“Find them,” he said.
Dominic and Lorenzo went in opposite directions to search out the house. Giovanni walked toward the brick hearth staring at the charred wood. Something soft squeaked beneath his foot. He stepped back and looked down. It was a kid’s toy. It looked like a little miniature doll. Giovanni stared at it for a long moment trying to process its existence among Mira’s things. He picked up the little doll whose eyes rolled shut and blinked back open. Squeezing its belly the doll giggled again. He walked into the kitchen and noticed a yellow and white kid’s chair with long legs and a tray to the front of it, pushed up to the kitchen table. There was a baby cup on the tray. Giovanni hadn’t realized it, but he was squeezing the doll so tightly in his clenched fist that the little voice box cracked inside of it.
“Gio, you need to see this,” Dominic said coming around the corner.
Giovanni didn’t move. She had a baby? She left him for this man and had his baby?
Lorenzo entered the kitchen.
“Gio, you need to come with me.” Dominic said more firmly.
He turned and followed Dominic. They went through a back hall. There was a single room with a broken padlock. Dominic had forced it open. “I thought something important would be in this room because of the lock.”
Giovanni walked in slowly, his heart hammering in his chest. He was overwhelmed by what was before him. Some of his angry disappointment evaporated and was replaced by confusion. His Bella had sketched their history in vivid detail. Everywhere were images of their time together. The vineyard, his mother’s cottage, even the bedroom they shared. She sketched Filipo, the errand boy who came to his mother’s cottage to deliver a message to him and a phone. She sketched them on his motorcycle traveling along the coast of the Amalfi. She sketched an intimate portrait of him holding her in his arms.
Lorenzo stepped inside. “What is this?”
Giovanni glanced over. The images of Fabiana were breathtakingly accurate. Lorenzo snatched down a drawing taped to the wall and stood there visibly shaken. “Why the hell did she do this?” he said, his voice choking on emotion.
Why? If she wanted nothing to do with him and had taken up with another man why paint these? “You said the door was locked?”
“Yes.” Dominic answered.
Disappointed that this was all there was to find he tossed the broken squeeze toy to a drawing table and walked out.
Mira glanced back over her shoulder. Eve blinked and sucked her pacifier. “How long do kids keep pacifiers?” she asked Kei.
“I don’t know. You think little rabbit is too old?”
“Not sure, but she’s growing like a weed and she’s stuck to that thing. I lost it once, and I swear she gave me the blues. Now I pin it to her shirts. You know, to keep the peace.”
Kei chuckled. “Interesting that you have to barter peace with a one year old.”
“She’s almost two, and don’t pretend you aren’t a negotiator as well. Where do you think she got her obsession with cookies?”
He glanced over at her and winked.
“I hope you aren’t upset about the hills. I really wanted to drive up into them to make a snowman. I think it’s a bit too cold for Eve.” Mira said.
Kei smiled. He reached over to squeeze her thigh. “I’d rather be inside warmed by the fire with you.”
Mira chuckled. “Good, then you can make a fresh one as soon as we return.”
The car coasted out of the city to the residential farmlands. Her cottage was located on a shared land of three farm families. As they turned up the single lane road Kei eased on the gas and the car slowed to a stop. Mira glanced up. The cars she’d seen earlier, both of them, were parked in front of their cottage. She narrowed her eyes on the vehicles.
“We got visitors. You expecting someone?” Kei asked.