Chapter 11 - WHAT THEIR MOTHER KNEW
Dante sat down slowly.
Nobody had ever seen Dante Moretti look small.
Emma did now.
Mrs. Moretti held the red book against her chest.
Gabriel leaned against the wall.
“You had it all these years?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
Mrs. Moretti signed.
Emma translated.
“In a box behind the old kitchen wall.”
Dante frowned.
“At your house?”
“Yes.”
“You let us dig up Dad.”
His mother gave him a look so sharp Emma almost smiled.
Then she signed.
Emma translated.
“She says you never listened when she told you not to.”
Sal turned away, hiding a grin.
Dante rubbed his face.
“This is not funny.”
Emma said, “A little funny.”
He glared at her.
Mrs. Moretti opened the book.
The pages were filled with names, dates, account numbers, short notes.
Some handwritten by Carlo.
Others by someone else.
Gabriel saw.
“That’s Mom’s writing.”
Everyone turned.
Mrs. Moretti nodded.
Emma stared.
“You helped keep this?”
“Yes.”
Dante looked stunned.
“For how long?”
“Twenty-four years.”
“You were part of Dad’s business?”
Mrs. Moretti’s expression hardened.
She signed slowly.
Emma translated.
“I was your father’s memory.”
Dante said nothing.
She continued.
“Men talked in front of me because they assumed I could not hear them.”
Emma felt a chill.
That made terrible sense.
A deaf woman in a criminal household.
Men underestimated her.
Talked around her.
Ignored her.
Forgot she was watching.
Mrs. Moretti had seen everything.
“She says your father realized people revealed things when they believed she wasn’t listening.”
Dante stared at his mother.
“So he used that?”
She nodded.
“Did you want that?”
The older woman paused.
Then signed.
“Sometimes.”
Emma’s voice softened.
“Sometimes she chose it. Sometimes she didn’t.”
Dante looked ashamed.
Gabriel spoke quietly.
“Dad used everybody.”
His mother looked at him.
Then signed.
“You did too.”
Gabriel flinched.
Emma translated.
“You disappeared and let me mourn you.”
Gabriel looked down.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Her hands snapped.
“Men keep saying that when they make decisions for women.”
Emma almost said amen.
Dante actually laughed once.
Then his mother looked at him.
She signed.
“And you were worse.”
Dante nodded.
“I know.”
“No. You are beginning to know.”
The room went quiet.
Mrs. Moretti opened the book near the end.
One page had been removed.
Dante saw it immediately.
“The last page.”
She nodded.
“When?”
Mrs. Moretti signed.
“Three days ago.”
Everyone froze.
“Who took it?”
She didn’t know.
The book had been hidden behind the kitchen wall.
Only two people knew.
Mrs. Moretti.
And her longtime housekeeper.
Dante said, “Rosa.”
His mother nodded.
Sal reached for his phone.
Dante stopped him.
“No calls.”
Emma frowned.
“Why?”
“If Rosa took it, she’ll know we know.”
Gabriel said, “She worked for Dad forty years.”
“Exactly.”
Emma looked at Mrs. Moretti.
“Do you trust her?”
The older woman signed.
“With my life.”
Emma translated.
Dante shook his head.
“People say that right before discovering they were wrong.”
Mrs. Moretti stared him down.
Then signed.
“Rosa saved your life when you were six.”
Dante looked away.
Emma asked, “How?”
Mrs. Moretti smiled faintly.
“He fell through lake ice.”
Emma looked at Dante.
“You?”
He shrugged.
“I was six.”
“You fell through a frozen lake?”
“I was exploring.”
“Of course you were.”
Gabriel laughed.
Then winced from his wound.
The humor vanished when Dante’s phone rang.
Private number.
He answered.
Matteo’s voice.
“Bring the book.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“You first.”
Matteo chuckled.
“You sound like Carlo.”
“That’s not a compliment.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Dante walked to the window.
“What do you want?”
“The book and your mother.”
Everyone froze.
Mrs. Moretti’s face hardened.
Dante’s voice dropped.
“You don’t get my mother.”
“She belongs in this as much as any of us.”
“She belongs nowhere near you.”
Matteo laughed.
“That is exactly what Carlo used to say.”
Dante looked toward his mother.
Matteo continued.
“Ask her who wrote the final page.”
Dante froze.
He looked at Emma.
Then signed awkwardly.
“Who wrote final page?”
Mrs. Moretti went still.
May you like
Slowly, she raised one hand.
And pointed at herself.
