The rest of the day was much better, although almost anything would have been. Carlotta took the boys back to the Gennari family home to trade their swimsuits for regular clothes, and then they, along with Celia and Carlotta's mother Margherita, spent the afternoon as promised on the island of Procida.
There they enjoyed the sunshine and gelato, and Luca read aloud from his book about how the island had been a holiday destination for important people long ago, in the time of the Romans. Even emperors had apparently visited, and before that, there had been people on the island for at least another thousand years. Carlotta suggested that the boys could look for gifts for their families back home, and Luca bought a couple of small items for his parents and grandmother.
Alberto supposed he could do something similar. He hadn't promised that he'd bring Massimo and Giulia anything besides pictures, and he wasn't sure what they'd want. There were lots of things like fridge magnets, keychains, and little models of famous statues, but these seemed pretty pointless. The colourful Murano glass jewelry was very pretty but neither of them would wear that. Items decorated with rings of blue, white, and black that looked like staring eyes were, honestly, just creepy.
Besides, Alberto wasn't as good at hiding his emotions as Luca was. Luca managed to be cheerful and talkative as he shopped, and Celia was eager to show them some of her favourite things, like exotic flowers and gigantic wheels of cheese. Between the two of them, they seemed to keep Carlotta and Margherita from noticing that Alberto was quiet and glum. He knew they weren't going to escape the consequences of dragging Flavia out of the water. Sooner or later, there would be trouble.
Sure enough, trouble was waiting for them back at Nonna Sofia's house, where Carlotta stopped off before they boarded the ferry back to Bacoli. When they arrived, Nonna Sofia was in her garden, talking to somebody they didn't know. While there'd been doubt about Signor Granchio, it was clear that this man was a sea monster: he was dressed only in short seagrass trousers, with a towel around his shoulders to keep the sun off.
"I stopped by his hunting ground today," he was saying, "but he wasn't there. I wondered if he were ill or something."
"I don't think so," Sofia replied, "but he hasn't been back here. He hasn't even brought his motorcycle back. It's usually parked there." She indicated a spot beside the house, where an empty gasoline can was lying on its side and there were oil spots on the pavement, but no vehicle. "Why do you ask?"
"I wanted to see if I could get some nice shells as gifts for Giuseppina and the girls," the man replied. "Giancarlo always knows where the best ones are."
Sofia looked over her shoulder at the party who had just entered the garden. "Alberto," she said, "good timing! Have you seen your father at all today?"
Alberto shook his head. "No."
"You might want to ask Diana," Sofia told her guest. "She's always tried to look after him."
"I thought of that, but I didn't want to bother her while everybody's swarming around her place to see the egg," the man said.
"I'll have calmed down by tomorrow," Sofia promised. "In the mean time, if he does show up I'll tell him you asked after him."
"Thanks," the man said, and got up to go back to the water. "Nice to see you, boys," he added to Alberto and Luca. "You enjoying the Gulf of Napoli?"
"Yes, Sir," said Luca politely. Alberto nodded.
The man went through the gate and down a few steps before diving into the water. They heard the splash as he entered.
Nonna Sofia got up from her own chair and brushed her hands off on her skirt. "Alberto," she said. "Can I talk to you and your friend for a moment?"
Her voice was calm, but it was also cold, and Alberto felt a lump of ice settle in the bottom of his stomach. She didn't seem angry right now, but that was probably just because she didn't want to upset Celia, who had dragged her grandmother over to look at a caterpillar on a leaf.
Carlotta also heard the edge in Sofia's voice. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
"I just want a quick word with them," said Sofia. She gestured for Alberto and Luca to follow her inside.
They exchanged a nervous look, and then went into the kitchen with her. Alberto found himself shaking a bit. He remembered how angry Massimo had been after Alberto had accidentally set the boat on fire – the image of his uncle's face with gritted teeth under his bushy moustache, with the fire as backdrop, floated in front of Alberto's eyes. Was Nonna Sofia going to be quiet like Massimo when she was angry? Or was she going to be loud, like Dad?
Nonna Sofia directed them to sit at the kitchen table, then took a chair across from them. "Boys," she said. "Giorgio came to talk to me earlier this afternoon."
"It wasn't my fault!" Alberto burst out. He didn't know if defending himself would do any good with her, but he had to try. "I didn't know Flavia couldn't do the Change! She didn't tell me!"
