CHAPTER 1

My eyes narrowed as I searched the crowd for familiar faces. I had not seen most of these people in more than ten years. My daughter Alyssa was sobbing, while her sister Alyeena just sat, staring at the casket and trying to hold back tears. Afigure in the crowd caught my eye, his hair still velvet black and his frame on the heavy side. I could never forget that face. How could I forget, when I’m reminded every time I look at my daughter?

He stared as well, not at me, but rather at Alyeena and the tiny baby that lay in her protective arms. The baby’s face was covered by a blue blanket, with the supportive hand of her husband resting on Alyeena’s shoulder.

Alyssa walked across the grass to stand before the gathering. Her body trembled as all eyes came to rest on her. Most of these people had known Alyssa and Alyeena since they were small children. Tears flooded her face as she spoke of the strained relationship she and her father shared.

Franco had never adjusted to being a father. He hated responsibility.God rest his soul, while he was alive, Franco would disappear for weeks at a time and he was always up to something.

Alyeena looked up at her younger sister and then to her left where she caught Carlo’sgaze. She quickly turned away with tears spilling from her brown eyes.I too began to cry as I watched both my daughters, each crying for their own reasons, yet each here today for the same thing… to bid a father farewell.

Were my tears for my ex-husband whose flag draped casket lay before me? Or, was I crying from a lifetime of unspoken love for this all too familiar face in the crowd, even though he was a stranger to his own daughter and two grandsons?

My attention turned away to search out my own mother Ava’s gravesite just across the road. How inappropriate, that these two should have their final resting places within feet of one another. In life, their hatred for each other had been mutual.

Thoughts of these two men raced through my mind, the two fathers of each of my daughters, as I blanked out everyone around me.I flashed back to countless memories of Franco and Carlo as well; of our meetings, and the events of the past twenty-six years, which led all of us here to th