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"And for now?" Gabe asked.
Cora sighed. She was tired. She needed to rest after what had happened here. There were family commitments that she’d promised to keep.
"For now, we go home. We're done here. You need to go visit your mother. I need to spend the weekend with my parents. There might be more cases coming in and work to be done. But we come back. Soon."
As Gabe nodded in agreement, Cora felt a surge of hope and determination. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but with Gabe by her side, she felt like they could do anything. They would help Rose to do what she was doing undercover. Perhaps, along the way, they might find her sister, or she might reach out to Cora, especially if Rose realized who was helping her.
And maybe, at some stage in the future, they could all find peace.
EPILOGUE
“Have you tried this meatloaf?” Cora’s mother hovered near the buffet, addressing the question to Gabe’s mother as family and friends began filtering in from the warm backyard to the luncheon table. "I've used chopped bacon in the recipe. That's my trade secret, and I don't mind telling you. I'll give you the recipe if you tell me how you iced that cake so perfectly."
Cora couldn’t suppress a smile – half affectionate, half amused, as she watched her mother, healthy and well, introducing every one of her dishes as if they were personal friends, along with cookery tips and high-level interrogation tactics about how the other guests had made their food.
“I can’t wait to try it. And that potato salad is a work of art,” Gabe’s mother smiled, taking a plate and moving along the line of food. “So many beautiful dishes here.”
She moved away, letting the other guests get first pick, not that there was a shortage of food. In fact, she was wondering if they might be able to find another twenty people to finish up the mountains of chicken pie, Cobb salad, buffalo wings, sourdough bread, fruit punch, and homemade ginger ale.
Cora still didn't find these events easy. But in the past couple of years, she'd learned to endure them. She'd discovered the secret to success was to stay in the background, answer questions in a vague way, talk about food and the weather, and how the local sports teams had fared. So far, so good.
And, of course, Gabe's company helped. He was also waiting in the background, watching the action with an expression she could best describe as happy bemusement, and she gave his hand a discreet squeeze.
His big arm wrapped around her, rubbing her shoulder, and he responded with a loving grin.
And then, her mother turned, giving an even bigger smile of welcome as the guest of honor arrived.
“Rose! Rose, honey, you made it on time!”
Cora’s heart skipped a beat as the slim woman, with her crisply bobbed hair, a vivid strawberry blond, strolled in.
She would never forget how they'd met a year ago in a Paris backstreet. How Rose had approached her cautiously, her eyes narrowed, her expression wary.
“Cora? Cora?” she’d said, and then her voice had cracked. “It’s you. Really you.”
Cora could still remember the feeling of Rose’s wiry arms around her, hugging her so tight she could barely breathe.
They’d stayed up all night, just the two of them, in Cora’s hotel room, with Gabe next door, staying out of the way, but they’d spoken about him, gotten that fact out in the open. A lot of the time had been spent in silence. Some had been spent in tears. They hadn’t shared everything. They still hadn’t. They talked about it occasionally, slivers of the past, only what they could handle, and not too much at one time. Cora had been through hell, but it was nothing compared to Rose’s hell. Rose was seeing a therapist, and Cora had insisted on that. She was paying.
And Rose had been supportive, right from the get-go, about the fact Cora was seeing Gabe. Cora hadn't known how to approach that. She hadn't known if Rose would be okay with it or if she'd feel totally awkward and negative. Or even if Gabe would.
But when Cora had gathered the courage to tell her, toward the end of that first long night, Rose had simply shrugged. “I always doubted Gabe was Buddy’s son,” she’d said dismissively. “They’re completely different people. Buddy was a monster, but he was weak, and I escaped him, and I guess it was thanks to him I found Mario. And Mario, I loved.”
Her face had softened at the mention of his name, and Cora had felt a pang because the man she'd loved was dead, killed by the Mob. But he'd taught Rose well, and the skills he'd shown her had allowed her to escape her traffickers after only a few days. She'd hidden out in Paris, and then, she'd planned her strategy. Keep on the move, and keep rescuing others. Destroy all the tentacles of this vile operation. She hadn’t gotten in touch with Cora because the time had never felt right. But she’d thought about her a lot. Cora understood that. Sometimes, coming back felt difficult or impossible.
"So, have you met my daughter Rose?" Her mother's proud voice dragged Cora all the way back to the present. Rose cast Cora a conspiratorial glance as she walked over for handshakes and hugs with the family and friends.
“Rose has recently reconnected with the family. She mostly lives in Europe now. She comes back to the States for vacations,” her mother explained proudly, and Cora knew there would be tears in her eyes.
"Really? Is that so?" The neighbor from across the road, who'd brought a peach cobbler to the bring-and-share table, looked interestedly at Rose. "What do you do in Europe?"
“Retrieval. I’m into retrieval projects,” Rose said, and Cora bit her lip, trying her best not to show a smile at the easy explanation that glossed over the real, gritty work she did.
“That’ll be that IT, I guess. Seems everyone's into that these days." Sounding half admiring and half disapproving, the steely-haired woman nodded knowledgeably. "It's a shame, I think, that there aren't more folks out there connecting with real people in their everyday work. It's all screens and offices today."
Now Cora had to bite her lip even harder, not daring to look at Gabe, or she knew she’d let out a snort.
“It is a shame, I agree,” Rose said respectfully.
