Page 119 of Enzo
I leaned into the back of the couch, heart twisting until we finally had to go. I couldn’t tell them this was goodbye, that the suitcases were already in the car, that I wouldn’t sleep in their cottage another night. There wasn’t room for more loss in this house.
I hugged my father goodbye. He held the back of my head a little too long, like he knew but wouldn’t say it.
When we left, we didn’t linger. No second hugs. No backward glances. We walked out into the cold, past the bare lemon trees, past the ghosts, and straight to Enzo’s waiting vehicle parked by the cottage. When Enzo opened the car door for me, the wind picked up again, swirling leaves around our ankles.
As he started the car, I couldn’t resist glancing back at the manor one last time. Shuttered windows said goodbye, chimney smoke curling up into the black sky while the lemon trees surrounded the home in silent rows, dark and bare.
We drove through the fog without headlights for a while, my hand clutching Enzo’s and my memories like something I could take with me.
48
PENELOPE
We arrived at our new home.
The sea stretched below us, blue water crashing against the rocks with enough force to swallow sound. The house sat high above it all, on a cliff surrounded by blue from three sides.
The estate had been abandoned for years, hidden under fake LLCs and an untouched inheritance. Enzo paid the right people to clean it up fast. No cameras inside. No paper trail.
It wasn’t the kind of place you bought for comfort. It was the kind you bought to keep enemies out and your loved ones safe. Enzo wasn’t sure what other tricks Atticus kept in his back pocket, even beyond the grave, but he wasn’t risking any enemies appearing out of the woodwork, hunting for blood.
We parked and he carried our suitcases in, the house echoing as we walked through it.
“I had the kitchen and our bedroom suite completely redone,” he informed me. “The rest we can do together.”
I nodded once, my eyes on the horizon, taking in the majestic views. Under different circumstances, it would be breathtaking.After a sleepless night and revelations that’d shattered me all over again, all I could do was stare numbly at it.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, almost as if he expected me to bolt back to my parents. I wouldn’t. He was my present and my future. He was my husband. He was my home.
I reached for his hand. His palm was calloused, warm, familiar. Solid in a way nothing else felt lately.
“I’m fine, just tired,” I said.
He looked at me then, something unreadable in his eyes. “Go rest. It’s been a long night.”
“Will you rest with me?” He shook his head and I gripped his hand tighter. “Please, we both need it.”
He caved.
We showered, our favorite soaps already stocked for us, then slipped into bed.
His hands safely around me, I closed my eyes and evened my breaths. I knew sleep wouldn’t find me, but Enzo needed the rest more than me.
He’d need a sharp head, because my gut warned that the deaths of those two doctors wouldn’t go unnoticed.
I lay in bed next to him as the weight of everything settled around us like dust after an explosion. Enzo hadn’t moved. Not in hours. His breathing was slow and steady, but I knew he wasn’t asleep either.
You didn’t sleep after something like this.
You just survived it.
I turned my face toward him in the dark, tracing the silhouette of his profile, the way his hands were clenched in the blanket like it was the only thing tethering him to this world. He was the same thoughtful and kind man he’d been to my sister, my parents, and my brothers, I was just seeing the rest of him.
The fury. The violence. The part of him that could take a life without blinking.
That was who we were: a legacy of heathens.
But we were so much more than that. We were avenging angels, justice seekers. Enzo had proved as much when he killed those men last night. He avenged Amara and saved other children from Dr. Gvozden’s future betrayal.
