Two steps.
Breathing hard.
Respecting the line she drew.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” she whispered, shaking.
“You have all the time you need to figure it out. Tonight, just let me take you home.”
“And if I don’t want to go home?” she challenged. “What if I want to go back to the restaurant? Or to Fabrício’s hotel?”
Fabrício.
So that was his name.
“Then all you have to do is ask.”
“You’d take me?”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you—even if it destroys me. And that would be fair. Didn’t I destroy you once?”
She stared at me for a long time.
My heart hammered as I waited. If she asked me to take her to that man’s hotel—I would.
I truly would.
She bit her lip. Nodded.
“Take me home, Enrico. Just… take me home.”
And I did.
FIFTY-THREE
VALENTINA FERRARA
“Clara looks radiant today, Valentina! And I’m not saying that just because she’s in my class — the project is wonderful, isn’t it?” Elis, the teacher in charge of Clara’s group, commented enthusiastically as we stood near the display wall.
I smiled back, warmth spreading through my chest at the sincere praise. The school gym was crowded and noisy, filled with the excited chatter of children and parents waiting for the presentations to begin.
It was the annual school exhibition, and I stood there proudly, watching the project Clara had prepared with her class.
“She’s incredibly happy,” I agreed. “Clara loves events like this.”
“It shows!” Elis laughed. “She hasn’t stopped talking about the exhibition all week.”
I laughed too, nodding as my gaze drifted around the lively room, even though I knew exactly where it would land by the end of that walk.
My heart tightened in a contradictory way every time I saw Enrico smiling and talking with Clara. He seemed completely atease in that school environment, interacting with other parents and teachers with calm, natural confidence.
More than once, I noticed attentive, interested looks from a few mothers directed at him — and my heart screamed.
I tried to ignore that feeling, just as I had been ignoring all the others piling up inside me over the past few weeks, forming a heap tall enough to rival the Eiffel Tower.
When had that happened?
At what moment?
