Chapter 6 - What a Family Costs
Dante’s mother came home from Boston two days later.
Isabella Moretti entered the mansion expecting an explanation for the strangers in her guest rooms, the police at the gate, and the attorneys occupying her husband’s old library.
Instead, she found Lily teaching Rosa how to polish a pair of children’s winter boots.
“You’re using too much,” Lily said seriously.
Rosa looked relieved by the interruption.
“Mrs. Moretti.”
Isabella removed her gloves.
Lily rose immediately.
“Good morning, ma’am.”
There was something in the formality that made Isabella pause.
“Good morning.”
“Are these your floors?”
“They are.”
“I put newspaper down.”
Isabella looked at the careful squares beneath the boots.
“So you did.”
Dante found them ten minutes later eating butter cookies in the drawing room.
His mother looked at him over Lily’s head.
“We need to talk.”
They went into the library.
Isabella closed the door.
“Victor says you’re being manipulated.”
Dante placed Thomas’s returned letter on the desk.
Then the deed.
Then a copy of Antonio’s handwritten note.
His mother read in silence.
At the photograph, her face changed.
“Tommy.”
“You knew him.”
“Your father spoke about him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Isabella sat.
“After Antonio died, there were so many things I couldn’t bear to discuss.”
Dante leaned against the desk.
“So Victor discussed them for us.”
She looked up sharply.
He told her about the payments.
The forged ownership claims.
Patricia.
The contractor.
He distinguished what had been established from what remained under investigation.
He was learning to do that.
By the time he finished, Isabella’s hands were clenched in her lap.
“I trusted him.”
“So did I.”
Outside the library, Lily laughed.
The sound made his mother close her eyes.
“Where are her parents?”
“Her mother died. Her father’s whereabouts are still being established. Evelyn is helping Thomas review the guardianship records.”
“And what do you intend?”
Dante looked toward the door.
“I’m moving them to a quieter property while the investigation continues. Thomas agrees. The arrangements will go through his attorney.”
“That sounds sensible.”
“There’s more.”
He explained that his own attorneys were examining his businesses.
There would be sales, closures, resignations, and disclosures.
Some assets would be lost.
Some relationships would end.
Others might involve consequences he could not negotiate away.
Isabella listened without interrupting.
Finally, she asked, “Are you doing this for the child?”
“She made it harder to keep lying to myself.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
He looked at his father’s portrait.
“I don’t want to teach her that being loved by us means learning which questions never to ask.”
His mother’s expression softened with grief.
“Your father wanted you protected.”
“He also wanted me obedient to a world that hurt people like Thomas.”
Isabella did not defend him.
That surprised Dante more than anger would have.
Instead, she said, “Then perhaps we should stop using a dead man’s intentions to avoid our own decisions.”
That afternoon, she visited Thomas.
They spoke privately for nearly two hours.
When she emerged, her eyes were red.
She did not tell Dante everything they had discussed.
He did not ask.
The following week, Thomas and Lily moved into a modest house near a rehabilitation center and a well-regarded elementary school.
The house was warm, accessible, and owned through a properly documented arrangement Thomas understood before signing.
Lily chose the smaller bedroom because she could see Thomas’s door from it.
Nobody persuaded her to choose differently.
Dante visited for dinner carrying groceries.
Rosa had already stocked the kitchen.
He arrived with enough pasta for fifteen people.
Thomas looked into the bags.
“Planning a siege?”
“I don’t usually shop.”
“We noticed.”
Lily took out a jar of tomato sauce.
“Did you pick this yourself?”
“Yes.”
She turned it around.
“It has mushrooms.”
Dante remembered too late.
“You don’t like mushrooms.”
“I told you twice.”
He looked genuinely stricken.
Thomas laughed until tears gathered in his eyes.
For the first time since meeting them, Dante’s mistake was small enough to be funny.
Later, Lily showed him her room.
Her red coat hung on a hook.
Her shoeshine box sat on a shelf instead of beside the bed.
“Can I still come to the big house?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Even if we have this house?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
May you like
Then she took his hand and led him toward the kitchen.
“Good. Because your mommy said we’re making cookies Sunday.”
