Page 14

Tito

We looked for Uncle Stephano all over the house.

He wasn’t in his study, or with Rocky. I told Valencia that the one person who would know where he would be at all times was our butler, Max.

She confessed to me that she had seen Max a few times and he seemed…

a bit odd. That yes, she knew he was an English butler but something about him was spooky, yet she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

She said she hoped I wouldn’t be upset with her saying that.

I wasn’t, Max was odd and eccentric, a little strange and serious.

However, Max had been with Stephano since he was really young.

A butler that had been inherited from my mother’s father and family.

I explained to Valencia how he never seemed to change.

He was formal and serious at all times. Day and night.

He never ever broke character, so to speak.

As kids, the Descalia boys, Rocky and me, all tried every trick in the book to make him jump out of character. Nothing ever worked.

We headed back to the kitchen to see if my mother knew where Max was. She wasn’t there.

I turned to Valencia and shrugged. “It is kinda weird that we can’t find all three of them.”

“Do they take naps?” she asked.

I laughed. “Not that I ever knew of. I mean they aren’t that old.” I paused. “Come to think of it though, Max should be old. I mean Uncle Stephano is almost sixty and he claims Max raised him? Funny, how that never dawned on me before.”

“Some people just age better?” she suggested then she paused. “Your uncle doesn’t look sixty though. More like forty, but maybe I’m not a good judge of that?”

“Italians age better?” I joked. “Like look at me, I got a baby face.” I grinned at her.

She smiled at me. “You are a cutie for sure.”

“Ciao, Tito, Valen,” my mother greeted us as she arrived. “Lunch is in the dining room.”

I leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Grazie, Mama. We will go eat. Uncle Stephano in there?”

“No, I didn’t see him. You never found him earlier?”

I shook my head. “We looked in the study and knocked on the door to his room.”

“Have you asked—”

“—Max?” I replied with a smile. “No, have you seen him today?”

She tilted her head as she thought about this. “You know what? I haven’t.”

“Is it his day off?” Valencia asked.

My mother and I both looked over at her.

I paused, then answered, “I don’t think he takes days off?”

“No, the man never has as far as I know?” my mother pondered.

“Never?” Valencia stared at us in surprise.

I laughed. “Wow, Mama’s right. I don’t think he does that?”

“Never took a vacation?” Valencia asked curiously as she looked at me, then at my mom.

We stared back at her and slowly shook our heads.

The door to the kitchen pantry opened up and out stepped the very man we were talking about…Max.

We looked over at him.

He paused and gave us his patented formal bow.

“Hello, Max,” I greeted him. “We were looking for Uncle Stephano. Have you seen him?”

With his usual blank expression, Max replied, “He’s on the golf course today, sir.”

I shook my head at him. “Max, I was in diapers. You know like a rugrat crawling around everywhere and you used to pick me up by said diaper so people wouldn’t step on me, remember? So can you please not call me sir?”

Valencia giggled.

“You waste your breath, figlio,” my mother interjected as she smiled. “Max will not change.”

Max acted like we weren’t discussing him at all as he again bowed politely and walked out.

I stared at him, then I looked over at my mother to ask, “Why would he just suddenly come out of the pantry?”

She paused to look at me. “Sei pazzo Tito, how should I know?”

To answer her question…Yes, maybe I was crazy?

I went over and opened the pantry door, stepping in, I knew what it looked like well enough as the Moon Estate was my childhood home.

However, I couldn't understand how he had been in here for the twenty minutes we had been in the kitchen.

I never questioned Max's activities or his presence before but this was an occurrence I had seen before over the years. The man exited the pantry many times but there seemed to be no reason why. As in, I never saw any can of food or any item at all in Max’s possession whenever he came out of that door.

And now suddenly, it bugged me. I slowly walked along the aisle, it was a large pantry as compared to others maybe, but this was a mansion, so that was normal.

I spotted a large box, sticking out from a shelf toward the end.

It seemed to be sitting a bit crooked. I stepped over and knelt down.

Cool air hit my face. Blinking, I moved the box from the shelf.

On the wall there, I saw an indention like for a door?

I reached in and moved the next box. Setting it down on the floor, I could now see this indention was in fact part of a door.

“Tito!” My mother called me, “What are you doing?”

I paused. I didn’t tell her that I was snooping.

That I was looking at something I never knew existed.

A secret door inside the pantry of all places.

