Chapter 19 - THE LAST GHOST
Vittorio died in prison six years later.
Carmine received the call on a rainy Tuesday morning.
He felt almost nothing.
No satisfaction.
No grief.
Just the closing of a door.
Leo was eleven.
He knew the broad truth by then.
Vittorio had hurt his mother.
Helena had hurt him.
Matteo had helped cover things up.
The adults around him had failed in different ways.
Carmine never romanticized it.
One evening, Leo found him looking at the old garage.
The black luxury car was long gone.
Carmine had donated it to a charity auction years earlier.
The garage had been renovated.
A basketball hoop now hung on one wall.
Bicycles lined another.
But Carmine still remembered the bucket.
Leo stood beside him.
“You’re thinking about that day.”
Carmine looked at him.
“How did you know?”
“You make the face.”
“What face?”
“The murder face.”
Carmine stared.
Leo grinned.
“Marco calls it that.”
“I’m firing Marco.”
“No, you’re not.”
Carmine smiled.
Leo became serious.
“I remember some of it.”
Carmine’s smile faded.
“The garage?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to talk about it.”
“I know.”
Leo bounced a basketball once.
“Helena said you wouldn’t believe me.”
Carmine swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
Leo looked at him.
“You came home.”
Carmine nodded.
“I should have known before.”
“You came home.”
Leo repeated.
Carmine understood what his son was giving him.
Not absolution.
Something better.
Truth without cruelty.
Leo threw the basketball toward him.
Carmine caught it.
“Play?”
“I have a meeting.”
Leo raised an eyebrow.
Carmine looked toward the house.
His phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
“Fine.”
They played until sunset.
Carmine lost by twelve points.
He claimed the score was inaccurate.
Leo accused him of being old.
Carmine threatened to rewrite the trust.
Leo laughed so hard he nearly fell.
May you like
And the garage where fear once lived filled with something Vittorio had never understood.
Joy.
