Chapter 64 - THE FIRST MEETING

Matteo agreed to meet in a small Seattle café.
Lorenzo arrived twenty minutes early.
He couldn't stop looking at the door.
Emma sat across from him.
“You don't have to say everything today.”
“I know.”
“You don't even have to ask for forgiveness.”
“I know.”
The door opened.
A man walked inside.
Same dark eyes.
Same sharp jaw.
Same expression when nervous.
Lorenzo stood.
“Matteo?”
The man stopped.
“You look like him.”
“Like who?”
“Our father.”
Lorenzo swallowed.
“I've never seen you before.”
“I've seen you.”
Matteo placed a photograph on the table.
Elena.
Young Lorenzo.
Baby Matteo.
Lorenzo looked at it.
“I spent twenty years thinking you were dead.”
Matteo sat down.
“I spent twenty years thinking you forgot me.”
Lorenzo's eyes filled with tears.
“I never knew where you were.”
Matteo looked away.
“Neither did I.”
The silence between them was enormous.
Then Matteo asked,
“Was she kind?”
Lorenzo understood immediately.
“Our mother?”
Matteo nodded.
Lorenzo smiled through his tears.
“Yes.”
He paused.
May you like
“She was.”
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