Page 2 of Niccolo

One of life and death…

And the other of love.

2

Iwas something of an oddchild, I guess you could say.

To begin with, I was a twin. I’d been born ten minutes before my brother Roberto. Throughout my childhood, I teased him that I was his older brother and that he had to obey me.

Hehatedit… which made me love doing it all the more.

I remember watching his reaction and basically analyzing it. I would think,WHY does he get mad? He KNOWS I’m going to say it – why doesn’t he just ignore me?

And how can I make him madder?

I began experimenting withhowI told him he had to obey me:

Very seriously.

Loud and shrilly.

Fun and flippantly.

Matter-of-factly.

I noticed that he would react differently according to the voice I used.

I would act one way, and he would react a slightlydifferentway.

Like he was a piano, and I was hitting different keys to produce different notes.

I think that was the very first indication of my fascination with people’s emotions and how I could manipulate them.

As I said: an odd child.

The rest of the time, though, Roberto and I got along incredibly well. Of all our brothers, we were the most similar – more introspective and intellectually inclined – and we spent countless hours together reading in Papa’s study.

It’s just that I gravitated towardsHarry Potter, and Roberto liked business self-help books by CEOs and entrepreneurs.

If I was an odd child, Roberto was anextremelypeculiar one.

Our brothers werenothinglike us.

Dario was the oldest and the one we all looked up to. Even at a young age, his word was law. We would follow him on any adventure – searching for wild animals in the olive groves, catching lizards in the vineyards, or playingMafiosoin the corridors of our house.

Mafiosowas a game we invented where some boys were gangsters, and another was the cop who tried to catch us. NOBODY wanted to be the cop. Later, we invented a wrinkle where you could pay off the cop with Monopoly money. Art imitating life, you might say.

Adriano was a holy terror. He would threaten me and Roberto with a beating if we made him angry – andeverythingmade Adriano angry. Dario would have to step in and tell him to stop, at which point he would leave us alone. Unwillingly and grudgingly, yes, but even Adriano obeyed Dario.

Massimo came along when I was two. I don’t remember his birth, obviously, but I do remember later when everyone remarked,He’s such a big toddler!

And he was. At three years old, he was as tall as me and Roberto at five. He only grew bigger from there.

Massimo was even-tempered, though – quiet, never complaining, always friendly. I liked him.

I didnotlike Valentino. He was born shortly before Roberto and I turned six. I remember being jealous: everyone fussed over him, cooed over him, and acted like he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I held a certain amount of antagonism towards him from the very beginning, I guess you could say.

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