Page 78 of Die for You

I peer up from the phone and look at her. She is plagued and broken. Harm done to us, we can accept. But to our daughter? It’s a different sort of pain.

“What happens if we don’t find her?” she whispers, her lower lip trembling.

“We will.” I will search high and low until she’s found.“I promise.”

Gonzo knocks on the balcony door before coming out to greet us.

I arch a brow.

He nods.

Jumping up, I slap him on the shoulder happily.

He pushes his thick black glasses up his nose. “Here. All the messages were sent from this address.”

“Congratulations. You just earned yourself a pay raise,” I say, reading over the address in his scribbled handwriting.

“I tried to trace the call made to you before the explosion. No luck.”

I pat him on the back. “It’s all right. Thank you.”

The new lease on life animates Valentina. I see the fire in her eyes.

She’s ready.

“Where is she?”

She reads my face instantly because Gianna is where the ghosts of Valentina’s past dwell.

“You don’t have—”

“Yes, I do,” she interrupts. “We’re doing this, and we’re doing it now.”

This place is a haven for the depraved. So it makes sense that Gianna is hiding out at Saint Maria’s Orphanage.

What better place for a fugitive to hide?

I have no doubt she’s putting on a holier-than-thou act. If anyone came looking for her, she would say she found her calling helping the less fortunate.

No one questions someone who is doing “good” or someone who is repenting for their sins.

She has connections with the sisters. So they are providing her sanctuary.

Most would not start a war in the house of the Lord.

But we’re not most.

We’re sitting in the car, taking in this Gothic-style orphanage that was once our home. Far from welcoming, the outside reflects the gloom within.

Valentina is silent, but she’s wrangling a personal battle because this place holds memories that won’t let go.

“Father Merry often told me I looked just like my mother. Sister Margarette. That she was to blame for my suffering, for she knew what she was doing when she left me on this doorstep. But she wasn’t my mother. So why did Father Merry think she was?”

We both know the answer to that.

Gianna appears to manipulate every person she meets, crafting a story to support her claims. “I suspect Gianna is a benefactor to the orphanage. This was the only one where she could keep an eye on you. Because of her friendship with Sister Margarette, she could fabricate a story and tarnish her name. And Sister Margarette couldn’t defend herself because Gianna had her committed, but not before cutting out her tongue.”

“I was really, really mean to her,” Valentina confesses with remorse. “I was just so angry. Gianna had told me so many lies. So when I went to see her, I exploded. I wish I could take it back. What happened to her?”