Chapter 12 - The Man I Had Been and the Man I Chose to BecomeTwo years passed.
My company grew.
Maria became its financial director.
Lily returned to school.
She still visited the old repair shop every weekend.
I kept the alley exactly as it was.
Not because I loved the place.
Because it reminded me where everything began.
One afternoon, Lily asked:
“Do you remember the first day you saw me?”
“Yes.”
“You looked scary.”
“I was scary.”
“You still are.”
I laughed.
“Do you think I'm a bad man?”
She thought about it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because bad men don't sit on dirty sidewalks eating sandwiches with little girls.”
I smiled.
Then she hugged me.
“Uncle Dante?”
“Yes?”
“Are you happy?”
I looked at Maria.
At the repaired house.
At the garden.
At the life I had never imagined.
“Yes.”
For thirty years, I had thought happiness was something I had lost.
I realized it wasn't lost.
I had simply never stopped searching for it.
Then Maria came outside holding an envelope.
“Dante.”
“What is it?”
She looked worried.
“It came from Sicily.”
Inside was an old birth certificate.
My father's handwriting appeared on the back.
There was one more child.
A third sibling.
My brother.
We had never known about him.
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His name was Matteo.
And according to the document, he was alive.
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