Page 8 of Enzo

Funny how he used to be Papa back then.

Now ... he’s Father.

At least I don't call him the old man.

What I didn't understand then, but I do now, is why Mama came into my bedroom the following morning, after Father had taken the boys out somewhere. She sat beside me on the bed.

“Enzo.” I’d never seen her looking so sad. Almost like she was going to cry, but she didn’t. “We must never tell anyone where that photograph came from.”

“I know, Mama, you already told me.”

She gently held my hand. “I'm just making sure, tesoro.”

“Okay.”

“I'll never tell anyone you found it.”

“Was it bad, what I did?”

She paused, shook her head then looked away. She never gave me an answer. I know now that she couldn't answer, because it was true.

“When is it?” she asks, pulling me back into the present.

“When is what?”

“Enzo?” She looks at me for a few seconds longer than necessary. “What are you thinking?”

I scramble to remember the date of the masked ball in Venice. “It's in a few weeks' time,” I tell her. “I'll let you know before I come to visit.”

She gives me that look again, like she wants to protect me. Like she knows I'm carrying something I shouldn't have to carry. I wonder if Mama has spent twenty years trying to protect me from the truth.

She finally calls everyone to the table, and we begin taking our seats while she brings over the last of the food.

“Grandpa!”

Little Brooke runs around the open-plan living room. Mama and I instinctively turn to her. She’s holding Jett's phone.

My stomach drops.

Why is Father calling Jett's phone?

“Nonna’s making lunch!” she giggles excitedly.

“Nonna?” Father asks.

Brooke started calling Mama Nonna not long after she came to New York, and Mama has loved it ever since.

Now Mama holds the phone out giving Father a perfect view of all of us. At Mama's apartment. Looking happy. Looking like family.

“What are you doing with my phone?” Jett mutters under his breath.

Dex and Rio exchange amused looks.

“We're having lunch,” Brooke announces happily, oblivious to the shock everyone is simultaneously experiencing. “Look! Everyone's here!”

Jett and Cari.

Dex and Dani.