Right on cue, Mateo appears in the doorway, a soft smile on his face.
“Gino just called,” he says. “He asked if we could both come over when we are ready.”
“Okay. We can go in a few minutes,” I reply. “They just ate, so they shouldn’t be too fussy right now.”
Mateo lifts Victoria, and I pick up Julian. Together, we head downstairs. We move in near-perfect harmony, getting both kids settled into the stroller and double-checking that we have everything we need. We barely speak, but I notice how closely he follows their routine, how much he paid attention to everything I told him yesterday.
Just before we head out, Mateo pauses. “Hold on. I need to grab something.”
He runs upstairs and is back less than two minutes later. He steps behind me and slips the ring-holder necklace over my head.
“I’ll get you something different later,” he says quietly. “But I want you to wear that right now.”
I nod and look down at it for a moment. This necklace has been my lifeline for the past year, the thing that kept me holding on to hope. It feels like Mateo sees that, or at least acknowledges it. I touch it absently, noticing how much lighter it feels now that he’s wearing his wedding ring again.
The question burns in my chest, and before I can stop myself, I ask, “Why did you leave your cell phone and wedding ring in the hotel room that day?”
He doesn’t hesitate. “Like you said, you had a bad feeling. I did too. If something happened to me, I couldn’t risk it happening to you. I knew that if you or Gino didn’t hear from me, someone would start looking. The Russos would’ve destroyed my phone. Leaving it behind was the best solution I could come up with at the time.”
“I guess it worked in your favor,” I say softly. “Even if it still took a year to find you.”
“Yeah,” he says. “But it gave you this.” He lifts his left hand. “Something to keep safe until I got home.”
“I hope I did a good job of taking care of it.”
He looks down at the twins, his voice steady. “Believe me, you did more than I ever thought I’d need.”
In that moment, I know that no matter what comes next, everything is going to be okay.
THIRTY-FOUR
MATEO
Vanessa walks straight into Gino’s house without a second thought. Clearly, they’ve grown closer over the last year. Before, she would’ve knocked every time we came over. The house is quiet, almost too quiet, the same uneasy stillness as yesterday. Vanessa sets the twins into a playpen in the library.
“Wouldn’t Juliet be cooking breakfast by now?” I ask, standing behind her.
“Probably,” she says. “But she’s been coming over to our house every morning, so she might be cooking earlier now.”
“Hey, you two,” Gino calls from the top of the stairs.
He’s wearing sweatpants and no shirt, and I blink at the sight. What the hell is happening? Normally, you’d never see Gino without slacks and a button-down. Yet here we are.
“Hey,” Vanessa replies easily.
“Where’s Juliet?” I ask.
“Uh, somewhere around here,” Gino says, and I swear he’s blushing.
“She’s probably upstairs cleaning something,” Vanessa says firmly. “You really need to give her a break, Gino.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he mutters. “You tell me that every time you come over.”
Juliet appears in the hallway behind him. If she’s still working, then apparently pajamas are the new uniform around here. “Hi,” she says softly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.
I make a mental note to ask Gino about that later.
“We’ll talk in my office,” Gino says to me.
