The Daughter They Erased Came Back Untouchable novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Safe

At one in the morning, someone knocked on the glass of the garden door.

I was sitting up in the piano room with Hanna asleep on my feet and Fiammetta asleep on the floor.

I took my coat and went down alone.

Ugo stood outside under the lemon trees with his hands in his pockets and no jacket.

He had plainly been walking around the house for an hour.

"I don't want to come in," he said.

"Then say it here."

He stared at the gravel.

"I saw the men take the phone."

"You sent them."

"I did not." His head came up fast. "I was in the library when Papa gave the order. I heard it. I did nothing."

"That is what you do, Ugo."

He flinched.

I did not take it back.

"Three years ago," he said, "I went into Papa's safe for the company seal. I was twenty-one, and he had just made me his deputy, and I wanted that seal very much."

He took a long breath.

"Under the seal there was a bundle of envelopes. All in one hand, tied with kitchen string. Every one had your name on it. Signorina Nerina, at the academy, Rivaz."

My mouth was dry.

"Nonna's writing?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"I didn't count."

"You didn't count."

"I looked at the top one for a moment, and I put the seal back on top of them and shut the safe." His voice cracked. "I told myself Papa had a reason. I told myself he must have read them first, and decided you shouldn't have them, and he was right."

"For three years."

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