Chapter 22: The Road North

Lara's POV

Nightfall's cars were lined up in the lodge yard when I came out with my mother, and the desert wind was blowing dust across the gravel.

Gianna stood beside the last one with a single suitcase.

Her bracelets were gone. Her hair was pinned up badly.

Two Nightfall men waited at the car door, not touching her. They did not have to.

She saw me and her chin came up.

"I suppose you've come to watch," she said.

"I came to get my mother's bag."

Bernice, behind me, said nothing at all.

Gianna looked past me at her.

"I was always nice to you," she said to me, and she sounded honestly puzzled. "I brought you coffee. I carried your case."

"You did," I said. "That's how I'll remember it."

"I only wanted what you had."

"I never had it. I paid half the rent."

Her mouth opened, and closed.

She got into the car.

The driver shut the door on her and it pulled out through the gate, followed by her father's, which had no one else in it.

Nobody waved.

"That was kinder than I'd have been," said Bernice.

"I'm not kind. I'm done."

"They look alike, from the outside."

I picked up her canvas bag.

Vittorio was standing under the porch roof with his hands behind his back.

He took a step toward us, then stopped.

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