A soft knock on my door had me turning around. Nonna stood at the door with a mug of cocoa and some cookies on a plate. I had been sitting up in my room for a couple of hours so absorbed in my mother's journal that I hadn't even heard her come home.
"I bring you a small snack, si?"
"Thanks, Nonna." I reached out to take the tray and she sat down on my bed facing me.
"You're reading Lilliana's diary, si?"
"Yeah. Um, I didn't realize that she was still in school when she learned about, you know, me. I guess I never thought how difficult it was for you and her."
"It's a shock, you know, when your baby tells you something like this and the boy is not around. It was very hard for your grandfather. He thought he had failed her somehow."
"I never knew that."
"Yes, well. I must say it was n
