nearly struck his bumper. He called the station office."Grand Central Terminal.""This is Don Moretti. Put me through to Donna Moretti."The clerk hesitated. "Donna Moretti is no longer here, sir." Matteo's grip tightened around the receiver. "What do you mean?" "The Boston train departed at three."For a moment, he could not speak. Then he looked at the clock above the booth. It was three minutes past the hour."You are mistaken.""I am afraid not, sir. The afternoon Boston service left from Platform Twelve." Matteo hung up. He told himself the clerk had confused th

  • His Son Stopped Calling Him Papa   Chapter 6

    An hour earlier. Bianca Bellini clung to Matteo's sleeve, tears streaming down her face."What am I going to do? Tommy fell down the stairs. There was so much blood. I thought he was going to die."Tommy sat in Matteo's arms with a folded handkerchief pressed against his forehead. His sobs came in short, broken breaths.Matteo's face had been pale throughout the drive to the hospital. The moment they arrived, he carried Tommy inside.While the physician examined the boy, Matteo went to the telephone in the corridor and called the Moretti house. The steward answered."Donna Moretti and Master Luca have already left, Don." Matteo tightened his grip on the receiver."Left for where?""Grand Central Terminal."For a moment, he said nothing. Then he ordered the operator to connect him to the station office.When Serena finally came to the telephone, he spoke before she had the chance to say a word."Serena, tell Luca I am sorry."Behind him, Bianca was crying again. "Tommy fell. I had to br

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