Sofia's brow furrowed. "She told you she didn't want to get out of the water. Wasn't that enough for you? If she didn't want to tell you why, maybe she thought it was none of your business."
"When I first met Luca, he was scared to get out of the water, too," Alberto pointed to his friend. "He never would have if I hadn't dragged him out, but he got along just fine"
"I did!" said Luca. "I was never mad at him for it. Well... I was a little," he admitted, "but not for long."
"Then you shouldn't have done that, either," Sofia told Alberto, "and you're lucky your friend is the forgiving type. I'm very disappointed in both of you."
"How we were supposed to know?" Alberto protested.
"You weren't supposed to know. You were supposed to respect her wishes," Nonna Sofia said.
Alberto hadn't thought of it that way. He swallowed hard. Sofia wasn't shouting like Dad, but she wasn't silent and seething like Massimo, either. She remained very calm, and seemed almost more sad than angry – but his gut told him that she was furious. Of all the ways people had ever been mad at him, he decided, this was by far the worst.
"I want both of you back here tomorrow morning, prepared to apologize to her," the matriarch went on. "I want you to think about what you've done and why it was wrong, and when you tell her you're sorry, I want you to mean it."
"What if she won't forgive us?" Luca asked timorously.
"Then she won't forgive you," Nonna Sofia replied. "That's up to her, not to you. If she doesn't want to speak to you again after, then you don't. Do you both understand?"
"Yes, Ma'am," said Luca.
Alberto didn't answer right away. He was wrestling with his instincts. He wanted to argue – he wanted to say that he'd only meant to show Flavia something fun, to repeat that Luca would never have gotten out of the water unless dragged, to say again that it wasn't his fault. But arguing like that didn't work with Uncle Massimo, and he knew in his bones that it would be worthless with Nonna Sofia.
"Alberto?" she prompted.
"Yes, Ma'am," he echoed.
Satisfied, Sofia showed them back out into the yard, where Celia and her mother and grandmother were now gathered around watching the frenetic activity in an anthill. Carlotta stood up to greet them.
"What was that all about?" she wanted to know.
"Nothing," said Alberto right away.
Carlotta frowned, recognizing that his tone meant something very different from his words. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," said Alberto. He wanted the Gennaris to keep liking him for as long as possible, and that wasn't going to be long now. As soon as they heard about this, they would be furious, too, and then what? He couldn't go stay with Nonna Sofia when she was angry with him. When the Gennaris found out what Alberto had done to Flavia, he might have to use that money Massimo had given him to go home.
Unless... unless he could do something that meant they had to keep liking him. When he looked at the place where his father's motorcycle had been parked, he had an idea.
"Alberto?" Luca asked, noticing the change in his expression.
Alberto grinned. "I know how to teach Celia to change."
"Really?" asked Celia eagerly.
"Yes!" said Alberto. "Let's get home, and I'll show you."
They arrived at the Gennaris' house in Bacoli to find that Mike was there ahead of them, and had started getting things out for dinner. Carlotta joined him, and shooed Celia outside to play with the boys. She let them lead her outside, then stood on the beach sand waiting impatiently for her lesson.
"You want to learn to Change?" Alberto asked her.
"Yes!" she said. "How do I do it?"
"First we need some petrol," said Alberto. "Does your Dad keep extra anywhere?"
"In the boot of the car!" Celia replied eagerly.
They retrieved a beat-up metal canister that was about half-full of gasoline, which was more than enough. Alberto carried it back around the house to the beach, where Celia took off her shoes and socks in preparation to transform. Through the window, they could see Carlotta in the kitchen working on supper. She waved at them, and Celia and Luca waved back while Alberto twisted the top off the petrol can.
"Last summer I got covered with petrol by accident," Alberto explained. "It was clear and wet so I thought I was gonna Change, but I didn't. Then later, when I was learning to Change on purpose, I could think about what it felt like to have wet hair, and that helped."
"Okay!" said Celia. She held her arms out to the side.
"Stand still," Alberto told her. He hefted the can, made a face at the smell, and then poured the contents over Celia's head.
When Alberto had been splashed with petrol he remembered it being unexpectedly cold. It must have felt the same to Celia, because she let out a squeal of surprise. Then she looked down at her hands as the liquid dripped off them, and asked, "okay, now what?"
