An arrangement.
Maybe I should have felt relieved. Instead something strange twisted painfully inside my chest.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“He never stopped looking for you.”
I looked away.
“I left deliberately.”
“He knew that.”
“Then why search?”
For the first time, Vanessa’s composed expression softened slightly.
“Because he thought you were dead.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?”
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“Your abandoned car was found near the docks three months ago.”
My blood went cold.
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“It exploded.”
Suddenly I understood.
The car.
The old sedan I traded to a man in Queens for cash after leaving Manhattan.
Dear God.
Luca thought someone killed me.
I looked toward him automatically.
He sat while the doctor stitched his shoulder. Face emotionless. Eyes distant.
How long had he believed that?
How many nights?
Vanessa’s voice turned quieter.
