Page 67 of Luca
The answer is exactly what Sofia would say.
"Yes," I say quietly. "You have me now."
"Should we get ready for dinner?" she asks, already moving toward the closet. "I'd like to change into something nicer."
"Of course."
I watch her select a conservative, expensive dress. Exactly what Sofia Romano would wear for dinner in Prague. I can't stop thinking about the worn jeans and jacket she was wearing this afternoon. Clothes that belonged to her, and fit her personality.
While she's in the bathroom changing, I check my phone. Several messages from Paolo asking if he should continue tailing the man she met with. The man who has apparently spent the afternoon drinking heavily with friends at a café and showing no signs of leaving.
“Tell the men not to lose him or approach him.” I text back. I would love to murder him for touching her, and I might still do that, though it doesn’t serve my purpose right now.
At least I know, one way or the other, I will get answers on this trip.
If not from her, I can torture it out of him.
When she emerges from the bathroom, she's Sofia Romano again. Perfectly dressed, carefully made up, ready to play the role of wealthy wife enjoying her European honeymoon.
"Ready to go?" she asks, and there's nothing in her expression to suggest she spent the afternoon in a Prague hostel district.
"Almost," I say. "Just one more question."
"What's that?"
"If you had to disappear tomorrow, if you had to leave everything behind and start over somewhere brand new, where would you go?"
The question stops her cold. For a moment, her careful mask slips and I see something that looks like raw panic.
"Why would you ask that? What’s going on? You seem agitated or worried."
"Only curious about your dreams. The places you've always wanted to see but never could."
"I... I don't know. I've never really thought about it."
"Everyone thinks about it sometimes. The fantasy of walking away from your old life and becoming someone new. A fresh start in a new place."
"I don't have those fantasies. I'm happy with my life."
But the way she says it suggests otherwise. The way she says it suggests she knows exactly where she would go, exactly how she would disappear, exactly what it feels like to walk away from everything familiar.
"I’m glad," I say, standing up. "Because I'd hate to wake up one morning and find you gone."
The words are true.
Despite everything.
Despite the lies and the deception and the growing certainty that the woman I married isn't who she claims to be.
I would hate to lose her.
And if I did wake up one morning and find her gone, I’d hunt the world over until I found her again.
Chapter 26: Gabriella
Something is terribly wrong.
I can feel it in the way Luca is watching me.
