Chapter 23

**Lily**

It was almost evening before I reached home again. Matteo had dropped me off earlier because he needed to take care of some business. And to be fair, judging on how sore my pussy feels it was for the better.

So, now I’m back home, reliving some of the orgasms that he gave me. I haven’t been able to answer all the messages that Emma and Norah left for me on the phone. I’m not sure how to answer them, so when my phone rings I decide to pick it up and get it over with.

“Hi Norah.”, I answer. I hear some cheering in the background.

“There she is! Finally!”, Norah laughed. “Now that was some date.”, she taunted. “And then some!”, Emma yelled in the background. “Anyways, get ready to share. We’re coming and bringing pizza! See you in a minute.”, Norah laughed.

I should have known I was not going to get away easily. So, I decided to change into my jogging pants and a hoodie, and just wait for Norah and Emma to arrive. Just when I entered the bedroom, I saw the papers and pictures that we were looking at before Matteo arrived. I quickly put everything back in the box and took it with me to the living room. Just in time for Norah and Emma knocking on my door.

“So, shoot!”, Norah said as she put the pizza on the table and shook her coat off her shoulders.

“What do you want me to say?”, I asked, playing dumb. Norah swatted me over the head playfully. “Fine, we had sex. Happy?”, I grunted. Norah and Emma high fived over the table.

“Welcome back to the living!”, Norah laughed loudly.

“Just tell me, was he good?”, Emma asked, munching on a piece of pizza. I felt my cheeks flush, and I nodded. More catcalling from Norah.

“Okay, so how many times?”, Norah asked me. I started to count on my fingers to remember the times we had sex. I didn’t even finish, because when I reached four, they couldn’t contain themselves anymore.

“So? What’s going to happen next?”, Emma asked me a bit more seriously than the conversation we had before. I shrugged.

“I don’t know. He wanted to see me again, and I told him to call me. I figured if he could find out where I live, he can also get my phone number.”, I answered.

“Playing hard to get, are we now?”, Norah grinned.

“I don’t know. I mean he is not sharing much about his life or feelings, so why should I? And the last thing I want to do is to fall for someone who is only looking for sex.”, I admitted. I still wasn’t sure what he wanted from me.

“He keeps saying that I make him do crazy things, but for all I know it could be his pick-up line, right?”, I asked doubtfully. Emma nodded, so I guess I made sense.

“Hey! Are those the pictures and letters we were going over before Matteo showed up?”, Norah asked when she spotted the box on the lounge table. I nodded, and she got up to go there.

“Did you find anything new?”, Norah asked me. I looked at her like she had just lost her mind.

“When should I have done that? I was busy fucking Matteo between us finding this box and now.”, I grinned. Norah just shook her head, browsing through the letters in the box.

“I was planning to run the letters through Google Translate or so. I want to learn what this Mario has been writing to mom. I don’t know what else to do to get a lead on this guy.”, I said thinking out loud.

“Your mom never mentioned him?”, Emma asked to check one more time. I shook my head. “I think I’d remember if she mentioned being married.”, I answered.

“You think that’s your dad?”, Norah asked. I shook my head. “Mom always said my dad was a lazy bum, addicted to drugs and alcohol.”, I replied.

“You know, I don’t want to second guess you, but it just doesn’t sound like your mom to hook up with a guy that is addicted to drugs and alcohol.”, Emma remarked. I never really thought about it, but what she said made sense. My mom was a goody two shoes. I don’t think she’d even know how to get in touch with someone addicted. I just wasn’t ready to think about that.

“Did your research on the money bring you anywhere?”, Emma asked seriously, looking through the papers in the box.

“Yeah, in trouble.”, I smirked. I was still not convinced that Noah was doing this on his own, but I feared where it was going. It couldn’t possibly be good.

Emma looked at me pointedly. “I know that, but did you get any leads there?”, she elaborated. I nodded.

“It did, I just never really write it out, because I was so appalled with what I did later. But I remember that a lot of these accounts in my mom’s bank statement came up with results. Several were already marked for criminal usage, so my hunch was correct.”, I said.

“Did any names pop up there?”, Emma asked. “Maybe you can cross check those with the letters and the other information coming from everything in this box?”

I just nodded. It sounded like the best idea I had heard on how to take a step further to unravel the family secrets.

“Look at this!”, Norah shouted, holding up a paper that looked quite old. “Rogito notarile it says. According to google translate it is a property deed. You said your mom left you a plot of land in Italy, right?”, she asked. I nodded and grabbed my laptop to pull up the documents I received from the solicitor.

“It should be a plot of land on Sicily.”, I say, trying to find some more details in the documents. I just had some issues reading legalese.

“Cefalu, in Sicily. According to Google Maps, it is on the north side of the island. Wikipedia says it is a beautiful place. Here look!”, Norah summarized what she found. She handed me her phone where she had pulled up pictures of the town, which looked amazing.

“It says that White Lotus was recorded there! God, Lils, you better build a nice beach house on that plot and invite us over. You know, put that trust fund to good use.”, Emma grinned.

“Do you know where the other land was your mom left you?”, Norah asked curiously. I pulled up some other documents from the solicitor.

“It was a house, in Sweden. Is there not something in that box?”, I asked, because I couldn’t find the location that easily. “Wait, it is in Muskö, Sweden.”, I add after reading a bit more.

“A Swedish island of the coast of Stockholm with a naval base.”, Norah read from her phone. I believe Google is her second name by now.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would my mom have a plot of land in Sicily and a house in Sweden? She never mentioned that she wanted to go to either place. You know she was more of a home body. And these places have absolutely nothing in common except for the fact that both are islands.”, I said frustrated with the loose ends my mom left behind.

“But both are beautiful. And please, Lils, please build that beach house in Italy. And don’t forget about us”, Norah pleaded with me in a joking way.