And then there were three.....
"Do you think I should have my name changed?" Valentina asked lounging in the ugly green chair. Chris looked at her sideways.
"What? And to What?" He asked scrunching up his nose.
"To Perlman. I mean now I know why I always felt at home here and why I was always fascinated by Elio." Valentina said picking up the book that was sat on the armrest of the chair.
"Val it's been less than a month since you found out Elio's your dad. Everything is still a little raw, I wouldn't jump to anything if I were you. Plus you need to make up with your mom, can't keep hiding out here." Jona said scrolling through his phone.
"He has a point ya know." David chimes in from the sofa.
"I'm not jumping into anything. I mean David how would you feel if found out your dad wasn't really your dad?" She asked him, he laughed.
"I am the wrong person to ask that question too. Because I would be ecstatic if I found out that man wasn't my biological father."
"Good point, alright Chris and Jona how would you feel if your mom told you Oliver wasn't your dad?"
"I don't know about Chris but I would be hurt and confused for a while. But I wouldn't completely disown the man who took care of me my entire life. Your dad didn't have to take care of you, marry Marzia and give you his last name." Jona said looking at her.
"I agree with Jona, just don't do anything that you will regret. I know your hurt but ...." Chris was cut off by Valentina.
"Don't say they did what they thought was best for me. I'm so sick of that answer. Life would have been easier if I'd truly known Elio's my dad. When I was a kid I went to him for everything during the summers. I think if I'd know from the beginning he wouldn't ever disappoint me." She said playing with the yellow stones ring that had replaced her wedding rings.
The children ran into the room screaming, they had been chasing each other all through the house. It broke the tension in the room. Then when the Perlman-Adler clan sat down for breakfast two Sundays before Elio explained to them what was going on and all the children had questions.
"So as all of you have noticed Valentina and Aurora have been coming over every day and Aunty Marzia has not."
"Why hasn't Aunty Marzia been over Nonno?" Sammy interrupted.
"I'm getting to that, Samuel." Elio looked at him sternly, the only time anyone called him Samuel he knew was close to getting in trouble. He sunk down into the chair putting his hand over his mouth. "I have something to tell you kids. So when Aunty Marzia and I were younger, we had a baby together and that baby was Aunty Valentina." Elio had been staring at the table, when he looked up to his grandchildren they all had the same look of confusion.
"But you and Aunty Marzia weren't married." Lottie said her head cocked to one side.
"No Aunty Mariza and I weren't married, you don't have to be married to have a baby. But I do love Aunty Marzia, I used to love her like I love Bubbeh. But now she's my best friend."
"Why doesn't Aunty Valentina called you daddy?" Remi asked softly.
"Uh well, to make a long story short. Aunty Marzia's husband Luca raised her, so she called him daddy. We didn't tell her that I was her daddy."
"So Aunty Valentina is really our Aunty now?" Ella Perl asked pulling on her teddy bears little ear.
"Yes, you have an Aunty now and Aurora is your cousin."
"I heard Aunty Valentina talking to Papa and Uncle Jona, is she going to be mad at Aunty Marzia forever? Are we going to get to see her again?" Mini asked with a concerned tone in her voice.
"You don't need to worry about that, Aunty Valentina has a lot to think through and figure out her feelings. But right now she needs lots of love from us. Think we can do that?"
"Nonno we already love Aunty Valentina." Sammy chimed in.
"I know but we need to give her extra love for right now, ok?" Oliver asked all of their grandchildren, one by one they all nodded their heads.
*********************
Elio laid in bed that night picking at his duvet, chewing on the inside of his mouth and his brow was furrowed. Oliver watched this from across the room as he was taking off his shoes.
"Penny for your thought?" Oliver asked, Elio slowly reacted.
"Mm?"
"You seem a thousand miles away lately." Oliver gazed at him.
"Just thinking."
"What are you thinking about? And don't say it's private I'm your husband that doesn't work anymore." Oliver gave him a small smile.
"About all the what if's. What if I'd stayed? What if I'd told Marzia that I wanted to be in the picture as her father? What if, what if, what if?" Elios face was scrunched up, he looked so young with the way his face was set and the posture he was in.
"I ask myself that all the time. But I know the answers to all of my what if's. I would have you still but I wouldn't have those faces that I love seeing every day. Granted I wouldn't know what I was losing but the knowledge scares me. With yours, I think you would still have all of this but you'd had your daughter knowing who you were. I would say you would have had a bigger influence on her life but that would be a lie. You taught her how to read the summer she turned four and she's had her nose in a book ever since and now look at her, she's the best Literary Agent in Milan and Italy for all that matter. Elio you can't dwell on the what if's in life."
"Watching her grow up from the sidelines was challenging. I felt like a spectator...." Elio stared out the window. "Marzia would always let Valentina spend as much time as she wanted here, she almost lived here the summer she turned five. Valentina slept in that room. " He pointed to the room where he stayed during summers. "She crawled in bed with me one night when it was storming, she would always take her little fingers and play with my hair. I remember she had this very serious look on her face and she, uh, she asked me if I could be her papa?"
Oliver watched as the light of the moon reflected off the tears running down his cheeks, crossing the room in three long strides. He crawled into bed with his heart and took him in his arms.
