Chapter 6 - The Last Secret of the Gramophone
Gabriel Moretti was not what Rosa expected.
He was sixty-three.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
Calm.
No bodyguards.
No dramatic entrance.
He stepped from the greenhouse wearing a dark coat and carrying a leather folder.
Behind him came Carlo Romano.
Walking with a cane.
Slowly.
But walking.
Aleandro stared at his father.
“You lied to me.”
Carlo’s face looked hollow.
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dying.”
“I am dying.”
“That does not excuse this.”
“No.”
Carlo stopped several feet away.
“I wanted time.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether I was brave enough to tell the truth.”
Aleandro’s laugh was bitter.
“It took fourteen years?”
Carlo lowered his head.
“Longer.”
Gabriel looked toward Daniel.
“Your father deserved better.”
Daniel stiffened.
“You knew him?”
Gabriel nodded.
“Victor framed me. But your father was still my accountant before he betrayed Carlo.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“My father was not innocent.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “Neither was I.”
Rosa watched the men.
Powerful names.
Old grievances.
Yet none of them looked powerful now.
They looked exhausted.
Carlo turned toward Rosa.
“Your father was the best man among us.”
Rosa’s eyes burned.
“Then why did he die?”
Carlo looked at Matteo.
Matteo’s face tightened.
Carlo continued.
“Enzo followed Antonio because he wanted Lucia’s recording.”
Rosa swallowed.
“Did he cause the crash?”
Carlo closed his eyes.
“He followed too closely in the rain.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“My father told me he never touched Antonio’s car.”
“He didn’t.”
Rosa stared.
“Then what happened?”
Carlo looked directly at her.
“Antonio saw Enzo following him.”
Rosa’s breathing became shallow.
“He sped up?”
“Yes.”
“The road was wet.”
“Yes.”
“He crashed trying to protect the recording.”
Carlo’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
Rosa looked away.
Aleandro came closer to her.
Not touching.
Just there.
Carlo whispered, “I am sorry.”
Rosa turned back.
“Sorry did not bring my father home.”
“No.”
“Sorry did not give me four more years with him.”
“No.”
“Then what does sorry do?”
Carlo had no answer.
Rosa wiped her cheek.
“My father spent his life fixing things people broke.”
She looked around at all of them.
“You people spent your lives breaking things and calling it business.”
No one interrupted.
Even Aleandro remained silent.
Carlo nodded.
“You are right.”
Rosa almost wished he had argued.
Anger was easier when the person in front of you resisted it.
Carlo continued.
“That is why I asked Gabriel to come.”
Aleandro looked at Moretti.
“Why?”
Gabriel lifted the leather folder.
“To settle the debt.”
“What debt?”
“The Romano assets your father took from my family.”
Aleandro frowned.
Gabriel continued.
“Carlo intends to return them.”
Daniel stared.
“All of them?”
“Everything he acquired through the false accusation.”
Carlo nodded.
“And more.”
Aleandro looked toward his father.
“You finally grew a conscience?”
Carlo accepted the insult.
“Too late.”
“Yes.”
“But perhaps not uselessly.”
He pointed toward the ledger.
“Lucia wanted you to dismantle what I built.”
Aleandro’s face hardened.
“She wanted me to destroy the family?”
“No.”
Carlo looked at him.
“She wanted you to change what the name meant.”
Silence.
Rosa thought of Lucia’s words.
Strength is hearing someone who has no power to force you to listen.
Aleandro looked toward the estate.
“For years you told me mercy was weakness.”
“I was wrong.”
“You told me respect came from fear.”
“I was wrong.”
“You told me if someone crossed us, they stayed an enemy forever.”
Carlo looked at Gabriel.
“I was wrong.”
Gabriel gave a humorless smile.
“You enjoyed being wrong for a very long time.”
Carlo nodded.
“I did.”
Matteo looked at his father’s old name in the ledger.
“What happens to the evidence?”
Carlo answered.
“It becomes public where necessary.”
Aleandro looked at him sharply.
“Meaning?”
“I have attorneys prepared to disclose the financial crimes, pay restitution, and close every illegal business tied to my name.”
Rosa stared.
Aleandro did too.
Carlo continued.
“The legitimate businesses transfer to you.”
“I don’t want them.”
“You may after you understand what you can do with them.”
Aleandro shook his head.
“You still think you can decide my future.”
“No.”
Carlo looked toward Rosa.
“That is why Lucia left the final decision elsewhere.”
Everyone turned.
Rosa blinked.
“Why are you looking at me?”
