Chapter 10 - Elena Comes Home
I met Elena at a secure hospital two days later. She was thinner than in the photographs and moved slowly, but her brown eyes were clear. Vincent sat beside her bed with his hands clasped together, waiting while she decided what she wanted to say.
"I thought you signed those papers," she told him.
"I didn't."
"I know that now. But for years I thought you chose your family over us."
He didn't defend himself. "I'm sorry I trusted Richard more than I trusted the questions I should have asked."
Elena looked at him for a long moment. "I don't know what we are anymore."
"You don't have to decide today."
She began to cry. He offered his hand, and after a pause she took it.
Grace's reunion with Elena happened privately, with Nora and a child therapist nearby. When they emerged, Grace was asleep against her mother's shoulder, one hand clutching Captain Blue. Vincent watched from the doorway, tears shining in his eyes.
Elena asked to speak to me. "Daniel told me about you," she said. "He said you were the first person who made him believe he could live a normal life."
"He gave me a normal life," I answered. "For a little while."
She told me that Daniel had feared Richard would target me if he revealed the truth. He had been gathering evidence to expose the scheme, but the accident came before he could deliver it. Elena did not know what happened to him that day.
"He loved you," she said. "He talked about your baby all the time."
May you like
I placed my hand over my stomach. "He wanted to call her Grace."
Elena smiled through tears. "He said it was a name worth protecting."
