Chapter 12 - THE ELEVEN MISSING MONTHS
Raphael did not believe Anthony.
Mrs. Dora did.
When confronted, she sat down.
“Who told you?”
“Anthony.”
Dora closed her eyes.
Raphael’s voice trembled with a fury deeper than shouting.
“You buried my father.”
“No.”
“You stood beside me at his funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Was there a body in that coffin?”
Dora said nothing.
Clara watched Raphael carefully.
Finally Dora answered.
“No.”
Raphael turned away.
His entire adulthood had begun at that funeral.
Fifteen years of grief.
Fifteen years of becoming the man he thought his father expected.
“Why?”
“Your father was badly injured. Victor believed he was dead. Leon decided to let him believe it.”
“Where did he go?”
“A monastery in Vermont.”
Raphael laughed bitterly.
“My father became a monk?”
“No. He recovered there under another name.”
“Why didn’t he come back?”
Dora’s eyes filled.
“Because he saw what his world had done to you.”
Raphael froze.
“He watched from a distance. He saw you become harder. More powerful. More alone.”
“And he did nothing?”
“He tried.”
Dora opened a safe.
Letters.
Dozens.
All addressed to Raphael.
None opened.
Raphael looked at her.
“You kept these from me?”
“Your father ordered me to.”
“Why?”
“He wanted them given to you only if you ever chose to leave his world willingly.”
Raphael stared at the envelopes.
His hands shook.
He opened the last one.
Son,
If you are reading this, then perhaps you have finally found something worth more than fear.
Raphael stopped.
Clara stood behind him.
He continued.
A house can be full of servants and still be empty. A man can be surrounded by loyalty and still be alone. If someone ever looks at you without fearing the gun, do not make my mistake. Choose them.
Raphael could no longer read.
His mother’s final words echoed in his mind.
Someone who could look at him without seeing the gun.
Then Dora said:
“Your father wrote that letter three days before he died for real.”
Raphael stared at her.
“How?”
“Cancer.”
The crash had not killed Leon Duca.
Time had.
Before Raphael could process it, Clara pressed one hand to her chest.
Her face changed.
Raphael recognized it instantly.
“Clara?”
May you like
She collapsed.
And this time, she did not wake up.
