She’s right. Even I can’t argue when the baby has mud on his hands. I surrender and hand him over to her. The kid is a mini version of me. From his eyes to his hair. But there’s something about his inner beauty that’s all her. we named him after my father. At five months old, he’s the light in our world.
She takes him and gives me a kiss.
Today is my birthday. It was a good day but she can see I’m not okay.
“Massimo should be here soon, why don’t you go get everything ready. I’ll come back when the baby’s napping.”
“Okay, hurry back. Miss you already.”
She gives me another kiss and as she walks back into the house Massimo comes out on to the terrace.
He greets her and gives Giacomo a little pat on his head then comes over to me.
“Hey, happy birthday,” he says and I tip my head in thanks.
“Thank you. here’s to another year.”
“Definitely.”
With the sentiments over, it’s time to talk again.
I reach across the table and pick up the envelope that arrived bright and early this morning. “I got this,” I say and hand it to him.
He looks at it and pulls out an origami swan.
It’s from Dominic. There’s no note in the envelope and no address except mine on but I know it’s from him. It could only come from him. It’s the sort of thing he would do on a day like today. A sign to show me he was thinking of me.
“That’s it? No note or anything?” Massimo asks.
“That’s it.”
He sighs with frustration, looking the way I feel. “Well your day is about to get stranger. I got this. No note or anything. I think it was from him too,” he says pulling an envelope from the inside of his jacket. It’s the same kind as what I got.
I open the envelope and take out a piece of paper. It looks like the end of a contract, except where all the names are usually listed there are initials. There are seven of them, with signatures next to them. All signed an agreement to The King.
M.V, R.B, L.V, T.N, K.G, B.F, F.S
“What the hell’s this?”
“Clues. Look,” he points to the first set of initials. “Mortimer Viggo, Ricardo Balesteri, Levka Volkov.”
I look up at Massimo with wide eyes. “Fucking hell.” I didn’t even notice that.
“We don’t know who the others are but that’s them. Signed to this person called The King.”
The King…
I remember Mortimer talking about the King. He wasn’t just given a label. He was talking about an actual person they call the King.
“You sure it’s Dominic who found this.”
“Yeah.”
“What if it’s our anonymous friend?”
“No, this feels like Dominic because if our anonymous friend had found it he, or she would have sent it already. This has Dominic written all over it. Only he can get his hands on shit like this. Not knowing where he is, is driving me fucking crazy.”
“I know, but what can we do? There’s not a damn thing we can do besides wait.”