Their Father Called Me Family, So His Four Sons Made Me Theirs novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: First of the Month

Luca's POV

On the first of every month I carry a sealed envelope from Marco's desk to my father's.

I have done it for seven years.

I have never opened one.

Marco hands it over at six in the morning on the fortieth floor, the flap pressed with his seal.

He says the same thing every time.

"Left of the lamp."

Today it was Labor Day, and my father was in Chicago, and the house on the hill was empty.

I let myself into the study with my key.

I laid the envelope on the blotter, left of the lamp, where it belongs.

Then I stood in the dim room a moment and looked at my father's chair.

I do not talk much.

I have found that most things do not need it.

But that morning I thought about a funeral seven years ago.

I thought about a girl of nineteen sitting very straight in a black dress.

I thought about my father saying across the table that someone would have to pay.

I thought about Marco's voice saying, "I will."

I thought about my own voice saying, "Me too," which I did not remember deciding to say.

I locked the study and walked down the hill.

On Sunday, the four of us were going to tell her.

We had agreed in the stairwell on Saturday night, with the champagne still warm in Dario's hand.

Marco would speak.

I would not.

I was fine with that, because I could not have found the words.

I found her on the cottage step in cutoff shorts and one of Nico's shirts.

Her feet were bare on the stone, and a cup of coffee was going cold in her hands.

The bite on her shoulder had gone yellow at the edges.

I looked at it longer than I meant to.

"Hi," Gemma said.

"Hi."

"Marco's on a call. Dario's asleep. Nico's making a spreadsheet of my feelings," she said.

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