"Don't dwell on what should have been, be happy for the time you now have. No secrets, nothing holding you back."
"Oliver?"
"Yes, love?"
"No matter how many times I tried to convince myself that it was the right thing to do, I always knew that I shouldn't do it." Elio took a deep breath.
"Shouldn't do what?" He said kissing the top of Elio's head.
"That I shouldn't have let Luca be her papa. But I also wanted to be selfish and live my life without being tied down to anything. And look where it got me, I was left broken-hearted twice, spent a good year and a half doing every drug known to man. I was left in a bathroom to die because I felt like I had nothing to live for, that same man nearly killed me again. And worst of all my dad died and he was ashamed of the decision that I had made, he loved me. But that morning I left to go back to the states, he told me that if I let Luca raise my daughter, he would never look at me the same way. He told me he was discussed with my choice."
"He was upset, you can't hold onto what he said thirty years ago because he was upset."
"I knew why he said those things to me, I knew and I just didn't care." Elio leaned up in the bed, his face stained with tears.
"I think I need to get you some tea, it will calm you down, ok?" Oliver felt Elio nod. He crept downstairs, walking into the kitchen he started the kettle.
"Oliver?" Annella asked as she shuffled into the kitchen.
"Oh sorry did I wake you?"
"No sweetheart, I'm always up around this time of night. Old habits die hard. Why are you up making tea?" She asked grabbing the apricot juice from the fridge.
"Elio's being hard on himself over the Valentina situation."
"Like father like son. He's more like Samuel the older he gets."
"Was Samuel really disappointed with Elio's decision?" He asked leaning against the sink.
"More than you could ever imagine. I've never seen that side of Samuel, he was always a quiet and reserved man but the night he learned of Elio and Marzia's plan he was well angry doesn't describe it. He and Elio fought that night. I didn't choose either side I saw where they both stood, I would never choose between the two loves of my life."
"Even though you've just told me that, I still can't imagine the Professor angry."
"I think he was more heartbroken than angry. After Aro, Samuel took more to heart and treated Elio like he hung the moon so when he choose wrong it broke his heart."
Oliver cocked his head to the side and his brow furrowed.
"Aro? What's that?" Oliver asked, Annella smiled and got up. Oliver watched as she left the kitchen and a few moments later returned with a small marble white box. Oliver had seen it many times, it sat next to Samuel for as long as he could remember. She handed Oliver a photo album. Annella sat and smoothed her hand over the white marble box, kissing her fingers she placed them on top of the marble structure.
"Aro.."
Oliver opened the book on the front page was a picture of Annella laying in a hospital bed and Elio no older than five sitting by her side holding a newborn baby. Elio had the biggest smile on his face. Under the picture was a message written in Annella's handwriting. Annella, Elio and Aro Perlman 1971... Oliver's face was riddled with confusion.
"Elio wasn't my only child. He was so happy the day his little brother was born. Elio always had to be no more than two feet away from him. Aro was such a beautiful baby, blonde curly hair, big brown eyes and always smiling. They were night and day, Elio would sing to him, take Aro off in his pram and showed Aro everything." Annella wiped a falling tear from her face, she tried to smile as she looked up at Oliver. Taking a deep breath she continued.
"Mafalda had ushered Elio and Aro off to take their afternoon naps. I remember Elio holding Aro's hand as they walked into the house, Aro was so wobbly he had just learned to walk a few weeks before. I remember where everything was the moment Elio came into the living room of our home in Milan. I asked him where his brother was, they always woke each other from their naps. Elio said, "Momma, Aro won't wake up." I have lost my parents, my sister and my husband but none of those losses compared to the death of my child."
Oliver had been in a trance as she spoke, when she looked up at him, he hadn't realized that he had tears in his eyes as well. Clearing his throat he looked down at the book, wiping the pool of tears off of it and turned to the next page.
"He was beautiful just like Elio." Oliver said holding up a picture of Elio and Aro sitting on the front porch of the villa.
"Yes, he was. Aro would be 45 this year. I always wonder what could have been, what would he be doing right now. But instead, I wake and kiss each one of them good morning."
"What happened to him, or do you not know?"
"There was really no name for it back then other than crib death, which sounds morbid. He just never woke up from his nap, he just stopped breathing. Even today they don't know why crib death happens. He was two weeks shy of his first birthday. None of us were the same, we began to love differently, live differently. We treated Elio the way we did because we knew if we hovered over him like the rest of our friends did with their children that he would push us away. But he's always clung to us. We don't hide things Oliver, but we just choose to not talk about the bad that has happened to us. I know what happened to Aro was the reason Samuel was angry with Elio. Samuel loved his sons, they hung the stars and the moon. This is the only thing I have left of my baby." Annella said smoothing her hand over the marble box. Annella reached into her housecoat pocket and pulled out a fat white envelope, placing it on the small kitchen table.
"I found this in Samuels desk after he passed, I know Elio needs it now more than ever." She got up, holding Aro tight to her and picked up the photo album and walked out of the kitchen.
Oliver peered over at the envelope, picking it up and scrawled in the Professors handwriting was.
For Elio....... When V knows the truth....