Chapter 194
Elodie took a sip of water, the cool liquid doing nothing to ease the tightness in her throat. "Xavier and Hugo have already spent the whole day with you," she said, keeping her voice gentle. "They need some quiet time to do their homework, and you might distract them if you stay."
Liora barely glanced up from her tablet, her small fingers swiping across the screen with practiced ease. "I don’t need them to stay with me. I can play on my tablet by myself."
The words shouldn’t have stung. They were innocent enough , just a child being independent. But something about the casual dismissal, the way Liora didn’t even look at her when she spoke, settled like a stone in Elodie’s chest.
She didn’t push it. What would be the point? Instead, she pulled out her phone and typed a quick message to Dante: Can you have someone pick up Liora later?
She stared at the screen for a moment, watching the message shift to ’delivered.’ No response. Not that she expected one. Dante was probably busy, he was always busy when it came to anything involving her. She slipped the phone back into her pocket and tried not to think about it.
After Xavier finished his shopping, they wandered through a few more stores, though Elodie’s mind was elsewhere. The bright lights felt too harsh, the chatter of other shoppers too loud. She smiled when Xavier showed her something, nodded in all the right places, but inside, she felt like she was watching herself from a distance.
When they finally arrived back at the Cole family house, the atmosphere shifted immediately. Nonna’s face lit up the moment she saw Liora, her weathered hands reaching out to cup the little girl’s face.
"There’s my precious girl!" Nonna said, her voice warm and delighted in a way that made Elodie’s heart twist with something she couldn’t quite name. Not jealousy, never that. Just... absence. The knowledge that she used to be able to make her daughter’s face light up like that, too.
Liora beamed, leaning into her great-grandmother’s touch in a way she hadn’t leaned into Elodie’s in months.
They truly adored Liora. And Liora, to her credit, was sweet with them—spending time with Nonna after dinner, even suggesting a walk around the garden when the evening cooled down. Nonna’s laughter echoed through the house as they strolled arm in arm, and for a moment, Elodie could almost forget the hollow ache that had taken up permanent residence in her ribs.
Almost.
Dante still hadn’t replied.