Chapter 43

• I sat on a small wooden chair at the back of the cabin, rocking slightly as I tried to remember the rocking chair from the old house, now reduced to ashes.
• The night was cold, inhospitable, and I felt deeply saddened by everything that had happened to Nana. Losing the mansion had hurt me terribly too, especially because of what the baby’s room meant—the items we had brought from Croatia and the beautiful outfits Salvatore had prepared for the birth. Although there was still a long way to go until that moment, the cruelty of it all weighed heavily on me in my current state.
• Tears cascaded down my cheeks uncontrollably. I caressed my belly, feeling my little one moving inside me. Though still so tiny, I cherished these signs that confirmed his existence within me. Amid all the desolation, it filled me with a bittersweet melancholy.