Chapter 23
Luca asked to read the case record when he was thirteen.
Elena said no first.
Matteo noticed.
She did too.
“Fine.”
Luca looked confused.
“Fine yes?”
“Fine, we discuss it.”
That was different.
The case file was enormous.
Financial records.
Legal filings.
Witness statements.
Medical reports.
Messages Viola sent during Elena’s postpartum recovery.
Luca did not need all of it.
Rebecca recommended a summary prepared from the closed record.
Accurate.
Age appropriate.
No photographs of him from the courtyard.
No unnecessary medical detail.
Luca read it over three evenings.
On the third, he asked:
“Did Viola really think Mom was sick?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
“No,” she said.
“Carlo admitted they knew I was capable.”
Luca frowned.
“Then why doctors?”
“They wanted language they could use.”
“So they lied.”
“Yes.”
“Did Dad believe?”
The room changed.
Matteo answered himself.
“I believed parts of how they described the situation longer than I should have.”
“Did you think Mom crazy?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Matteo thought.
“I thought she was tired.”
“She was.”
“Yes.”
“I thought Viola was difficult but not dangerous.”
“She was both.”
“Yes.”
“I thought Carlo had earned enough trust that his explanations deserved more patience.”
“Did they?”
“No.”
Luca looked toward Elena.
“Were you mad at Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Still?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
Then back at Luca.
“Sometimes I still remember it.”
“That means yes?”
“No.”
She searched for the right language.
“Memory and anger are not the same thing every day.”
Luca disliked that.
“You adults make everything complicated.”
“Correct,” Matteo said.
Then Luca asked the question neither expected.
“Do I have to know Carlo?”
“No,” Matteo said.
Immediately.
Elena looked at him.
He corrected himself.
“You do not owe him a relationship.”
“Is he still family?”
“Biologically, yes.”
“Does that mean anything?”
Matteo paused.
“Some things.”
“Like?”
“History.”
“Not dinner?”
“Not automatically.”
Luca nodded.
Viola was different.
Elena’s boundary remained unchanged.
No access.
No letters.
No photographs.
No promise of future contact.
Luca knew the name.
That was enough.
He did not ask to change the boundary.
The case summary returned to Rebecca’s office when he finished.
Luca kept one page.
The timeline.
Pregnancy.
Trust changes.
Loans.
Pressure.
Birth.
Courtyard.
Investigation.
He put it in his desk.
Matteo asked why.
“So I don’t have to remember everything.”
That answer surprised him.
For years Matteo had believed remembering every detail was part of protecting what happened from being minimized.
May you like
Luca understood something different.
Records existed partly so people could stop carrying the entire record inside themselves.
