Chapter 16 - MY NIECE STOPPED CALLING ME MR. LUCA
Elena recovered from her fever.
Nora’s hands healed completely.
The first time they returned to the main house, Nora wore bright yellow socks.
She marched into my study holding a drawing.
“No washing,” she announced.
“Excellent rule.”
She placed the drawing on my desk.
Three people beneath a blue cloud.
Then she had added a fourth.
An old man with gray hair.
“Who’s that?”
“Your papa.”
I looked at Elena.
She shrugged.
“She understands family trees faster than we do.”
Gabriel had met Nora once.
Briefly.
With Elena present.
He had knelt and apologized for frightening her mother with the raincoat photograph.
Nora considered this.
Then asked:
“Did you steal my coat?”
Gabriel nearly choked.
“No.”
“You had it.”
“I found it.”
“That’s suspicious.”
I turned away so she wouldn’t see me laughing.
Forgiving Gabriel was harder.
I didn’t know whether I ever would completely.
We began with breakfast once a week.
Public places.
One hour.
No pretending we could recover thirty lost years.
Sometimes I asked questions.
Sometimes we sat in silence.
Once, he said:
“I’m proud of you.”
I nearly walked out.
“You don’t get to be proud of a life you didn’t help build.”
He absorbed it.
“You’re right.”
The next week he came back anyway.
That mattered more.
Elena faced a different problem.
“You can’t keep being my housekeeper,” I told her.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because you’re my niece.”
“So family members aren’t allowed to work?”
“You clean my bedroom.”
“That part would be strange now.”
We laughed.
But I refused to solve her future by throwing money at her.
She hated that idea before I even offered it.
Eventually Elena chose to leave housekeeping.
The restitution money from illegal deductions belonged to her.
Separately, Gabriel’s records showed her mother had a legal share in part of the original family emergency account.
That belonged to Elena too.
Not charity.
Not a gift.
Hers.
She used part of it to begin nursing school.
When she told me, I smiled.
“You sure?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“Good?”
“My mother used to say certainty is usually where people begin making bad decisions.”
Elena laughed.
“Family trait?”
“Unfortunately.”
Then Nora tugged my sleeve.
“Uncle Luca?”
I froze.
May you like
It was the first time she had called me that.
And suddenly, every room in the house felt different.
