Chapter 14 - The Woman I Called Mother
Nobody moved.
My mother stood beneath the carved wooden cross with my son in one arm and a pistol in the other.
It was the ugliest image I had ever seen.
"Put the gun down," I said.
"You put me here."
"No. You did that yourself."
Her eyes flashed.
"Everything I did was for this family."
Grace took one slow step forward.
The pistol shifted toward her.
I lifted both hands.
"Grace, stop."
She didn't look at me.
"Vittoria, Noah is hungry."
My mother blinked.
"What?"
"He's rooting against your shoulder. His hands are opening and closing. He's hungry. You don't know his cues because you stole him instead of raising him."
Noah made a small, angry sound.
Grace's voice softened.
"Give him to me. He doesn't know what any of this is."
For a strange second, my mother looked almost human.
Then Dante moved.
He grabbed Vittoria's wrist.
The gun fired.
The shot blasted into the ceiling.
Noah screamed.
Grace ran.
I hit Dante from the side as Marco burst through the sacristy door with armed men.
Vittoria twisted away in the confusion.
Grace caught Noah against her chest.
She dropped to her knees, wrapping herself around him.
I had never seen relief and terror exist on one face at the same time.
"He's okay," she whispered, checking him frantically. "He's okay."
I wanted to go to them.
Then Dante slammed an elbow into my ribs and reached for the fallen gun.
I kicked it away.
Marco pinned him to the floor.
"Where's Vittoria?" I shouted.
The side door of the chapel swung in the wind.
Gone.
Again.
Grace looked up from Noah.
"Let her run."
"She'll come back."
"Then next time we won't be wondering what she's capable of."
She stood slowly, Noah tucked under her chin.
His crying eased against her.
My whole body wanted to move toward them.
Grace let me.
I touched the back of my son's head for the first time.
Soft hair.
Warm skin.
Real.
My knees almost gave out.
"Hey, Noah," I whispered.
Grace's eyes filled.
"He hates being cold."
I laughed, then cried, and I didn't care who saw it.
For thirty seconds, we were a family.
Then Elias's voice came over the chapel speaker.
"Adrian, you need to see this."
A monitor above the sacristy door flickered on.
Security footage showed Vittoria entering the mansion through the west door.
She was carrying a red fuel can.
Grace looked at me.
May you like
"She's going back to the prison."
Then smoke rose from the west wing.