Then I laughed and shook my head. Damn, Tito, you aren’t ten years old anymore.

Letting your imagination run wild like there was a mystery to solve.

Scooby Doo, where are you? I chuckled to myself.

I quickly put the boxes back then stood to head through the long aisle and came out of the door.

I smiled at my mom and had a good excuse handy, “I was looking for those little bags of chips.”

She scoffed. “Chips? You don’t need any chips. Take your girl to lunch, silly bambino.” She swatted at me.

“Ouch!” I pretended to be afraid of her hitting me.

Her and I both laughed at this old game we had been playing since I was a teen. I stepped over and grabbed Valencia’s hand. “Thanks, Mama. Let’s go have lunch, Valen. Uncle Stephano will show up.”

Valencia nodded at me. “Is there a particular kind of chip you like?”

I paused while feeling confused then I remembered that was what I’d told my mother.

“No, I was looking for…” My voice faded away.

Yes, what had I been looking for? A secret door Max was using, one that only he knew about?

But if that was true, why? He had his own small house at the side of the property.

Not that I’d ever been there. Inside anyway.

I’d seen it of course, but now that I thought about it…

. I’d never seen inside of it. My mother and uncle both told us as boys that his home was off limits. That Max had a right to his privacy.

He did for sure, but I suddenly got the feeling Max was as odd as Valencia had said. Maybe he was even more than just odd. I mean he wouldn’t hurt anyone as he had been here since before I was born. No, I didn’t feel like he was dangerous or anything, but I did ask myself.

What did I actually know about Max and I came up blank.

The answer was absolutely nothing. I knew him as Max, our butler and that was the total sum of my knowledge.

“Tito?”

I looked down at Valencia then up at the dining room. I’d been so distracted that I never even remembered coming down the long hallway. Looking over at her, I smiled. “I’m sorry, I was a little preoccupied.”

“Yesh, I saw that. Are you okay?”

I felt bad as she was the one who’d gotten a shock earlier and here I was wondering about the damn butler that had been here for… sixty years. What Valencia had said earlier came back to me now. If my uncle was sixty—

“Tito.”

I looked up to see my brother Rocky. Keeping a hold of Valencia’s hand, I led her over to where he stood.

“Hey, bro. What do ya know?” I gave him my usual greeting as I pulled a chair out for Valencia.

After she sat down, I pushed the chair in, then leaned down to tell her, “I’m sorry, babe. I will now be present.”

She shrugged. “It’s ok.”

I looked up at Rocky. “Have you seen Uncle Stephano?”

He shook his head. “Not since breakfast, why?”

“We need him to check…” I paused as I realized it. “Hell, you can do it!” I don’t know why I’d been stuck on finding my uncle, when my brother was highly trained in IT work too. He actually worked in that capacity for Uncle Stephano many times.

“I can do what?” Rocky asked.

I glanced around to see no one was close by, then explained it, “We got some information today. It was from Deacon.”

“No shit! Really?” Rocky asked in surprise.

“Shhh…Yes, really.” I shushed him. “Can we keep this between us?”

Rocky’s excitement dimmed a bit as he paused to narrow his eyes at me. “What do you mean?”

I knew my brother well. He was thinking I meant to keep it from the family and especially from our uncle.

Rocky had the same rules that I did. He wouldn’t go along with any deception.

“No worries, Uncle Stephano knows about this and I wanted to ask him to run down these images to see if they were legit. But I realized you can do that.”

Rocky nodded. “So where are these images?”

I glanced over at Valencia.

She had been listening, of course, so she handed her cell phone over to me.

Looking down at it, I tapped in Rocky’s phone number. Then I texted him the attachments.

His phone pinged and he took it out to stare down at it. It took a minute, maybe two for his eyes to widen and his head shot up. “No shit?”

I nodded. “He had texted earlier saying he wanted Valen to meet him. She decided it would be too dangerous and asked if he could just send what he had for her.”

Rocky paused to look over at Valencia. “Damn, this must have been like…”

Nodding, she said, “A total slap in the face. I’ve been trying to face the fact that I was never a Walker.” She shook her head. “But if that is true?” She motioned to his phone. “It changes my whole life.” Looking up, she stared at the doorway. “But Julianna is gonna suffer more than me, I think?”

My brother and I looked over to where she was staring.

Romeo and Julianna had come into the room. Julianna still looked pale and unsmiling.

