And more or less forty minutes later, when all the guests are surrounding Marshall’s grave, a car approaches and stops right beside the lawn.

Cassandra Bizzarri opens the driver’s door and helps her husband getting out of the passenger side.

They are both well-dressed and look incredibly sad.

Cassandra is wearing a dark grey dress and her wavy hair is down on her shoulders. Her shape is still thin and fragile despite her pregnancy.

Dante is wearing a Versace black suit with a black shirt and a dark blue tie. His eyes are hidden behind wraparound sunglasses. His right upper arm and forearm parts are adjustably connected to one another with a connection strap secured on the upper arm part by Velcro hook-and-look closures.

They walk together, hand in hand, very slowly. Dante is still aching and sore but I know he must have acted like a maniac, in the hospital, just to convince Doctor Breillard to discharge him today. He didn’t want to miss Marshall’s funeral.

When she sees them, Shane squeezes my hand tightly and turns her head to them. Dante and Cassandra smile at us, slightly, and we smile back.

They come nearer to us, salute Alice, Tasha, Bette and Tina with a nod and then Dante lets go of Cassandra’s hand and kneels down, slowly, before the grave. He just stares at the coffin, already placed in the pit, with his face apparently expressionless. Then he extracts a medal from the inside pocket of his blazer and throws it gently on the bunch of flowers covering the coffin.

“There, my friend..”, he murmurs, “…I used to consider that as one of my greatest treasures. But you deserve it so much more than I do”.

“What was that?”, I whisper to Cassandra.

She stares at her husband lovingly and just tilts her head to my side.

“The Italian Government decorated him with that medal after the accident in Afghanistan. He was rescuing a hostage”, she replies simply.

I nod, and Cass brushes Shane’s back silently.

Shane’s eyes are reddened and full of tears. These days haven’t been easy for her. But I am starting to think that Marshall’s funeral is going to be, somehow, the last step that we’ll have to move in this troubled story.