Hidden Truths - L G Campbell Page 0,3

was enough for me to start my own business. I also got a house. Mamma didn’t get anything and she would never accept our offers to help her either. She would argue, stating that the money was for us children to start our lives. She always said that we were her life and so as long as we were happy, she was happy.

I box up my mamma’s jewellery and photographs. I look around her room and make sure I have everything. I spot a box tucked away on top of her wardrobe. I grab a chair and climb up to get it.

It’s an old shoe box. I blow off the dust and open it. Inside are some theatre ticket stubs, some photographs, a stack of letters and a few other things. I smile, it must be her memory box from when she was younger. I decide to sit and go through the box with a glass of wine when I get back home. Then I’ll have more time to go through it all.

After loading up my car with boxes and a few bag of blankets, I walk around the house one last time, my mind reliving all of the memories we made here. Walking to the front door, I take one last look around the small family home I grew up in.

“Bye Mamma, bye Luca. Look after each other up there. I will see you both again one day. Ti amo.” I choke. I turn and leave. I lock the door and post the key in the mailbox.

Driving home I can’t help but feel incredibly lonely. It is as if saying goodbye to the last part of our family life, our home, made it all final. I can no longer go and sit in Mamma’s armchair just to feel like I’m with her. I can no longer sit in our kitchen and remember the amazing smell of Mamma’s cooking or watch Luca stealing bites of food or hear Mamma hitting him with her tea towel and yelling at him in Italian.

I sigh. I know I will always have those memories but somehow sitting in the house made them feel more real. Now I’m worried I’ll forget some of them. I will miss the connection I felt towards the home I grew up in. I just have to take solace in the fact a new family will move in and make their own memories.

I pull up at home and unload the boxes. As soon as I’ve put them in the spare room I head to the kitchen and open a bottle of wine. Waiting for me is my Mamma’s box. I sit in my snug chair and take a sip of wine before placing it down and opening the lid. I smile as I look at the photos of her: young, beautiful and laughing. She’s with a man in most of them, a man I haven’t seen before, probably a boyfriend. She only ever told us about our father and that he was the love of her life.

I turn the photo over, there is writing on the back.

Viola, my world. Xx

I smile, definitely a boyfriend!

“Mamma you sneaky girl.” I smile.

I look at the young man in the picture. He is handsome with jet black hair and chiselled good looks; he reminds me of my brother Luca.

I take a sip of wine and open the first letter. Each of the letters contain sweet love poems and promise letters signed by ‘Luis’. They are all written in English which surprises me. Mamma didn’t speak very good English. She said she would only ever speak in her mother tongue, but judging by these letters she understood English very well.

I get to the final two letters.

My Viola, please keep sending me photographs of our beautiful children, in my dark world they are the only light I get to see. To receive your letters, the photographs, they mean everything to me, my love.

One day I shall come for you and we shall run away together, just the four of us. I am a wealthy man. The children shall want for nothing, I can promise them a lifetime of security. There will come a time where I shall no longer keep you hidden, keep us hidden, I will come for you my love.

Your Luis

Xx

I rub my eyes in confusion. His children.

His children! I grab the final letter.

Viola, why do you continue to ignore me? Why do you hurt me so? My wife…I do not love her. It