“She was so happy before this,” Valencia said.

“I can’t blame her either. She knew who she was and where she came from.

I mean everyone knows that, right?” She shrugged.

“Maybe not? But now, she’s unsure. And I don’t even wanna think about what will happen when she, if she…

” Sighing, Valencia seemed to lose the words.

I sat down next to her and took her hand, before I looked up at Rocky. “So, you can see how important this is.”

He nodded at me. “I will get right on it after lunch. It is gonna take some master sleuthing as this goes back what? Twenty-five years or more?”

I nodded back at him.

“My buddy Luigi is an expert at old photographs,” Rocky told us. “Do you mind if I send him this? He could see if it was photoshopped.”

He and I looked over at Valencia.

Nodding her head, she shrugged. “Do whatever is needed.”

Rocky smiled at her. “Look, I know this is really hard,” he said. “But at least you have my dumbass brother here to help you through it.”

“Gee thanks, bro.” I chuckled. “I will remember to remind your wife about your dumbass mentality as well when I see her.”

Rocky snickered. “No need, bro. She is well aware of it.”

We both laughed together.

Looping her arm through mine, Valencia gazed up at Rocky. “I’m beginning to feel like, if this is true? I’m better off, maybe? I mean I know my twin won’t feel the same way, but—”

“You’re damned right I won’t feel the same way,” Julianna interrupted her as she stood beside Rocky now.

We looked up at her.

Julianna shook her head and sort of gave us a half shrug. “I don’t know how to feel right now.”

Valencia placed her hands into her lap and stated very quietly, “If we are Walkers, it means we have a huge family for one. I mean I realize Ophelia wasn’t…

” She let out a breath. “Stable, but did you look at that photo? I did and there was such sadness in her eyes. I need to know why. We need to know all of it.”

Julianna looked red in the face as she snapped, “Stable? She was utterly and completely insane, Valencia! I watched those videos of her and of our supposed law abiding brother. This is all a damned lie! Another one of her made up fantasies!”

Valencia stood from her chair to face her and asked, “How do you know? Did you ask your… Our parents?”

Julianna slowly shook her head. “I called them this morning and then remembered that they are on a flight and I couldn't get through to them.” Her voice sounded lower now.

Valencia looked curious. “A flight?” she asked. “To here?”

Shaking her head, Julianna replied, “To Italy. One of my mother’s relatives is ill.”

I paused and looked up at Rocky.

He stared at me then he looked a bit spooked as he realized what I must be thinking. Shaking his head, he said, “No way, man.”

Julianna and Valencia stared at him, then at me.

“No way what?” Romeo walked up. “What’s happening over here? It looks like an intense meeting and I wasn’t invited.” He smirked.

I was at a loss as this was something I’d never even considered. “It's a big, wide world and Italy has a lot of people in it.”

Julianna looked confused as did Romeo.

“What are you talking about?” Valencia asked.

“My little sister…” I paused to motion at Rocky. “Our sister…Francesca, she is also in Italy as our grandfather is ill.”

Valencia sat down hard in her chair. “You are not thinking that…” Her voice faded away as she slowly shook her head. “No, no, no.”

Julianna now understood too as she stared at me then at Rocky. “That is a leap, don’t you think?”

“Look, right now, you and Valencia are living through a huge leap,” I argued. “Parentage and all that it might mean.”

Julianna kept her gaze on me and motioned to Valencia. “If you two are related, it would be—”

“What is the family name over there?” Valencia cut her off as she looked panicked and had lost at least two shades of color in her face.

“Brun—”

I stood from my chair and yelled, “NO!” If hell could be a name then it would be Bruno. I could not be related to Valencia. Not after we—

“—nelli,” Julianna finished.

“Wait, wait,” Valencia spoke up. “It’s Brunelli?”

Julianna stared at her then looked at me to finally answer, “Yes.”

I let out maybe the longest breath that I had no idea I had been holding in. “Santa madre di Dio!” I exclaimed as I slowly sat down. If she had said Bruno I don’t know what I would do. My heart thudded in my chest like a fucking jackhammer.

Valencia’s hands shook, as she kept repeating, “Thank God, thank God.”

I took her hand into my sweaty grip and raised it to kiss her knuckles in utter relief.

Romeo looked back and forth at us all as his confusion finally cleared and he exclaimed, “Holy fuck. You all thought that….” He blinked several times in absolute shock. “Damn!