But it was a flaw made entirely of love, and I have made my peace with it, because I have seen, now, exactly what it was always standing between me and the dark.

Chapter 19 — She Has Your Nose

Luca sat down beside me on the porch rocker, cradling Fiona against his chest, and our daughter rested her head against his shoulder, her hazel eyes, the deep-set Vance eyes, fluttering slowly shut as she drifted toward a nap in the warm afternoon.

I reached over and touched his hand.

“She has your nose, you know,” I said softly, smiling.

And it was, in its way, a small brave joke between us, because we both knew what else she had, the eyes, the dimple, the crescent mark, the physical inheritance of a family we had fought so hard to escape.