Chapter 704

Gwen's POV

The drive back to Florentia felt fast. Bella was in the backseat, clutching a pillow like something soft could convince the world to be less hard.

Nick drove with both hands tight on the wheel, his entire body still locked in alert mode. I sat in the passenger seat with my phone in my hand and my mind split in two places: here, under the seatbelt... and back there, in the sentence I had murmured to the police officer.

Strange men. I kept repeating it in my head, trying to figure out which drawer it belonged in. What kind of strange? What kind of men?

What kind of visits? I glanced in the rearview mirror. Bella was asleep, mouth slightly open, exhausted from being brave all day. Her hair stuck to her forehead, and there was a faint smudge of dried gelato on the corner of her shirt. Nick caught my look.

"She asleep?" he asked, without taking his eyes off the road.

asleep," I

the first real breath he'd taken in hours. When we pulled into the garage of the building, the elevator doors opened before we

a woman who always seemed to be the steadiest person in the room. Her face was pale, and her eyes... her eyes were wet in a

her granddaughter without waking her with her own urgency.

Martina pulled

love..." she kept saying. I stood there for a second, unsure where to put my hands. I had always believed I

is no manual for "child returns from hell in one

looked at

made her favorite dinner," she said, as if that could restore order

that betrays a man trying not to cry. "Thank you, Mom," he said. We went upstairs, and Martina guided Bella to the table with gentle authority. "You eat a little first. Then you

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