"What are you doing?!" shrieked Carlotta.
The children looked up to see her running towards them as fast as she could, stumbling in the sand. Without stopping, Carlotta scooped Celia up and charged into the ocean, rolling both herself and her daughter in the surf. The surface of the water took on an oily rainbow sheen as the petrol was washed away. When they came up again, Carlotta had transformed but Celia only partially – Carlotta looked her over, and started frantically splashing water on the still-human parts.
"Get back inside!" she ordered the boys.
"What?" Alberto wasn't sure what the problem was. "I was trying to..."
"Get back inside!" Carlotta repeated.
The expression on her face made Alberto and Luca both take a step back in shock. Carlotta had never raised her voice. There were times in the past few days when she'd been a little annoyed with them, but she'd never behaved as anything but patient and kind. Now, however, she was enraged, angrier than Alberto had ever seen Massimo or anybody else – even Luca's mother, who could be very intimidating when she got mad.
"Go!" Carlotta pointed, then continued splashing water over Celia.
Mike, too, had now come hurrying outside to see what was going on. "What is it?" he asked.
Carlotta didn't answer right away. She finished getting Celia good and wet, then scooped her up to carry inside. "You're getting in the bath at once," she told her daughter, and only then did she inform Mike, "Alberto doused her in gasoline!"
"What?" Mike stared at the boys in disbelief. Alberto stared back, blankly. What had he missed this time?
"I saw it through the window!" Carlotta marched back up towards the the house, her tail switching like an angry cat's under her sopping skirt. She hadn't taken her nylon stockings off before getting in the water, and they'd been torn to bits by her claws and scales.
"The neighbours..." Mike began. He looked around quickly, but nobody seemed to be outside watching them. He took Alberto's wrist in one hand and Luca's in the other, and followed Carlotta back inside.
Carlotta carried Celia upstairs and put her directly into the bathtub, where she set about giving her a second thorough scrub, this time with soap. Mike told the boys to wait in the kitchen and followed her up. Luca and Alberto could hear Carlotta speaking, then shouting, and finally sobbing, although they couldn't make out many of the actual words. A few minutes later, Mike returned carrying the little sailor dress Celia had been wearing. He put it in the garbage, then turned and faced the two boys.
Alberto didn't know what to say. It was obvious he'd done something wrong again, but this time he didn't even know what it was. Why were they so angry? Was it just because he'd ruined Celia's clothes? They shouldn't be ruined, though – Alberto had continued wearing his tank top and shorts after those had gotten covered in petrol.
"Your turn," Mike said to them. "Let's hear your version."
Alberto and Luca looked at each other. Neither knew what to say.
"Um. I was trying to teach her to Change, like I promised," said Alberto.
"Why did that involve pouring petrol all over her?" asked Mike.
"Because I got covered with petrol before I learned how," Alberto replied, "and I thought about that when I was standing in the rain later, and it helped me figure out how to do it."
Mike's eyes narrowed. "And it never even occurred to you that petrol is flammable?"
Infiammabile. Alberto knew he'd heard the word before but he had only a vague idea of its meaning. It was one of those long words that people tossed around like the meaning was obvious, so Alberto just went along with it and didn't ask questions that would have made him look dumb.
He couldn't pretend here, though. He shrugged one shoulder, knowing it was painfully obvious that he had no idea what Mike was talking about.
"Flammable means something catches fire really easily," Luca supplied.
Alberto's stomach turned inside out as he realized what horrible things Mike and Carlotta must have been thinking. "I wasn't gonna set her on fire!" he protested. "I just wanted to get her wet with something that wasn't water!"
"It's also incredibly poisonous," said Mike. "If you breathe too much of it in you'll choke to death on it!"
"I didn't know that, either!" said Alberto. "I got covered it in and I just washed it off by hopping in a pond and it was fine!" He hadn't had the trouble Celia had with only transforming partially afterwards. Maybe he'd gotten less of it on him. But if that were true, then the fact that he'd dumped so much all over her got even worse.
"You swear," said Mike, holding up a finger. "You had no idea."
"Cross my heart," said Alberto.
"What about you?" Mike turned to Luca.
"I guess I knew it was poison because it's got the skull symbol on the can," Luca admitted, "but we weren't gonna drink it, so I thought it was fine. I promise."
Mike nodded once. "Go upstairs and wash up before dinner," he ordered.
