moment later, he began to laugh like he had never laughed before. He couldn’t believe his luck. Not only had he found a way to become rich; he was also holding in hand a piece of information that gave him more power than he had ever dreamed of. Adrenalin rushed through him as he placed both Teresa Percato’s and Mercalia Parenti’s sheets in the box and hid the box behind the medicine manual.
He celebrated his good luck with an extra-long session at the Luna brothel. For the first time, as he took off his clothes in front of a seasoned woman with heavy make-up on her face, he felt no shame for his flaccid, shapeless body, or his limp double chin, or the dull color of his skin. He acted like he owned the woman, and every woman on earth, and the earth itself, without bound. There would no longer be loneliness for him, no longer frustration, for he was about to become a very important man. He, an ugly, old bachelor who had never been able to attract women, would perhaps even marry a society lady thanks to what he knew. He laughed loudly as he dipped his face between the prostitute’s breasts and spoke all the dirty words he knew.
He was pleased and intrigued when, the following evening, Giuseppe summoned him to the palazzina, where he told him he wanted to discuss a very sensitive matter, a matter requiring the outmost secrecy and tact.
“You have great knowledge and ability, doctor,” Giuseppe told him, “and you deserve to elevate your position. I can offer you the social status I know you long for in exchange for a small favor.”
Damiano couldn’t hide his surprise. Had his dreams been so obvious? “How did you know?” he babbled.
“I can see how you look at us upper-class people,” Giuseppe said with ill-concealed irony in his voice, “how you act when you are around us, how you talk.”
Damiano blushed, unable to hide his embarrassment. He asked, “What do you need?”
Calmly, Giuseppe explained that he needed a death certificate for Caterina, who was spending the rest of her life away from Genoa because she had done unspeakable things that would drag into the mud the entire family along with the upper class and its image. Presented with those arguments, Damiano had no doubt as to whom he should protect. He agreed to prepare the document, which he signed with the name of a doctor who had recently left town. He also promised on his dead father’s soul that he would never, ever speak of the matter with anyone.
From then on, the utilitarian friendship between Giuseppe and Damiano blossomed like a spring flower. On one hand, Giuseppe was convinced to be out of harm’s way and have Damiano well under control thanks to the doctor’s lust for belonging to a social class that wasn’t his. He was certain Damiano wouldn’t betray him: without his support, the ugly doctor would have no choice but go back to his grim, unattractive middle-class life, and he knew all too well that once a man has experienced luxury, the squalor he once managed to endure would be excruciating. On the other hand, Damiano thought he had Giuseppe on a leash, as not only he knew all about Caterina’s fake death but also because of the document describing the Parenti child sale. He had originally thought of using the document for blackmailing, but he realized he had reached his goal in a much smoother way. There would be no need for him to confront Giuseppe. On the contrary, now that he and Giuseppe had become best friends, he should do all he could to keep that document safe and secret, so the Berillis would remain powerful and respected, which was what he needed in order to continue to have access to his dream.
Weeks later, when he was alone in his office planning two more child sales, as a precaution, he decided to remove the Parenti document from the box and bring it to his home, where he placed it in his nightstand’s drawer. He’d read it often before going to sleep, smiling and chuckling at what was written on it, savoring the flavor of his new life as a gentlefolk, shivering from pleasure at how exhilarating it felt to be, for a change, the one holding power.
During the weeks between Lavinia’s discovery that Caterina had been taken to a sanatorium and the day her death was announced, Lavinia and Ivano continued