Chapter 8 - THE REUNION
We drove in silence to my mother’s small house on the edge of town.
The rain had stopped, leaving the streets slick and quiet under the streetlights. Lily sat in the back seat between me and Tom, her hands clutching the silver rosary in her lap.
“Will she hate me?” Lily whispered as we pulled into the driveway.
“She never stopped loving you,” I promised her.
I unlocked the front door with my key. The house smelled like cinnamon and old paper, exactly the way it always did.
My mother was sitting in her worn armchair in the living room, watching the late-night news. She looked up when we walked in, her face etched with the exhaustion of a woman who had carried a terrible secret for two decades.
“Amelia?” she asked, confused. “Why aren’t you with Tom? Did the courthouse go okay?”
Then, I stepped aside.
Lily walked into the light of the living room, wearing the emerald green coat.
My mother froze. Her hands gripped the armrests of her chair so tightly her knuckles turned white. She let out a sound—a fractured, breathless sob that tore through the quiet room.
“My baby,” she wept, pushing herself up on shaking legs.
Lily ran to her. They collapsed into each other, nineteen years of stolen time dissolving in a tangle of tears and the old wool coat.
I leaned against Tom, crying silently as I watched my family finally become whole.
After a long time, my mother pulled back and cupped Lily’s face. She looked at me, her eyes begging for forgiveness.
“I had to protect you, Amelia,” she cried. “They told me if I went to the police, they would hurt you. I didn’t know how to stop them.”
“It’s over, Mom,” I said gently. “Celeste is gone. Nico Caruso made sure she won’t ever come near this family again.”
Tom stepped forward and laid the white wedding dress gently over the back of the sofa.
“It got a little dirty at the station,” Tom smiled, “but I think it still works.”
My mother touched the pearls she had sewn. “You missed your appointment at the courthouse.”
Tom reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
He turned to me, right there in the small, crowded living room, and got down on one knee.
“I didn’t want the courthouse anyway,” Tom said, looking up at me. “Amelia, I’ve loved you since the day we met. I loved you when we were broke, I loved you when you were serving tables tonight, and I love you now. I don’t want to wait another day.”
He opened the box. Inside was a simple gold band.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
I looked at my mother, who was beaming through her tears. I looked at Lily, my sister, who was smiling for the very first time.
May you like
“Yes,” I said, pulling him up by his lapels to kiss him. “Yes.”
Suddenly, a heavy knock echoed from the front porch.
