Marco Carrera—Adele

Marco Carrera’s relationship with Adele is transformed by her early death: what he once treated as his daughter’s sustaining fantasy—that Miraijin would become a new beginning for humanity—becomes the purpose through which he understands his losses and accepts his role in raising his granddaughter.

A Belief Shared While Adele Lived

Adele repeatedly insisted that humanity would begin again with Miraijin. Marco did not challenge her; he echoed the claim, though at first he regarded it indulgently, much as he had once played along with her belief that a thread was attached to her back. He imagined that this story might help Adele endure what she had suffered: fate dealt her blows, and she answered by bringing the new human being into the world. His agreement, then, was affectionate but not yet faith.

Bereavement and a Changed Purpose

Adele died too soon, leaving Marco unprepared for the void. As in earlier crises, he initially remained where the shock had left him, but simply enduring was no longer enough. He followed Dr. Carradori’s advice to live more freely, while concentrating on caring for Miraijin and making use of the life he had left. His unconventional routine—including playing while the child slept in a hammock—helped him move toward a decisive understanding rather than offering a model of childcare.

That understanding arrived when Marco relinquished the extraordinary winnings from a hard-fought poker match with his friend Dami Tamburini. The decision prompted him to reconsider the accumulated pain of his life: escaping a plane crash, losing his sister, enduring a terrible divorce, ending his father’s life, and burying a daughter who was only twenty-two. He came to regard those experiences not as isolated injuries but as the foundation on which a new world could be built. Adele’s death thus marks a reversal in their relationship after her death: her once-unshared certainty becomes his own answer to the question of why he had suffered.

Carrying Adele’s Conviction Forward

Marco now believes that Miraijin is the new human being Adele had described, and that he has been entrusted with raising her. The belief gives his grief a direction: he interprets his endurance as preparation to deliver the child to the world, not as proof that the losses were deserved or easily resolved. The account presents this conviction as an intense, even extravagant thought, but one that fits his sober and painful existence so closely that it completes it.

The bond also continues through physical resemblance and repeated gestures. Miraijin’s blue eyes recall Irene, her athletic build recalls Adele, and her cheek dimple recalls Giacomo. Most intimate is a tiny mole between the little and ring fingers of Miraijin’s right hand, matching the marks on Adele’s and Marco’s hands. Marco and Adele used to place their hands together to compare them, including when Miraijin was born in a hospital tub; Marco can now continue that gesture with Miraijin. The inherited mark makes continuity tangible, while his care for the child carries forward the future Adele had insisted upon.