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The elevator doors opened, and my father walked in. The idea of helping my mother find the information she needed woke something inside me. Something I never thought would come to life.

Hope.

“We may have found something,” I said with enthusiasm. But the look on my father’s face told me he wasn’t listening. I looked at my mother, and her smile was gone.

Standing up, I faced my father. “Dad? What’s wrong?”

“Maddie, sweetheart, I need to speak to your mother.” It was a dismissal. His eyes never left my mother, but I didn’t want to leave them alone. Not after what she’d just told me about my stepfather. That was how I thought about him now. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t deny he’d been married to my mother.

But he wasn’t my father.

I didn’t believe my father would hurt her, not physically. But the anger that radiated off him had me concerned. I’d never seen him angry like this. My mother must have seen the worry on my face because she smiled at me and said, “It’s okay, honey. You have that meeting you need to go to.”

My brow furrowed, not understanding at first, but it quickly came back to me. She’d been against me talking to Mr. Sinclair, but now she wanted me to go. Whatever had made my father angry, she must have known what it was.

“If you’re sure?” I pressed.

“I am.” She wrapped her arms around me and whispered, “He won’t hurt me. I’ve been waiting for this.”

I closed my eyes against my tears. Suddenly I was seven years old, hearing my parents fighting. At the time, I’d wished they would divorce, but now... now all I wanted was to watch my father kiss my mother the way he did that first morning I saw them together. I wanted to see him playfully swat her ass.

My mother stepped back, and I stood before my father.

“I don’t know why you’re so angry, but let her explain,” I begged.

He pulled me against his chest and whispered, “I still love her with every fuckin’ cell in my body.”

I nodded against his shoulder, then moved toward the elevator, leaving them to work out whatever had come between them.

Behind me, they stood on opposite sides of twenty-nine years—love and fear, stolen choices and the truths that had survived them. By the time the doors closed, I understood that Mom and I were not healed, but we were speaking again, and that was more than either of us had carried into the day.

When I stepped out into the lobby, I smiled at Walter as he held the door for me. Stepping out onto the street, I took a deep inhale of the warm air. Summer was almost here, and before long, the pressing heat would be on us.

Outside, Boston smelled of saltwater and spring. I walked toward the train station with Eamon’s names in my purse, Salvatore’s ring against my heart, and Valentino Valentinetti waiting at the first intersection between the family I had married into and the Society that had taken my husband.

CHAPTER TEN

Late Spring 2025, New York City

As the train pulled into the station, I sighed. I still loved this city, but being here broke my heart. Especially knowing my son was only a few blocks away, and I couldn’t see his face, hear his voice, or hold him in my arms. I took a deep breath as I stepped off the train. I was here for a reason, and until my task was completed, Henry had to be put back into the locked box inside my heart.

The one place he would never be hurt.

Looking up at the building I was so familiar with, I smiled as I thought of my friend. He was living in Nebraska now with his husband and daughter. I shook my head, thinking about Dante Sharp living in the country.

The receptionist eyed me as I walked toward her. “I’d like to see Mr. Sinclair, please.”

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked.

“I don’t, no.” I hadn’t thought to make an appointment.

“Your name?”

Before I could answer, her phone rang. “Yes, sir?” She listened to the voice on the other end and smiled. “Right away, sir.”

Standing from her desk, she said, “Please follow me, Mrs. Valentinetti.”

My breath hitched at the name. No one called me by that name because most people still didn’t know. But Sinclair knew. He’d been the one to help Salvatore and me.