UNDER THE DON’S PROTECTION
“You sound like her.”
“Good. Someone has to.”
Evening comes soft. We eat outside—grilled fish, fresh bread, fruit so ripe it stains fingers. Conversation drifts: coral bleaching data, new encryption standards, someone’s toddler learning to swim. Ordinary. Precious.
After the little ones are in bed, the adults linger around the fire pit. Someone starts the ritual we’ve kept alive since Luca’s time: one story per person, true, no embellishment.
Elias goes first. “I found an old audio file last month. Luca reading a bedtime story to Elena when she was small. His voice was younger than I ever heard it. He did all the voices—dragon, knight, even the princess. Terrible French accent.”
Sikat na Kabanata