Alicia giggles. “Only if I feel like watching him set the kitchen on fire.”
She and Ethan burst into laughter.
Cecilia smiles at her daughter. “We could try making it together sometime. All four of us and see who does it best. Or we could split into teams.”
“I’m on Alexander’s team,” Alicia says, not even thinking twice. She turns to her mother. “Sorry, Mom, but his pie is way better than yours. If we’re competing, I don’t want to lose.”
Cecilia presses a hand to her chest in mock offense. “Then Ethan and I will be a team, and I won’t make this pie for you ever again.”
I reach for her hand. “I can make it for us every year.”
The smile that spreads across her face makes me smile in return as my heart stutters—but it’s what Alicia says next that gives me even more hope.
“Yes, Alexander. Next year the pie is on you.”
I smile at her. “You can count on it.”
You can count on me for far more than dessert.
Alicia looks back at me. “Mom said you’re moving into the house across the street.”
“Yes. Tomorrow I’m officially moving in.”
“Your dog... Sam,” she says. “Is he going to live with you?”
I smile. “He is. He’ll be with me soon.”
While I was going through the move and restoration, I left him in Pisa. Next week, he’ll be brought over. I’ve found a good school for him—plenty of activities, other dogs, space to run—so he won’t feel lonely while I’m at the company. And whenever I go back to Pisa, he comes with me. He loves running free through the olive groves.
I share my plans with them, and Alicia keeps smiling, asking more questions about the villa and the school.
“Mom, maybe we could get a dog too,” Alicia says thoughtfully. “Now that it’s just us at home.”
Ethan scoffs, playfully. “What—are you trying to replace me with a dog, Buttercup?”
Alicia shrugs, and Ethan nudges her, making her roll her eyes and call him dramatic.
Cecilia smiles as she entwines our fingers. “I’m sure Alexander won’t mind sharing Sam with us,” she says.
“Not at all,” I reply, my voice charged with emotion.
I’ll love sharing everything I am with you.
Everything I have to give… and everything I’ll learn, loving you as my family.
Chapter 29
Ten months ago
February
I would do it all again
Maya
They don’t take me to a real cell.
First comes a place that feels like a forgotten corridor of hell. Windowless rooms, grimy beige walls that seem to not have been cleaned in at least ten years. The cold isn’t about temperature. It’s an absence of anything they won’t give me here. Time. Dignity. Warmth.