The boys trooped up the steps, glad their room was in the other direction from the bathroom where Carlotta was still cleaning Celia up. Luca went into their adjoining bathroom to wash up, while Alberto let himself fall backwards onto the bed and lay there looking at the ceiling.
He'd never felt this bad before. Not even when he'd set the boat on fire. Celia's parents thought he'd deliberately soaked her in fire and poison. They thought he'd tried to kill her. What were they going to do to him?
Luca came back out of the washroom and lay down next to him. Neither spoke. The heard the sound in the pipes as Carlotta finally drained Celia's bath, and then footsteps on the stairs as Mike came up. He and Carlotta began another discussion, which then became an argument. Alberto grabbed a pillow and put it over his head so he wouldn't have to listen to them – and so that Luca wouldn't see if he started crying.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, it opened, and Mike and Carlotta came in. Luca pulled the pillow off Alberto's head, and Alberto wiped his nose and sat up. Carlotta had changed her clothes, but her hair was askew and her eyes were red, and she was clearly still very, very upset.
This was it. They were going to make Alberto and Luca leave. Where would they go? They couldn't stay with Uncle Girolamo because Lucrezia would be there. Alberto had barely seen Uncle Guglielmo and his family. Aunt Diana and Uncle Umberto had their egg to look after and a bunch of guests, so they wouldn't have any room. Uncle Leonardo and Uncle Giorgio certainly wouldn't take them after what they'd done to Flavia, and Nonna Sofia hated them for that, too. And nobody knew where Giancarlo even was, so they couldn't go stay with him even if Alberto had been willing to.
Carlotta had to take several deep breaths before speaking. "What have you got to say for yourselves?"
"We're sorry," said Luca. "We didn't know it was dangerous."
"We really didn't," Alberto agreed. "We'll never do it again."
"Is she hurt?" Luca asked.
"No," said Carlotta. "Celia's fine. I don't think she understands how dangerous it was, either."
"Next time you get an idea like that, ask us if it's okay," said Mike. "Or better yet, maybe leave it be. Celia doesn't need to know how to transform on command. We don't even know if she's capable."
Did... did that mean even Mike wasn't entirely sure he was Celia's real father? Alberto nodded. "I won't mention it again," he promised.
"I think we'll go out for supper tonight," said Mike. That made sense. Carlotta was far too upset to cook dinner. "You boys will want to wear something a little nicer than that."
Alberto looked at Luca, then back at their hosts, uncomprehending. "You're not... you're not throwing us out?"
"No," said Carlotta, though her voice was shaking. "If you didn't know, you didn't know. When I first came to live with Mike there were a lot of things I didn't know, and I made some very embarrassing mistakes. As long as it wasn't malicious, and you'll be more careful in the future, it's fine." She turned and left the room. Mike watched her go, and then went after her.
Alberto let himself tip backwards onto the bed again, and pulled the pillow back over his face. No matter what they said, he knew it wasn't really fine. Nonna Sofia had been angry about what they'd done to Flavia. What was she going to say when she learned what they did to Celia?
There wasn't an option to refuse dinner, because the Gennaris were hardly going to leave Alberto and Luca alone in their house. They wouldn't have done it anyway, but they especially weren't when they thought Alberto might try to burn the house down. So the boys had to dress up and get ready. Alberto had only ever worn a tie once, when Massimo had made him and Giulia dress up a couple of weeks ago to have their photograph taken. Luca was used to wearing one at school, and he helped Alberto remember how to tie it. It wasn't too tight, but Alberto still felt like he could tug on the end and just strangle himself as they climbed into the car.
"We'll have to stop for petrol on the way home," Mike remarked, turning the key in the ignition. "I don't like not having a little extra, just in case."
Alberto hung his head and said nothing.
Dinner itself was excruciating. They went to a nice seafood restaurant and the food was tasty. The staff there even recognized the family, and promised Celia they would bring her favourite dessert. Celia perked up a little at that, but for most of the dinner she was quiet – nobody else was speaking, and even if she wasn't upset, herself, she could feel the tension in the air. It was therefore awkwardly silent around the table, and Alberto had no appetite, anyway. He didn't want to seem ungrateful when the Gennari family were paying for this, though, so he forced himself to eat, and felt sick.
