“For what?”
“For believing me. For protecting us. For…” She hesitated. “For not turning me away.”
“I owed you my life,” I said. “This is the least I could do.”
She shook her head.
“You didn’t owe me anything. You could have let them take me. You could have stayed out of it.”
“No,” I said. “I couldn’t.”
She looked at me for a long moment, and something passed between us that I couldn’t name.
Then Elena burst into the room, her hair wild and her cheeks flushed.
“Mama! Lorenzo! The puppies are here!”
Sofia laughed and stood, reaching for her daughter’s hand.
“Puppies?”
“The Doberman had them last night,” I explained. “Carlo’s been keeping them in the stables.”
Elena tugged on my hand.
“Can we go see them? Please?”
I looked at Sofia, and she nodded.
“Lead the way,” I said.
We walked through the rain-soaked gardens, Elena running ahead and Sofia laughing as she tried to keep up.
When we reached the stables, Carlo was kneeling beside a pile of blankets, gently stroking the mother dog’s head.
Five tiny puppies squirmed and whimpered in the nest beside her.
Elena gasped and dropped to her knees.
“They’re so small,” she whispered.
“Would you like to hold one?” Carlo asked.
She nodded eagerly.
He lifted a black-and-tan puppy and placed it carefully in her arms.
Elena’s face lit up like the sun.
Sofia stood beside me, watching her daughter with an expression of such profound tenderness that I felt something crack open inside my chest.
“She’s happy,” Sofia said softly.
“So are you,” I said.
She looked up at me, and for the first time since I’d found her again, she wasn’t afraid.
“Yes,” she said. “I am.”
