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believe.”
    â€œI have had vague suspicions,” Stephanie admitted. “I had the same suspicions about my father, and Tony has essentially taken over my father’s businesses.”
    â€œWhat are the businesses we’re talking about?”
    â€œReal estate and a few restaurants, plus a restaurant and a café on Hanover Street.”
    â€œIs that all?”
    â€œThat’s what I don’t know. As I said, I had vague suspicions with such things as people coming and going from our house at all hours of the day and night, and the women and children being sent out of the room at the end of extended family meals so the men could talk. In many ways, in retrospect it seemed to me we were the cliché of anItalian-American Mob family. Certainly it wasn’t on a scale like you’d see in gangster movies, but modestly similar. We females were expected to be consumed by the affairs of hearth and home and church without any interest or involvement in business whatsoever. To tell you the truth, it was an embarrassment for me, because we kids were treated differently in the neighborhood. I couldn’t wait to get away, and I was smart enough to recognize that the best way was by being a good student.”
    â€œI can relate to that,” Daniel said. The sharpness in his voice mellowed as well. “My father was also into all sorts of businesses, some of which were close to being scams. The problem was that they were all failures, meaning he and subsequently my siblings and I became the butt of jokes in the town of Revere, particularly at school, at least those of us who were not part of the ‘in’ crowd, which I surely wasn’t. My father’s nickname was ‘Loser Lowell,’ and unfortunately the epithet had a tendency to trickle down.”
    â€œFor me, it was the opposite,” Stephanie said. “We were treated to a kind of deference, which wasn’t pleasant. You know how teenagers like to blend in. Well, it wasn’t possible for me, and I didn’t even know why. I hated it.”
    â€œHow come you’ve never told me about any of this?”
    â€œHow come you’ve never told me about your family other than the fact that you have eight siblings, none of whom, I might add, I have met? I at least asked you about your family on several occasions.”
    â€œThat’s a good point,” Daniel said vaguely. His eyes drifted outside, where a few lonely snowflakes could be seen dancing on the wind gusts. He knew the real answer to Stephanie’s question was that he’d never cared about her family any more than he cared about his own. He cleared his throat and turned back to Stephanie. “Maybe we haven’t talked about our families because we were both embarrassed about our childhoods. Or maybe it’s been a combination of that and our preoccupation with science and founding the company.”
    â€œPerhaps,” Stephanie said without a lot of conviction. She stared out through the front windshield. “It is true that academics have always been my escape. Of course my fathernever approved, but that only increased my resolve. Hell, he didn’t think I should go college. He thought it was a waste of time and money, saying I was just going to get married and have kids like it was fifty years ago.”
    â€œMy father was literally embarrassed that I was good at science. He told everyone that it had to have come from my mother’s side, like it was a genetic disease.”
    â€œWhat about your brothers and sisters? Was it the same for them?”
    â€œTo some degree, because my father was a small enough person to blame his failings on us. You know, sapping the capital he needed to really get started in whatever was the current bright business idea. But my brothers, who were good at sports, fared a bit better, at least back when they were in school, because my father was a sports nut. But getting back to your brother,