By the time the bill arrived, he knew he couldn't keep this up. If this were what the rest of the visit was going to be like, then there was only one thing to do. As soon as they got back to the house, he went up to his and Luca's room, took that stupid tie off, and starting putting things back in his bag.
"We can't leave," Luca protested.
"Yes, we can," said Alberto. "Massimo gave me some money in case we needed to, and Nonna Sofia gave me some, too, for if I wanted to get away from my father at the jeweller's. It's enough for us to take the train home to Portorosso."
"Oh." Luca lowered his head, disappointed.
Alberto's insides twisted. No matter what he did in this situation, it was wrong, wasn't it? "I'm sorry you didn't get to see the stuff in your book," he said, "but we can't stay here. Everybody hates us."
"Maybe they don't," said Luca. "When I was staying with Giulia's mom in Genova, I knocked over one of her paintings when I was chasing the dog, and ruined it. She was mad, but she knew it was an accident."
The same had been true when Alberto set the boat on fire, but... that was different. "Those were people we were living with. We're guests here, and if we stay it's just gonna be miserable the whole time."
Luca gave in. "All right. I guess we'd better ask Mike to drive us back to the train station."
"No!" Alberto closed his suitcase to better look his friend in the face. "Because then we'll just have to sit in the car with them and it'll be awkward again! We'll go by ourselves, after they're asleep."
"Sneak out?" Luca shook his head. "They'll be worried when they wake up and realize we're gone."
"No, they'll be glad we left without causing any more trouble," said Alberto. "And if we stay until morning we have to apologize to Flavia, remember?"
"We should apologize to Flavia," said Luca. "Anyway, the Gennaris are supposed to be looking after us. We can't just leave."
"You can stay," Alberto informed him, "but I'm going."
Luca didn't like that, but he was also unwilling to be left behind with people who were, after all, Alberto's family, not his. They hid their packed bags under the bed, and got into bed with their clothes on, pulling the covers up to their chins. The sounds outside told them that Carlotta was putting Celia to bed for the night – then she came and knocked on their door.
"In bed already?" she asked, looking into the room.
"Long day," said Alberto.
"It was," Carlotta sighed. "Are you both all right?"
That seemed a very strange question to ask. Why was she worried about them? "We're fine," said Alberto, at the same time as Luca said, "yes, Ma'am."
She nodded. "Sleep well. Tomorrow is another day, and we can all catch our breath."
"Yeah," said Alberto. It was going to be awful, having to admit that in less than a week he'd made his entire family hate him, but it would be nice to be home. Uncle Massimo wanted him around no matter how much trouble he caused.
They decided to leave at midnight. Luca actually fell asleep in the bed with his clothes still on, and when the clock chimed the hour, Alberto had to wake him up.
"Time to go," he said.
Luca yawned. "You sure you don't wanna see what they're like tomorrow?"
"No," said Alberto. "If you're coming, come, if you're staying, I'll leave without you."
They crept down the stairs and out the front door, shutting it softly behind them, and headed for the nearest bus stop. The night was very quiet, with the moon and stars overhead – a reassuringly familiar sight. Alberto remembered noticing them during his horrible trip with his father last year, and thinking how no matter where you were in the world, the sky was the same.
Not many buses were running in the middle of the night, so they had to wait nearly three quarters of an hour before one came along. Luca fell asleep again, leaning on Alberto's shoulder on the bench, but woke when the bus pulled up and the driver opened the doors for them.
"Do you go to the big train station in Napoli?" Alberto asked as he climbed the steps.
"No," said the bus driver. "You'll have to get off at Pozzuoli, and then you can take the Metro to Piazza Garibaldi. I'll tell you when."
Luca yawned again. "Thank you, Sir."
"Are you two running away to join the circus?" the bus driver asked, with one raised eyebrow.
"No," Alberto said. "I'm going back to my Uncle's house, because the rest of my family hates me."
The driver winced. "All right," he said. "Good luck."
They sat down as the bus rumbled off into the dark, and Luca asked, "what are you gonna tell Massimo, anyway?"
"Same thing I just told him," Alberto replied, jerking his chin towards the bus driver. Massimo knew what a touchy subject family was for Alberto. He wouldn't ask for more details. He didn't need to know just how badly Alberto had screwed up.
They rode the bus for about half an hour, while Luca repeatedly nodded off leaning on Alberto's shoulder before suddenly waking again when they went over a bump. The driver, as promised, called them when they reached Pozzuoli, and gave them directions to the Metro station along with instructions about which trains to take. They thanked him, and continued on their way.
