The weather had been horrible, with several occasions of aqua alta, so she had not yet taken Luca up on his invitation to see his place on the Lido. He had spent the night at the flat several times, and she did feel guilty about not wanting to leave. Somehow staying on and getting involved with Luca seemed disloyal to her grandmother and like she was abandoning her son. But there wasn’t much more she could do for Teddy at the moment. She had found a nearby café where she could use Wi-Fi to keep in touch with Josh. His latest email contained a report from the psychiatrist confirming Teddy’s anxiety and saying that he seemed to feel safe in his current environment. Any attempt to move him could be detrimental to his mental health had been the conclusion. The email threw Caroline into turmoil.

“I don’t know what to do, Luca,” she said. “I don’t want to do anything that might damage my son, but my heart tells me that he’d be much more secure with his mother to hug him. And to be at his great-grandmother’s house with lots of room to run around.”

“I say always do what your heart tells you, Cara,” he replied, and the way he looked at her made her feel that he wasn’t just talking about Teddy.

Was he saying she should go to New York now, do what she felt was right? But she still had not scattered Aunt Lettie’s ashes, and until she did that, she couldn’t leave. Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow I will go. The next day she was cleaning the flat prior to leaving when she had a surprise visit. The feet that came up the stairs were not heavy like Luca’s but lighter. She opened the door and his mother stood there, gasping a little.

“Goodness,” she said. “This is quite a climb. May I come in?”

“What a surprise, contessa.” Caroline ushered her in. “Please, sit down. Would you like a glass of water or a cup of tea?”

“Just water, thank you, honey,” Luca’s mother said. “I hope you don’t mind my barging in like this, but I’ve been thinking about your predicament. With your son, I mean. I feel so badly for you. I know how I would have felt if someone had taken Luca from me. I would have fought tooth and nail to get him back, believe me. So I wondered . . . you know my brother is a lawyer, a high-powered lawyer in New York, actually. I wondered if you’d like him to get involved. Maybe all it would take would be a letter from him.”

“I don’t know that I can afford a high-powered lawyer,” Caroline said with an uneasy laugh.