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thing called a register in the floor, where the heat comes up. It’s made of squiggles of black iron. And when the heat’s not on, you can hear what people are saying in the kitchen. So I clomped up the stairs and 20

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    into my bedroom, then tiptoed out to the listening post and sat down.
    “My family expect to see their grandson. They expect him to be part of their lives. Which is only right.”
    Mum said: “You are making an assumption that you are not entitled to make, that you are the father of the child. That’s all I am going to say on the matter for now.”
    Giacomo scraped his chair back. On his way out of the kitchen, he said: “You will be hearing from me, or from my lawyer!”
    “Who’s your lawyer?”
    “You don’t know him. He is from home.”
    “Well, make sure he doesn’t reverse the charges when he calls!”
    “There will be no need for long-distance telephone charges. He will be here.”
    “You’re bringing a lawyer all the way over here from Italy?!”
    “Yes. So you know I am serious. Goodbye. For now.”
    I heard the front door close. Then Mummy burst out into tears!
    She kept saying: “This can’t be happening. Only over my dead body will that child leave the country!”
    I ran downstairs and Father Burke was hugging Mum while she cried. He looked over the top of her head at me and said: “Don’t you worry, Normie. Everything will be fine.”
    “Don’t let him take Dominic away!” I didn’t mean to yell but I did anyway.
    He said: “That’s not going to happen, little one. Don’t even think about it. Maura, macushla , settle yourself down and call the best lawyer you know.”
    “Ha! I don’t think Monty would want to take this on, given that my pregnancy put the kibosh on us getting back together!”
    “Well, you have to admit, it did come as a surprise to him!”
    “It came as a surprise to me too! I just thought I’d gained a bit of weight! I had no idea . . .”
    “All right, let’s not get into that again. The point is, you won’t be hiring Monty to take the case. Too close to home for him.”
    “The best family lawyer in town is one of Beau Delaney’s partners.
    Val Tanner. Oh God, I hope Giacomo doesn’t twig to the fact that he’s going to need someone local here, a member of the Nova Scotia 21

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    bar, and get to her first! He’s probably heard me talk about her. She’s relentless. If he gets her, I won’t have a hope!”
    “Get to her first. Give her a call. Go!” And he kind of pushed her to the phone.
    I think he had forgotten that I was there because he looked surprised when his eyes fell on me. “Normie, wouldn’t it be better if you went upstairs and did your school work? Your mum will work all this out, never you fear.” So up I went again. In a way, I wanted to try to listen some more, but in another way I didn’t; I just wanted to remember Father Burke saying Mummy would work it out. So I did my school work.
    †
    I didn’t find out what they did about Dominic because I went to Daddy’s house to spend a few days with him. I do that a lot, and so does Tommy, unless he’s with his band, which is called Dads In Suits, or with his girlfriend, Lexie. Daddy’s house is right on the water. It’s a part of the water that comes in from the ocean and they call it the Northwest Arm. We have a boathouse, but no boat. Yet. But going to Daddy’s place always gives me the chance to nag for one. All I wanted was a little rowboat, and I would paint it bright yellow.
    Daddy used to have a sailboat but then he spent so much time with us and with his blues band, Functus, that he never had time to go sailing, so he sold it. Which was kind of dumb, really. You never know when you’re going to want a boat again, so why not keep it?
    But I would continue to work on him.
    I didn’t get a chance to nag about the boat on my first night with Daddy