The room was just as her father had left it before his accident. Giulia looked at his chair, his files, the glazed terracotta ashtray where he stubbed out his cigarettes, which she had made and given to him when she was little. His world seemed emptied of its substance, its life force, and yet strangely haunted. On the desk, the diary was open at the fateful page – 13 July. Giulia could not turn it. It was as if her father was suddenly there, in the Moleskine diary with its black leather cover, as if a little of him lingered between the notebook’s ruled lines, in the ink of its words, even in the small blot frozen in time at the bottom of the page. Giulia had the strange feeling he was there, in every molecule of air, every atom of furniture.

For a moment, she was tempted to turn around and shut the door behind her. But she didn’t move. She had promised Mamma she would bring her the piece of paper. Slowly, she opened the first drawer, then the second. The third at the bottom was locked. Giulia was surprised. She felt a strange sense of foreboding. Papà had no secrets, the Lanfredi had nothing to hide. So why was the drawer locked?

Her mind spun with questions. Her imagination raced, like a horse released into the wild. Did her father have a mistress? A secret life? Had he been caught by the mafia? The Lanfredi had always kept out of it. Why these doubts, like a premonition, a dark cloud filling the horizon?

She searched, and quickly found the key inside a box of cigars, a present from Mamma. Giulia shivered. Should she even be here? She could still turn back …

With a trembling hand, she turned the key in the lock. The drawer opened at last. It contained a thick bundle of papers.

Giulia took them out.

And the ground opened beneath her feet.

Sarah

Montreal, Canada

Sarah’s plan worked just fine, at first.

She took two weeks off for the operation. She needed three – the doctor had insisted, a week in hospital and two weeks’ complete rest at home, which she reduced to one without telling him. She couldn’t honestly take more without arousing suspicion at the firm. She’d taken no holiday for two years, the children were in school – who would take three weeks in November, when hearings came thick and fast, like the snow that fell over the city?