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“Nico doesn’t have to come with us,” I finally say. “In fact, I don’t want him to. It’ll just be me and Lucia, Papa. You know I can take care of her. We’ll take care of each other. But we can’t continue to live like this. Mom wouldn’t have wanted this for us.”
His lips thin, and his eyes grow stormy like they always do at the mention of my mother.
“You have no idea what your mother would have wanted, Aurora.”
“I know she’d want us safe.”
“Yes,” he nods in agreement. “And I want that as well.”
He gets to his feet and walks over to a safe to pull out some documents. He places them on the table in front of me. The documents contain a new identity for me and Lucia.
“Everything you need to start over is in there,” my father states. “ID cards, school identification, birth certificates. All under the names Aurora and Lucia Kent.”
I exhale softly as I pore through them. “How do you already have these?”
“I had them made a long time ago. Just in case anything ever happened to me and the both of you were in danger. The documents are foolproof. They contain all the information you could possibly need. So now you just need to take them and go.”
I look up at him, surprised he’s not fighting this. And wishing that he would. Because when he said we’d have to leave everything behind, he meant himself as well. Shouldn’t he care more than this? He might never see his daughters again.
“Do you still want to go through with this?” he asks.
I nod, knowing in my heart that I have to do this to protect Lucia.
“When do you want to leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. Before anybody gets up,” I reply.
That manages to surprise him. “You’re not planning on saying goodbye.”
“Like I told you, Papa. I want a clean break, an easy one. If Nico knew, he would try to stop me.”
“This will hurt him.”
“I know,” I say softly. “But I have to go through with this.”
He nods in understanding. “I’ll have everything you need ready for you by then.”
“Thank you, Papa,” I breathe, getting to my feet and starting to walk out of the room.
“Aurora?” he says softly, prompting me to look back at him. “You’re so much stronger than you give yourself credit for, cara. I’m proud of you.”
I don’t need you to be proud of me, Papa. I need to know you really care. For once, just show it.
But he won’t. I don’t think he remembers how. I nod again to show that I understand before walking out of the room. My next daunting task is trying to convince Lucia. When I head into her room and tell her the plan, she doesn’t put up much of a fight. She tells me she understands and that she’ll go anywhere as long as we’re together.
We’re gone by the time dawn breaks the next morning. I keep telling myself that I’m doing this to protect my sister and myself.
But I know deep down that what I’m really doing is running away.
CHAPTER 28
AURORA
Present day
“You killed him for me?” he whispers.
I nod slowly.
