Chapter 15 - The Woman Who Had Been Dead for Fifteen Years
Lucia asked Dante to walk with her.
They followed a narrow road beside the cottage lake.
Rosa and Ellie remained inside.
The afternoon was cold but clear.
Dante had spent most of the day answering questions from attorneys and investigators.
He should have been exhausted.
Instead he felt strangely awake.
Like someone who had been sleeping for fifteen years and had only now opened his eyes.
Lucia pushed her hands into her coat pockets.
“There’s something I haven’t told you.”
Dante sighed.
“Of course there is.”
She smiled weakly.
“This one is mine.”
He looked at her.
“Go ahead.”
“The boy.”
“What boy?”
“In the photograph outside the church.”
Dante remembered.
Private-school jacket.
Approximately ten years old.
“Who was he?”
Lucia stopped walking.
“My son.”
Dante stared.
“You have a son.”
“Yes.”
A completely unexpected emotion hit him.
“You made me an uncle and didn’t tell me?”
Lucia laughed through sudden tears.
“I know.”
“How old is he?”
“Eighteen.”
Dante calculated.
“You were pregnant when you disappeared.”
“No. He was born several years later.”
“His father?”
“Gone.”
Dante’s expression hardened instinctively.
Lucia saw it.
“Not like that.”
“Oh.”
“He died of cancer when Noah was four.”
Dante looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“His name was Daniel Hart.”
“Related to Claire?”
“Her brother.”
The therapist.
The address in Maine.
It finally connected.
“Claire helped hide you.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel knew who you were?”
“Eventually.”
“You loved him.”
“Very much.”
Dante smiled faintly.
“I wish I’d met him.”
“He would have been terrified of you.”
“Most reasonable people are.”
Lucia laughed.
Then became serious.
“Noah doesn’t know everything.”
“Does he know about me?”
“He knows I had a brother named Dante.”
“Had?”
Lucia winced.
“I told him you were dead.”
Dante stopped walking.
“That feels unnecessarily symmetrical.”
“I know.”
He stared at her.
Then surprisingly began laughing.
Lucia joined him.
For thirty seconds, years of tragedy became absurd.
Both siblings alive.
Each telling other people the other was dead.
If their mother could see them, she would probably have called them idiots.
When the laughter faded, Dante asked, “Where is Noah?”
“With Claire.”
“In Maine?”
“Yes.”
“Safe?”
“For now.”
“You stayed away because of him.”
“Mostly.”
Lucia looked toward the lake.
“After Noah was born, returning stopped being only about me.”
“You thought Sebastian would use him.”
“Yes.”
“So you let me believe you were dead.”
“I told myself I was protecting everyone.”
Dante nodded.
He understood that sentence too well now.
“Would you like me to meet him?”
Lucia looked nervous.
“Eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“He thinks his mother was a librarian from Ohio.”
Dante raised an eyebrow.
“You hate libraries.”
“I panicked.”
They laughed again.
Later that evening, Lucia video-called Claire.
Noah appeared.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Lucia’s eyes.
Dante stood outside the camera at first.
Noah complained about college applications.
Asked whether his mother was finally coming home.
Then Lucia said, “There’s someone I need you to meet.”
Dante stepped into frame.
Noah stared.
“Who’s that?”
Lucia swallowed.
“My brother.”
Silence.
“You said your brother died.”
“I lied.”
Noah stood.
“You lied about your dead brother being alive?”
Dante murmured, “That seems to be a family tradition.”
Lucia glared at him.
Noah heard.
“Who are you?”
“Dante Mercer.”
The young man froze.
He knew the name.
Anyone who searched business news did.
“Mercer?”
“Yes.”
Noah looked at his mother.
“You told me your last name was Hart.”
“It is now.”
“What was it?”
Lucia’s eyes filled.
“Mercer.”
Noah left the video call.
Lucia cried afterward.
Dante sat beside her.
“He’ll come back.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But I know what it feels like discovering your family lied because they thought fear justified it.”
Lucia wiped her face.
“That wasn’t subtle.”
“I’m still learning.”
Rosa appeared carrying tea.
“Ellie says subtle isn’t your strength.”
Dante looked toward the hallway.
“Why is everyone discussing me?”
Ellie shouted from another room.
“Because you’re interesting!”
Lucia laughed.
Dante shook his head.
For two days, Noah refused to answer.
On the third, he called.
Not Lucia.
Dante.
Dante stared at the unknown number.
“Hello?”
“Is this Dante?”
“Yes.”
“This is Noah.”
Dante sat down.
“Hello.”
“I want the truth.”
“You should ask your mother.”
“She gives me emotional answers.”
Dante almost smiled.
“And you think I won’t?”
“You look emotionally unavailable.”
Dante laughed.
Noah sounded startled.
“Sorry.”
“No. You’re probably right.”
For an hour, Dante told him everything he safely could.
Lucia’s disappearance.
Sebastian.
Jacob.
Evelyn.
He did not excuse Lucia.
He explained fear.
There was a difference.
At the end Noah asked, “Did she love me?”
Dante’s answer came immediately.
“She gave up her entire identity to keep you safe.”
Silence.
“I guess that’s yes.”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“Is she coming home?”
Dante looked toward Lucia sleeping on the sofa.
“I hope so.”
“To Maine?”
Dante smiled.
“I meant home in a broader sense.”
Noah came to New York the following week.
His first meeting with Dante happened at the cottage.
Ellie answered the door.
She stared up at Noah.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Noah.”
“Are you mafia too?”
Noah blinked.
Dante closed his eyes.
Rosa called from the kitchen.
“Ellie!”
“What? I’m asking.”
Noah began laughing.
“I’m starting college.”
Ellie nodded.
“So no.”
“Definitely no.”
Lucia appeared.
Mother and son stared at each other.
Noah’s anger lasted exactly three seconds.
Then he hugged her.
Lucia broke down.
Dante turned away to give them privacy.
Ellie took his hand.
“You cry a lot now.”
“I do not.”
“Your eyes do.”
“That’s enough.”
“Is Noah your nephew?”
“Yes.”
“So he’s family.”
“Yes.”
Ellie seemed pleased.
“Your family keeps getting bigger.”
Dante looked around the room.
Lucia.
Noah.
Rosa.
Ellie.
He had spent years believing family meant blood, obligation and inheritance.
Now a seven-year-old understood it better.
Family was simply the group of people you kept choosing to come back for.
But one person was still missing.
Jacob Voss.
The man who had saved Lucia and died protecting the truth.
And before they could move forward, Rosa wanted to know exactly what happened on the final day of her husband’s life.
May you like
The answer was waiting inside one audio file no one had yet opened.
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