Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Sylvia
My mom and I are quiet until we get to the car. I click the button to unlock the doors and hold one open for her.
Turning to face me, her face spreads into a loving smile. “Oh, Sylvia.” She pulls me into an embrace. “I was so worried when I couldn’t get a hold of you.”
I help her get seated in the backseat. “I’m alright, mom, but neither of us are safe here anymore. We have to go.”
“I heard everything.” Her face is clouded with worry. “Where will we go?”
“We’re going to Faraday. Matteo has a job as the doctor at a new resort, and I’ll be able to get a job there as well. You won’t have to work anymore, okay?”
Her eyes are wide with surprise as she takes in my words, but it’s not long before they narrow with concern. “But Mr. Ricci…he’ll ruin us.”
“He’s not the one calling the shots anymore, mom.”
“I trust you, but…this is my home.”
“We’re going to make a new home together.”
She bites her lip and crinkles her forehead as she considers. Finally, she gives me a confident nod. “Okay. That’s what we’ll do. This old house is too drafty, anyway. And so many bathrooms to clean.”
Grateful tears prick at the corners of my eyes as I laugh and lean down to hug her once more.
Mateo jogs down to us as best he can through the scattered palm fronds. “You ladies ready to go?”
We both look at my mother.
“Hell yes. Let’s go,” she says fiercely, shaking her fist in the air.
Mateo and I share a moment of silent laugher as we buckle ourselves in the front seats.
The damp palms glisten in the afternoon sunlight as we make our way down the long driveway toward town.
Toward the mysterious future.
Toward the vast, wide open world of possibilities.
Toward the life I thought I’d never have.
“How you holding up over there, love?” Mateo asks, braving a split second to look away from the road and over at me.
I reach for the hand not holding the wheel and pull it into my lap. “I’ve never been happier to be yours.”
The End