The flatness is a Matteo thing. The face of a man who has made a decision and is now executing it.
"Sean."
"Yeah."
"I am going to tell you a few things. While my older brother is asleep. Because I need to say some of them out loud, and I am not going to say them in front of him."
"Okay."
He breathes.
"I am sorry, I did not know you were alive. If I had known, I would have come for you. I would have spent the trust Vittorio left for me. The whole trust. The parts that were not mine to spend included. I would have told Alessandro to come and stop me. I would have sent men I do not respect to do work I would not write down. I would have burned half the Stavros estate to find one Italian kid in an Irish house in Queens."
He pauses.
"Frank Donovan raised you. Vittorio raised me. Frank was, by every account I have read, a decent man. Karen Donovan was decent. They wanted you. Vittorio was Vittorio. We do not have a father-of-the-year contest in the family for a reason. You may have drawn the long straw, Sean. Do not feel guilty about it."
He glances at the bed.
"One more thing."
"Yes."
"You were born a Moretti. Frank renamed you. He kept none of it. He had his reasons. The man raised you, and the man got murdered for it. He earned the right to call you whatever he wanted. But your father's name was Vittorio. The name has been in the family. If you ever want to give it to one of your children, the name is yours to give."
He is quiet for a second.
"And one more thing."
"Yes."
"You were born first. By nine minutes."
I look at him.
I do not move.
"I have been the older twin my whole life. By default. The job has been mine because no one else was available to take it. It is yours now. If you want it."
I think about the answer.
In the long second, I am thinking about every minute Matteo has spent since 1988 carrying a job that was supposed to be mine. About Maria looking at him like a ghost, because every time she looked at him, she was looking for the boy who was not there. About Matteo, at seventeen, taking the candle from Alessandro and lighting it every February 12, because the lighting was the only thing he could do for his brother, who was not in the room.
The job has been Matteo's for thirty-eight years.
He is offering me a job that he has been doing on his own for his entire life.
"You can keep it, Matteo. I have not earned it yet."
"You earn it by accepting it. The job is yours. You can be bad at it for a while."
"How long is a while?"
"As long as you need."
"That's generous."
"It's the deal."
