The Moretti Daughter They Denied novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Alive
Nora's POV
The car turned in at the Ravello gate, and I saw her before the driver did.
Antonella stood on the pavement in her camel coat with two men in dark suits a step behind her.
My stomach turned over. My legs were still weak from a month in bed, and I leaned on the seat.
"Stop here," I said.
The driver stopped.
I opened the door myself and climbed out into the cold, with Matteo's coat over my shoulders and a knit cap on my bare head.
"Nora, darling," Antonella said. "You look terrible."
"I'm alive."
"Of course you are. Salvatore bled for you." She smiled. "He's not himself, you know. The grief has unhinged him. The family has decided that you should come home and be looked after properly."
"By whom?"
"By me. These gentlemen will help you into the car."
One of the soldiers took a step toward me. I knew him. He had carried my school bag once, when I was nine and the strap broke.
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
The Ravello gate rolled open behind me.
Matteo came down the front steps without hurrying, in his shirtsleeves, and he stopped beside me.
He didn't touch me. He waited to see what I'd say.
"I'm staying here," I told Antonella.
"You signed a paper, Nora. You gave up the name. You belong to no one."
"That's right. I belong to no one. I chose this address."
She laughed, a short, bright sound. "Take her."
The soldier reached for my arm.
"I wouldn't," said a man behind me.
The two envoys had come out onto the Ravello steps.
One was gray and square, and the other was thin, with a cane. They were the faces the Commission sent when it wanted the families to know it was watching.
The soldier took his hand back.
"Signora Moretti," the thin one said. "We've been waiting on your husband's statement."
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