Maybe they’re left over from his father, or even his father. I’m not confident it’s something that can help my situation, especially if it’s too old to matter anymore.
Until I flip the glossy papers over and realize they’re photographs.
Some are small and taken with a polaroid camera, others are larger and taken with a different camera and printed out later.
It takes me a moment as I look at them in the dim lighting to process what I’m looking at.
Limbs. Naked limbs. Short dark hair, long light hair, and clothing that’s askew.
Children.
My heart starts to pound in my chest.
I’m looking at photographs of children. Naked and…
Bile rises up into my throat and I squeeze my eyes shut as I flip to the next picture but don’t look at it right away.
This can’t be…
I open my eyes. There he is.
Alessio. He’s so young, small, but he looks so much the same. Those same eyes, but filled with fear and confusion.
Carmine.
I move onto the next photograph, and the next, until I can’t take it anymore.
In my hands I hold pictures of Alessio and Carmine being abused as children. None of them show their father, but it’s obvious to me that he must be the one who took them. He must have been the one who instructed and posed them.
The worst of them are the ones where they are together. Forced into disgusting poses and looking so frightened.
I realize quickly that I’ve found something Eivor would clutch tightly with his greedy hands if he had a chance. If I give them to him, he will use the fact that their father abused them against them.
I shove the photos into the pockets inside my coat as fast as I possibly can, and close the bottom of the desk just like I found it.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to do anything in this moment.
My stomach is aching, and my eyes burning.
I wish I could erase those photographs from my mind. I never wanted to see that in a million years…but I did. Now I know. Now I know what kind of man their father truly was, and what the hurt Carmine and Alessio have both felt is.
I need to get out of here.
I turn the light off and quickly make my way out of the office, locking it behind me.
No one stops me as I head for the front door and back to my car.
I drive toward the hotel with tears in my eyes and my hands clutching the steering wheel tightly.
Eivor will be waiting for me to tell him if I found anything, but I don’t know what to do. How could I give this to him? How could I not? It’s my job, but…
No, I can’t think about it right now. I’ll decide later. I just need to get back to the hotel and continue what I’m good at.
Protecting Alessio.
11
Chapter Eleven
