I reached out to the letter,s. but my fingers were shaking so hard that I couldn’t get it. Luke noticed and gently pushed the glass of water towards me, while Matteo sat in the chair to my right.

His words hit me harder than anything I heard that night.

I was left with the open letter on my lap, unable to speak.

Matteo broke the silence.

“Paola,” we thought for a long time that “Mom” would mean we forgot my mother Laura.

“My dear ones,” I whispered, I would never have asked you to.
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Ezoic

“We know now,” said Luke. But when we were little I didn’t understand.

I looked at the letter again.

There were a few more paragraphs.

“My boys, if my life permits, I want to grow old with you and Paola. I want to see you finish school, falling in love with you, wrong, learning and becoming good men.”

“But if one day I won’t be there, I want you to remember something.”

“Paola doesn’t need our blood to be part of our family.”