Chapter 8 - THE FIRST DAY SOPHIA WALKED AWAY FROM LUCA
Sophia's tenth birthday came with rain.
She wanted the gala ballroom.
Luca said no.
Too many memories.
Sophia said:
“That's why.”
She wanted to replace the memory.
So Harbor Lights agreed.
No four hundred donors.
Twenty people.
Cake.
Music.
Dr. Benton.
Matteo.
Me.
Tommy, Sophia's school friend.
Hospital staff.
No press.
Sophia entered in her wheelchair.
On purpose.
She wore green.
Not blue.
She wheeled to the same place where she'd stood three years earlier.
Then looked at me.
“Don't move.”
I laughed.
“Okay.”
She locked the brakes.
Stood.
This time nobody applauded.
We had learned.
One step.
Two.
Brace.
Cane.
Dr. Benton nearby but not touching.
Sophia crossed the floor.
Then walked past me.
I gasped.
She grinned.
“Got you.”
Luca laughed from across the room.
Sophia reached him.
He opened his arms.
She stopped.
“No.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“I can keep going.”
Then she walked past her father too.
Across the ballroom.
To the balcony doors.
She turned.
“I did it for me.”
Luca cried again.
Less secretly this time.
That was the day he understood something essential.
Sophia running toward Hannah had been powerful.
But Sophia walking away from both of them mattered even more.
She was becoming her own person.
That evening Luca asked me to stay after everyone left.
We stood by the windows.
Chicago glowing below.
“You're leaving the hotel.”
“How do you know?”
“Matteo.”
“Tell Matteo spying is creepy.”
“He calls it research.”
“I got into nursing school.”
Luca smiled.
“I know.”
“Of course you do.”
I had delayed nursing school after the bridge because medical debt and work made it impossible.
The compensation case was finally resolved.
Not a gift.
A legitimate settlement.
Enough to return.
“Sophia will miss you.”
“I'll still see her.”
“And me?”
I looked at him.
There it was.
Not Mafia boss.
Not father.
Man.
“You're asking badly.”
He smiled.
“I'm learning.”
Then:
“Will you have dinner with me?”
“We've had dinner.”
“Without Sophia.”
“That sounds suspicious.”
May you like
“Very.”
I said yes.
