Laura’s kitchen smelled like freshly baked bread.
Sarah sat at the dining table, both hands wrapped around a mug.
For the first time in three days on the ship, her boots were off.
Her shoulders drooped.
They were safe.
For now.
In the small guestroom, her twins slept soundly on a narrow bed, exhausted from the long journey.
Laura set a plate of banana bread on the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down across from Sarah.
She looked older than Sarah remembered.
Her nanny’s hair had turned silver.
Deep lines had appeared around her mouth and eyes, but she looked at Sarah the same way she always did when she was younger.
Patient, gentle, and warm.
While Sarah’s mother never raised her voice at her, Laura wouldn’t hesitate to tell Sarah what she did wrong when needed.
“Eat, Emy,” Laura said, pushing the plate close to Sarah.
“You look as if you haven’t eaten enough these days.”
“We ate a little on the ship,” Sarah replied, accepting the bread.
She picked up a fork and ate it.
Laura looked at her, still unable to believe that Sarah was sitting across from her.
She had raised this young woman from the moment she was born.
Walked her down the aisle when her parents couldn’t.
Watched her fall in love with a Moretti heir.
“I thought you were dead, Emy.” Laura’s voice cracked.
“Everyone said you died.
I went to see the wreck myself.
No one could have survived that fall.
So how?
What happened to you?”
Sarah took a deep breath.
She didn’t know where to start.
She glanced at the small room where her twins were sleeping peacefully.
If she had another choice, she wouldn’t have returned to this place.
But her children still needed her.
If she wanted to be with them a little longer, she would have to take this gamble.
“The Morettis wanted me gone,” Sarah said.
“They forced me to sign the divorce papers and leave Adrian.
In return, they would save his life.
They made me choose, and I chose.
I just didn’t expect that they truly wanted me dead.”
Laura gasped, but didn’t seem surprised.
In their world, this was how things worked.
“And the twins?
Did they know?”
Sarah shook her head.
“I couldn’t tell them.
I couldn’t…”
The fork fell from her hand onto the plate with a sharp clunk.
Laura covered her hand with hers and looked at Sarah with sympathy.
She could imagine how hard it had been for Sarah back then.
She regretted not being there to make Sarah feel that she wasn’t alone.
“I initially thought that I was leaving with just one baby.
I’d never known I was carrying twins.
I did any small job I could to save for a fare out of Costa Verde.
I couldn’t let anyone know I was alive, or carrying a Moretti child.”
“But how did you survive out there, Emy?” Laura asked, tears rolling down her cheeks as she listened to Sarah.
Sarah was the De Lucas’ precious little princess.
Everything she needed and wanted was provided.
She had never experienced hardship growing up.
She looked at Sarah’s hands.
They were once smooth and dainty.
Now, they had calluses on their fingertips and were almost bony to the touch.
“Mom taught me how to use needles and blades.
She said others would underestimate a woman.”
Laura let out a small laugh despite her tears.
She remembered the arguments between Sarah’s parents—the Don wanting her to learn guns, the Donna wanting her to have a normal life.
They compromised.
Sarah learned both.
“Laura, don’t you remember?
Mom used to teach me how to make stitches.
From normal clothes to bloody meats to delicate skin.
I had to practice it nonstop.” Sarah paused.
“I stitch and do needlework.
Those little needles saved me and my children’s lives.”
“I wish you could have told me where you were going, Emy.
I would have gone with you,” Laura said.
Sarah shook her head and patted Laura’s hand.
“No, Laura.
The moment you retired as my nanny, you weren’t part of the De Luca family anymore.
I would only bring trouble.
I’m not even sure why they were coming after me.
At least with you here, I wouldn’t be worried that something might happen to you because of me.”
Laura wiped away the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Sarah might not have come from her, but this young woman was like a daughter to her.
It pained her to know that Sarah suffered alone with no one to rely on.
“And the twins?
How did you manage to take care of them?” she asked.
“I was so scared when I found out I was carrying twins, Laura.
I didn’t know what to do.” Sarah sighed as the memories flashed through her.
“I was lucky to meet a family who hired me and took me in to stay with them when I gave birth.
I named them Alexander and Abigail.”
Sarah paused, looking out the kitchen window.
The rain had started falling once more.
“I didn’t dare to take advantage of their kindness, though, and left once the twins turned two.
Since then, I raised them in small rented rooms, far from the busy cities.
We’ve moved at least seven times in four years because I feared that if we settled in one place for too long, someone would recognize me.
After all, a woman in a veil was something people could not miss or ignore for too long.”
Sarah touched the scar on her cheek and smiled bitterly.
“Seven years,” Laura breathed when Sarah fell silent.
“You carried all of that alone.”
“I was never alone, Laura,” Sarah said, smiling as she looked toward where her twins slept.
“I had my sweet babies with me.
On the worst days, they were the only reason I kept going.”
“And what about you, Emy?
How have you been these years?”
Sarah lowered her gaze.
She had endured everything so far on her own.
She only wished she could lead a peaceful life with her children.
When she said nothing, Laura’s tone went serious.
“Sarah Emilia De Luca, don’t you try to lie to me,” she said.
Sarah instinctively straightened her back.
Even at the age of twenty-eight, her body still couldn’t forget Laura’s commanding tone.
“I see how you move, Emy.
You keep looking down at your hands.
You bumped into something twice when you were helping the twins wash up.
What’s going on, Emy?”
Sarah let out a shaky breath.
“It’s my eyes, Laura.”
She paused.
The words felt heavy.
“The doctor said the crash caused it.
At first, my eyesight just got blurry.
Then darkness crept in from the sides.
It gets worse every month.
I can see well in bright light, but struggle when it gets dark…”
She trailed off.
Laura’s chair clattered to the floor.
She was on her feet in an instant, pulling Sarah into her arms.
“My sweet girl,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
“Haven’t you suffered enough?”
Sarah couldn’t say a word.
She didn’t tell Laura the other thing—the thing that kept her awake at night.
That sometimes, in the dark, when her children were asleep, she still dreamed of Adrian.
She still wondered if he was alive.
If he’d moved on.
If he ever thought of her.