For the first time since she appeared, Vanessa looked past me not as a conspirator, not as a guilty sister, but as someone realizing the world had continued without her.
“You have children?”
“A boy and a girl.”
Her hand went to her mouth.
“Oh, Sarah.”
I did not comfort her.
Not yet.
Maybe not for a long time.
But I no longer wanted hatred to be the only bridge between us.
A sound came from outside.
A car door closing.
Luca moved to the window beside the front door and looked out.
His expression shifted.
“Someone else is here.”
Vanessa turned white.
“No,” she whispered. “He followed me.”
“Who?” I asked, though I already knew.
Vanessa backed toward the stairs.
“Bell.”
Luca took my hand. This time, I let him.
We slipped through a side door into the fading afternoon, carrying the box, the envelopes, the locket, and more questions than we had answers. The trees thrashed overhead. Gravel crunched somewhere near the front drive.
Luca led us behind the house toward a narrow path through the woods.
Vanessa followed, breathing hard.
I looked back once.
A man stood near the front steps of Bellweather House, tall and still beneath a dark umbrella.
I could not see his face.
But he lifted one hand, not in threat.
In greeting.
As if he had expected me all along.
By the time we returned to Gray Hollow, evening had softened the sky to violet. Mrs. Pike met us at the bakery door with flour on her cheek and worry in her eyes.
“The children are fine,” she said before I could ask. “Fed, washed, and currently negotiating for one more story.”
I almost collapsed with relief.
Lena came running first, hair damp from her bath, pajamas covered in moons.
“Mama!”
She threw herself into my arms. Ash followed more quietly but held on longer.
Luca stood in the doorway, watching us with the metal box tucked under one arm and my grandmother’s locket in his hand.
