“I can see you're thriving.”
I gesture toward the dreadful room while laughing.
“I didn't run away. Lorenzo knows I'm no longer in Sicily.”
“Well, good for you. Here I'm just... me. And honestly, that's not much, but it's still wonderful. I walk through this city feeling as though there are eyes watching me everywhere.”
He rubs his tired face.
Without warning, he steps forward and wraps me in a bear hug filled with longing and the feeling of home.
“I thought you were dead,” he says with relief.
“I believed only Paolo and I were left of the De Luca family, and that they would never allow me to see you again.”
“He's alive? With our father?”
“No. Honestly, I have no idea where he disappeared to. You know he hasn't been right in the head for a long time, but when everything collapsed,
