HOMECOMING
Luca was asleep when we arrived at Gianna’s estate to pick him up.
Curled on a couch in her library. Ghost beside him. Reading. Watching over him like the guardian angel he’d become.
“Mama!” Luca woke instantly. Launched himself at me. Small arms wrapping tight around me. “You came back! You came back!”
“Of course I came back.” I held him and smelled him inhaling his soap and innocence and everything good in this terrible world. “I promised, didn’t I?”
“You said you’d try.” His voice was muffled against my shoulder. “Not that you would. Just that you’d try.”
Smart. Too smart. My six-year-old already understood...
Understood that promises could break. That trying wasn’t the same as succeeding.
“Well, I succeeded.” I pulled back. Looked at him. “And we’re going home. All o