Carlo smiled faintly.
“Because Antonio kept one more thing.”
She stared at her father’s tool case.
“What?”
“The final recording.”
“I found the film.”
“Not that.”
Carlo nodded toward her screwdriver.
Rosa looked down.
The brass-handled screwdriver she had used on the gramophone.
It had belonged to her father.
She turned it over.
A tiny seam ran around the handle.
She had never noticed it.
With effort, she twisted the handle apart.
Inside was a miniature cylinder.
Samuel whispered, “A dictation spool.”
Rosa stared.
“You mean it has audio?”
“Yes.”
“Can we play it?”
Carlo looked toward the estate.
“On Lucia’s gramophone.”
They returned to the library.
Rosa adapted the cylinder using a small attachment hidden in the gramophone cabinet.
Of course Antonio had built it.
When everything was ready, Aleandro stood beside her.
“You do it.”
Rosa looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She lowered the needle.
Static.
Then Antonio Bellini’s voice filled the room.
Rosa covered her mouth.
“Lucia, if you’re hearing this, I finished the repairs.”
Her father laughed softly.
“The machine was easier than the people in this house.”
Rosa laughed through tears.
Aleandro almost smiled.
Antonio continued.
“You asked me to record your message after you became too weak to come downstairs. I did.”
Static.
Then Lucia’s voice.
“Aleandro.”
He went still.
“If this reaches you, then many people have failed you.”
His eyes lowered.
“I may have failed you too by hiding so much.”
Rosa looked toward him.
“But I need you to understand something.”
Lucia’s voice became softer.
“Your father’s sins are not your inheritance unless you choose them.”
Aleandro’s throat moved.
“You are allowed to become someone different.”
Rosa saw tears in his eyes.
He did not hide them.
“You are allowed to walk away from fear.”
Carlo turned his face aside.
“You are allowed to love people who do not belong to your world.”
Rosa’s heart skipped.
She told herself that line meant nothing.
Then Lucia continued.
“And if Antonio’s daughter is ever standing beside you when this plays, tell her something for me.”
Rosa froze.
Aleandro looked at her.
“Tell Rosa that her father once said she could repair anything except her own stubborn heart.”
Rosa laughed aloud through tears.
“That sounds like him.”
Then Antonio’s voice cut in.
“Lucia, I told you not to put that part in.”
For the first time, the library filled with gentle laughter.
Even Carlo smiled.
Lucia’s recording continued.
“Rosa, your father spoke of you constantly. He worried you believed you had to make yourself smaller to make other people comfortable.”
Rosa stopped smiling.
“He was wrong.”
Her eyes filled again.
“Take up space.”
Aleandro watched her.
“Be heard.”
Rosa lowered her gaze.
“And please remind my son that kindness is not humiliation.”
The recording crackled.
Then Lucia’s final words:
“The person who repaired my gramophone does not owe this family anything.”
Aleandro closed his eyes.
“But if she chooses to stay long enough to teach you how to listen…”
A pause.
“…be smart enough to listen.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Rosa’s phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
A message.
DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING CARLO GIVES YOU.
She frowned.
Another message arrived immediately.
THE REAL WILL IS NOT THE ONE THEY SHOWED YOU.
Aleandro noticed her expression.
“What?”
Rosa handed him the phone.
He read it.
Then a third message arrived.
CHECK THE NAME OF THE BENEFICIARY.
Rosa looked toward Carlo.
“Who inherits your estate?”
Carlo’s face changed.
“I told you. Aleandro receives the legitimate businesses.”
“That’s not what the message says.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Show me.”
Before Rosa could, the library door opened.
A young attorney entered carrying a sealed envelope.
His face was pale.
“Mr. Romano.”
Aleandro turned.
“What now?”
“I was instructed to deliver this if Mr. Carlo Romano entered the east library with Gabriel Moretti.”
Carlo stared.
“By whom?”
The attorney swallowed.
“Lucia Romano.”
Aleandro froze.
“That is impossible.”
The attorney held out the envelope.
“It was deposited with our firm fourteen years ago.”
Aleandro took it.
Across the front were six words.
OPEN ONLY AFTER THE LAST RECORD PLAYS.
Rosa looked at him.
Aleandro broke the seal.
He unfolded the document.
His eyes moved to the first line.
Then stopped.
“What does it say?” Rosa whispered.
Aleandro looked at her.
And for the first time since she had known him, Aleandro Romano looked completely terrified.
“My mother left Romano Estate…”
May you like
He swallowed.
“…to you.”
