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I could have been an archbishop! Money opens all kinds of doors. But it comes weighed with complex responsibilities. On the other hand, I am happy just as I am. I took the vow of humility years ago.”
    “Brother Martucci, you need to know who I am. I only finished school because I had to. I’ve gotten used to thinking that someday I’d receive an inheritance. I don’t have the basic skills to get along in life, much less be in charge of a secret I can’t even understand.”
    “Well, your uncle must have thought very differently about you. He knew he was going to die, and he wanted to leave you something very valuable to him, more important than his entire fortune.”
    “I sort of get what you’re talking about, but why all the mystery?”
    “It’s not for my sake, Don Dante. It’s for yours, to keep you safe. It wouldn’t have bothered me a bit to have you come by the abbey or have talked right there in front of everybody on the villa grounds. But the fewer people who know we are connected, the safer you’ll be.”
    “I know he loved me like the son he never had. But he stopped coming to our house. I think that when my grandfather died, he had a falling out with my mother about the inheritance that would’ve gone to my father if he’d still been living. That’s when all the problems with my mom started. I was the only one who went to see him. Quentin would take me.”
    “Claudio’s father was very careful with his belongings. Begging your pardon, he most certainly knew to whom he should leave them,” Martucci explained.
    “Oh, forget the demure; I know what my mother is like. But Uncle Claudio had no right to abandon us. Every time I went to see him I felt like I was committing some terrible sin. I was forbidden to speak with him until I stood up to my mother.” Remembering it all opened up a pit of sadness in my stomach.
    “He never abandoned any of you. He took care of you all, though he never treated your mother like before. And, on that matter, I think it’s time for you to know something very important: your mother and your Uncle Claudio were more than in-laws. You are the son of my good friend Claudio. You have his blood.”
    Martucci rested his eyes on me, apparently expecting me to react visibly. But this news was worth more than a facial expression or a lift of the eyebrows. I just sat there, dumbstruck, as thousands of thoughts swirled around my brain. So far the day had been like walking into the Book of Revelation. What I had always longed for was true. Right then, after his death, I learn that the man I had most loved and respected was actually my father. That my mother had been in love with him did not phase me in the least. Many times I had thought that they could have been together. Why had they not gotten married?
    “Did you hear me?” Martucci asked.
“Yes, I heard you.”
    “Claudio Contini-Massera was in love with your mother his whole life. But she chose his brother, Bruno. Bruno was the eldest and, therefore, stood to inherit the lion’s share of the family fortune. Yet your uncle and your mother continued seeing each other, and that is how you were conceived, signore mío . When your father died, their love continued. From what he told me, I presumed they would get married, but Donna Carlota never truly loved Claudio. I don’t think she’s capable of loving anyone. Forgive me for speaking like this della sua mamma , but it’s the truth. One day Claudio showed up and found her in bed with a much younger man, one of the many she liked to bring home, and he had had enough. Claudio was the executor of the small fortune you inherited from your father, and she had to accept whatever my good friend allowed for her upkeep. Even so, she got more than what had been set aside for her.”
    Things began to fall into place. Uncle Claudio had been my father, which is why he had acted like a father. I was his spitting image. Probably everyone else had already realized the truth, and I