Chapter 8 - The Confrontation of Truths
I looked at Luca, standing there in the doorway, willing to banish himself into eternal loneliness just to give me peace of mind. I looked at the twins, who had stopped crying and were now peeking out from behind my legs, staring at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
"Mr. Luca," Ash said suddenly.
The entire room went dead silent. It was the first time my son had spoken a full word to a stranger in over a year.
Ash stepped out from behind my skirt, walked straight over to Luca, and patted his damp knee. "Don't go. Stay for dinner."
Luca dropped to his knees, his broad shoulders shaking as he pulled our silent, observant son into a fierce, desperate hug. Lena ran over a second later, throwing her small arms around his neck, burying her face in his dark hair.
I walked over slowly, kneeling down beside the three of them, completing the circle. I wrapped my arms around Luca’s back, feeling the heavy, rapid thudding of his heart.
"We aren't running anymore, Luca," I whispered into his ear, my tears soaking into his shoulder. "But we aren't staying here either. It's time to go home. But not to the old estate. Not to the house filled with ghosts and lies."
"Wherever you want, Sarah," Luca choked out, holding us all as if we were the only solid things left in a shifting world. "We will build a new home. From scratch."
Before we could leave West Virginia, however, there was one final piece of business that needed to be concluded. Two weeks later, after Marco had secured a beautiful, private estate surrounded by high security walls and sprawling apple orchards in Michigan, Luca took me to the upstate New York facility where Vanessa was being kept.
I needed to see her. I needed to hear the truth from her own lips before I could truly move forward into my new life.
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The visiting room of the private sanitarium was stark and white. When Vanessa was brought out, she looked nothing like the glamorous, manipulative woman who had torn my marriage apart. Her hair was dull, her eyes erratic, her designer clothes replaced by a simple gray tracksuit.
When she saw me, her lips curled into a bitter, manic sneer. "Well, well. The runaway bride returns. Did you finally figure it out, Sarah? Did you finally realize your precious Luca never touched me?"