Again, there was a long wait for the next train. When it arrived and they boarded, they found nobody else in the car except for a very old woman with no teeth, who was sitting in the first seat muttering to herself. She held out a hand to them, asking for money. Luca dug into his pocket and gave her a coin.
"God bless you boys," she told them with a nod.
They went and sat at the other end of the train car.
There was nobody here to tell them when they reached their stop this time, so they would need to listen for the announcements. Luca lay down on the seat opposite from Alberto and went back to sleep, which left Alberto all alone. He leaned on the window and felt the vibration of the train throughout his body as it clattered through the tunnels, utterly miserable.
Why had he ever thought this was a good idea? Alberto knew he screwed everything up. He'd felt like he was doing less of that since coming to live with Massimo, but really, that was just because Massimo was unusually forgiving. Alberto was nothing but a mistake. It was a mistake that he'd even been born. Celia's parents thought she was a miracle. Alberto's had thought he was a curse.
He'd been so determined to behave himself, to be nice and polite like Luca, not to brag or lie, and he'd blown it every single time, just as he always did. Word of what he'd done to Flavia had probably already gotten around and by tomorrow the entire Scorfano family would have heard about Celia, too. And they would think the very worst thing, which was that Alberto was irresponsible and a liar, just like his father.
Maybe they were right. Maybe he was just like his father. Alberto bent his head and covered his face. He didn't want to wake Luca or get the toothless woman's attention by making any noise, but he couldn't keep the tears in.
Finally the announcement came: Piazza Garibaldi e Napoli Centrale. Once again, Alberto woke Luca. He'd wiped his face on his hands and his hands on his shirt, and had checked his reflection in the window to make sure no scales were showing, but it was still easy to tell he'd been crying. He and Luca tramped morosely onto the platform.
From there they climbed the steps and crossed the Piazza to the big train station. This was a spooky experience, seeing the place that had been so busy during the day looking so dark and empty. The shops and restaurants in the station were shuttered and dark, except for a single all-night place that was selling coffee and cakes to late-night travellers. The boys would have walked right past this on their way to find the ticket offices, but Luca suddenly grabbed Alberto's arm and pulled him to the side of the hall where there was a row of telephone booths. They ducked into one of these, and Luca shut the door.
"What is it?" Alberto asked.
"The guy from the jewellery shop is there!" Luca whispered. "I didn't want him to see us."
"What?" Alberto, very tired, had to think for a moment to remember who that was, but when he realized who Luca meant, he was suddenly wide awake as if he'd fallen in cold water. "The French guy?"
Luca nodded.
Alberto put his face up to the window to look. The man Patrizia had addressed as Monsieur Godin was sitting at one of the tables in the little cafe, intermittently sipping a cup of coffee and checking his watch. His cup vibrated across the table as a train pulled into the station, somewhere below them.
A few minutes later, two men came down the hall from the other direction, and Alberto felt cold as he recognized them, too. "Those are the other two, the ones who helped rob the bank," he whispered to Luca. "The short one with no hair is Paolo, and the taller one with the tattoo on his neck is Cesare."
"What are they doing here?" Luca wanted to know.
The men greeted each other. Godin and Cesare hugged, but Paolo put up his arms to stop the Frenchman doing the same to him. There was a brief conversation, then Godin finished his coffee and, to Alberto's horror, walked towards the row of phone booths.
Luckily, the one Luca had chosen as their hiding place was at the far end, and he didn't even see them. Instead, he went to the first one, two doors down, and made a call. After less than a minute, he hung up, and all three men walked out of the station into the Piazza.
Alberto's father was in trouble again, he just knew it... and if Giancarlo got in trouble again, he would lose his home and his job and would probably go back to wandering around getting drunk and playing cards. For the first time, Alberto thought about the way Nonna Sofia had described what his father was doing. She'd sounded very satisfied with his efforts, not quite proud but definitely encouraged. Now she was going to realize he really was useless and all her effort to help him had been a big waste of time – much like she felt about Alberto.
"New plan," he told Luca.
"New plan?" Luca asked.
Alberto nodded. "We have to find my father."
"How do we do that?"
"I have no idea," Alberto admitted, "but we gotta find him before they do, or it's gonna be bad."