Nora nodded. She slid into the back seat beside her mother, Lawrence taking the front passenger seat, the canvas bag safe between her feet.
As the car pulled away from the Ashworth Grand, the chandeliers disappearing behind them, Nora leaned her head against her mother’s scarf and closed her eyes, and for the first time in two years the tight, cold knot in her chest loosened, not all at once, but enough to let breath in, enough to let sleep come, enough to feel, deep and quiet and certain, that they were going to be all right.
The city moved past the wet windows in soft blurs of light, and inside the small gray car, a family that Victor had tried to erase rode together toward home, whole.
