Page 53 of Never Tear Us Apart

Chapter Fifty-One

Sal and I leave the half-house in silence, each of us feeling the weight of a possible goodbye and all the uncertainty that comes with it.

Of course, it might not work; it probably won’t.

All I have to go on are Kathryn’s stories and not one shred of evidence.

But this is the only way I can think of to try to take some control over what is happening to me, because I have found a home here.

I have found a family. I have found something I never really believed was true: I have found love.

And I will be damned if some mindless cosmic force gets to show me all of that and then rip me away from it any time it wants.

‘There,’ Sal whispers as we stop across the street from a place cloaked in slanted shadows.

We are in the heart of the small town, Paola.

Light from inside the buildings is blotted out, but somewhere nearby, I hear a radio playing and a family talking.

There are no soldiers posted outside the entrance gate to the site as I had expected. Sal and I look at each other.

‘It can’t be this easy,’ I say.

‘I hear the local people use the lower levels as a shelter,’ Sal says. ‘The army has nothing to fear from islanders, remember. Wait here.’

Very slowly, with his hands clasped behind his back, Sal saunters over to the gate. I watch as he looks up and down the street and then tries it. The creak it makes sounds deafening in the still night, but the gate opens. Sal looks towards me and beckons.

The night seems to lean in, and I hesitate for a moment, afraid that this time the universe will not let me go, that I’ll never see Danny again.