Chapter 45

• The first picture is an image of my mother as a baby. It takes my breath away. I've always thought I looked more like my father, but now I can see that there is a lot of my mother in me as well. Our baby photos are almost identical. It takes me a moment before my eyes are able to see more than just my mother as a baby, but soon I am able to notice the three other people in the picture. There is a serious, but handsome man with black hair and strong Italian features and a beautiful woman with brown hair and hazel eyes, my grandparents, I realize. The final person in the picture is a surly young boy at about 10 years old, with black curly hair and sharp blue eyes with fleks of hazel in them. My eyes dart up to meet my uncle's knowing eyes.
• "I don't know how much you know, but I wasn't very happy when my father married your grandmother. I was still mourning my own mother and I put my new step-mother through hell for years. It's one of my biggest regrets because in doing so I also pushed Renee away and she was my innocent little sister."
• We both share a comfortable silence as he turns page after page of pictures, evidence of my mother's first years. You can see young Aro in a few of them, but he never smiles. It's plain to see how he distanced himself as a young boy from his step-mother and half-sister. The final picture in the first albu, is a beautiful shot of my mother at approximately five years old, twirling around in the woods barefoot.