Chapter 74

• Allegra was exceptional. In all areas. In swimming, in music, in writing, in school debates... everything. She is the kind of child who strives to be brilliant and accepts no less than that. A grade nine will never be good enough, because ten is perfect. And that wasn’t because of pressure from your mother, or because your grandfather was an amazing lawyer. While Evangeline thought she should drop the books a little and play more, the girl thought the opposite.
• The day she needed some cardboard boxes to make a model, Evie said that in the attic there were some and she could go there to choose. The girl was almost finished, when she found a small shoe box, full of memories. She abandoned all the others and sat down, looking at all those things. It had an old cell phone, an opera bracelet, a box with earrings and diamond string and many photos. Evangeline alone. Evangeline with Felippa. And Evangeline with a man whose blue eyes shone as bright as Allegra’s when she was seeing something she loved so much.
• Being the smart girl she was, Allegra knew who was in that picture. Once, when they were watching television, an extraordinary report began informing, that there was a police raid in a New York nightclub and a man had exchanged shots with the police. Allegra recalls that upon hearing the name Alec Castello, her mother was extremely nervous. She walked around, staring at television and only relaxed, when they reported that the man in question was fine.