“Someone, uh, has talked to you?” I ask incredulously.
She shakes her head, her eyes connected to mine.
“Ahh… You overheard a conversation.”
Her expression tells it all.
“Huh. Interesting. That’s why you fear them so much. Who was talking to whom? Giorgio?”
She shakes her head.
“It was Sylvia,” I say, convinced I got it right. “Sylvia talked to whom?”
I can’t imagine that Sylvia has spoken about me to a low-ranking member in our family.
“Was it a woman?”
She lifts two fingers instead of using her yes-or-no signaling.
“There were two women?”
She shakes her head.
“Two conversations?”
She nods.
“You overheard her talking in two instances with two different people. Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. Was the first person a woman?”
She nods her head.
“Was it Flavia?” I ask, smiling with disbelief.
She gives me a soft nod again, and I stare at her for a second, and then I chuckle.
I’ll be damned. My outcast aunt has made a comeback.
Since I can remember, Flavia has always been the invisible daughter.
Once she slept with my biological father, she lost everyone’s respect, yet at the same time, she was regarded as someone useful.
Luckily, not many instances required her help, so after her indiscretions had been swept under the rug, the family left her alone and only occasionally talked to her.
No one cared about her.
No one talked to her in a meaningful way.
No one considered her important enough to give her an active role in our family.
Her husband is not a made man. And he shouldn’t be.
He’d be dead in no time.
He’s a klutz.
“Did they talk seriously about me?” I ask, still finding it hard to believe.
She doesn’t flinch. And then she nods.
