Chapter 10: Marisa's Voice

The tape hissed, and my mother kept talking.

"I'm recording this in the laundry room, Sera, because it's the only place he doesn't listen."

She sounded tired and calm, the way she did when she made me finish my homework.

"Gaspare knows I'm leaving him.

"He found the letters I wrote to Don Quintero.

"I wrote to the old Don because he hates your father and still keeps his word.

"I asked him to take you and Giulia in, and he said yes.

"If I'm dead, it wasn't the Quinteros.

"They'll tell you it was.

"Your father will tell you, and he'll cry when he does, and you'll believe him because you love him.

"Don't.

"I'm leaving you something to remember me by.

"A boy will bring it to you when it's safe.

"I love you more than my life.

"Be braver than I was."

The tape clicked off.

I sat in the dark chapel with the recorder in my lap and my mouth open, and I couldn't make a sound.

The door at the back opened.

Tadeo stood in it.

He didn't come in.

He stood with one hand on the frame, looking at me.

I knew he had heard every word.

"A boy," I said.

"Yes."

"The boy who brings the bracelet."

"Yes."

"You."

"Yes."

I stood up.

My legs were not mine.

"Tell me," I said. "All of it. Don't leave out anything."

He walked down the aisle and sat in the pew in front of mine.

He turned his back to the altar, so that we were face to face.

He put his hands on his knees.

"My father agreed to take her in," he said. "That Sunday, he sent me to drive her to our house."

His voice was very steady.

"I was nineteen, and it was the first thing he'd ever trusted me with.

"I parked at the curb outside the church at ten to twelve.

"She came out the side door with a coat over her arm, and a small bag.

"She saw the car, and she smiled at me."

He stopped.

I waited.

"She was at the bottom step when the van came round the corner.

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