Chapter 10 - The River Runs Down to the Sea
The sun dipped below the slate rooftops of Federal Hill, painting the sky in shades of bruised violet, amber, and gold.
Inside the Santangelo mansion, the old dark landscapes on the walls no longer looked like shipwrecks and storms; in the golden light of the evening, they looked like passages through the dark, leading out toward an open, sunlit sea.
At the dining room table, the three of them sat together. There were no empty chairs. There were no guns hidden beneath the tablecloth. There was only roasted chicken, warm bread, the sound of Sabina chattering away about the ducks she had seen at the park, and the quiet, steady clink of silverware against porcelain.
Emilio reached across the table, his hand finding Delia’s beneath the edge of the mahogany.
May you like
She turned her palm upward, gripping his fingers back with the absolute certainty of someone who knew that home wasn't a place built of stone and iron gates, but a place where two broken people finally learned how to speak the truth without fear.
Outside, the streetlamps flickered on along Atwells Avenue, casting a warm, steady glow over the open iron gates of the estate—welcoming the night, welcoming the future, and leaving the ghosts of the past locked firmly outside where they belonged.
