ilence that's heavi

t once I stopped talking, no one

days since Lu

sn't brave - it was expensive. It cost peopl

sto

Stopped snarling

father demands. I nod when spoken to. I do the ba

rieving. Or pout

doing anyt

fer than feeling anything when you

r notice

't built for silence. So when I answer his questions with flat, one-word resp

he says, "Stop act

untouched espresso

huts h

mes Zia

n. She brings homemade biscotti and sits beside me on the balcony like she used to when I was a

your mother had the week before she ran off to Rome a

f a smile. "I'm no

You're not

one s

ill say

, the household feels like it's

fter he's gone - in the way guards flinch, in the way my father double-checks his

, I know befo

e atmosphe

ts co

side my father, dressed in that all-b

oom, curled in an armchair, reading

n't

't lo

the page like he's

ops w

uses, glanci

," Luc

rough the air, lo

briefly an

back down

rly expecting a snide remark or a ve

ere's

sil

them in my f

sn't shut

ca says. His tone isn

s sul

ng. Or she's broken.

her grieve her c

g, she's withdrawi

r says what I'm sure has been

shed to

le

efore she had the

replies, "She doesn't get to kneel. Sh

away from the door and don

used to hide from nannies and suitors and lessons on how to "b

would, he just does and a minute passes

t tried to

the trouble

stopped

Maybe I'm

ully. "You're not b

u'd be surprised wha

her

ure, but I can tell

he words but at the way he says them

achine that stopped wor

," I assure him

what a

ingers twisting the edg

doesn't do it often and isn't

s, "You'll come with m

nk. "

re's a gala and you'll be

f I sa

." And just like that, he's gone again, leaving behi

d stare out at the garden. The rose

ry, I don

one truth into the hollow space in my ch

wait

a weapon. And Luca Moretti just gave m