Page 7 of Bread in The Oven

Caitríona gasps softly. She gets up and comes around to my side and hugs me.

“I was supposed to be there. And because I wasn’t, I lost all of them. Amara was three months pregnant when it happened.Bruno was seven, Romeo was five and our baby, Oriana was three.”

I pull my phone out and show her a picture of my family.

“They’re beautiful, Romano. I can’t even begin to know how you feel or what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say. My world died that day. And I tried to stay in Rome for my parents. But I just couldn’t. They said they understood. So I put in my transfer to come here. And when Giacomo accepted it, I left my home to start new here.”

“How long has it been?” she asks.

“Almost a year and a half.”

Caitríona hugs me again. “Thank you for telling me, I won’t tell anyone until you’re ready to share. But I think that Amara would be happy if you found someone to love again. I know that if I was gone, I would want Giacomo to fall in love again. It’s hard to imagine that. But I would never want him to suffer for the rest of his time here.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that. Amara and I talked about the what ifs. And she said that to me. That she wouldn’t want me to be alone. I haven’t even wanted to look at another woman until I saw Simone yesterday. Part of me feels like I’m betraying Amara. But I hear her voice telling me it’s okay, that she wants me to be happy again.”

Caitríona smiles. “It sounds like she’s happy that you might have found someone.”

I give her a small smile. “Thank you.”

I look into the kitchen area and see Simone looking at Caitríona and me. I give her a smile and wave.

Simone

I can feel the heat rising in my cheeks when Romano smiles and waves at me. I’ve had butterflies in my stomach since I saw him yesterday. Now he’s here and he’s even more handsome up close. Rosaura and Gráinne are watching me and I start to giggle.

“You like Romano?” Gráinne smiles.

“He’s very handsome,” I say softly.

“He’s a good guy. In fact, all the men in our families are good men. They will never hurt you and if you’re in trouble? They’ll all help you,” Rosaura says.

I feel like they’re trying to tell me something. Like they know I’m running from my parents. There’s something about these three women that make me want to blab all my secrets. But there’s still a tiny part of me that’s saying ‘what if it’s a trap?’ I tell them what’s happened to me and Lucy…then they turn us in? Or worse, say that I kidnapped Lucy, since she’s technically a minor. It makes me sad to know that I can never tell anyone our secrets.

“I want you to know that you’re safe here. That you can trust us. All of us,” Gráinne says to me. “We’re all family here. And we take care of each other. If you need that, we’re here for you.”

I look into her eyes and see the sincerity in them. Against what I had originally planned, I find myself blurting out what we did. Gráinne and Rosaura stop what they’re doing and sit down next to me.

“I had to get out of there, but I couldn’t leave Lucy behind.” My tears start falling on my hands as I stare at them.

Gráinne stands and embraces me. “You’re safe now. You don’t ever have to worry about being hurt by your parents again.”

“You and Lucy are safe here. I promise you that. Do you know where your brother and sister went?” Rosaura asks.

I shake my head no. “There was no way for Thomas to tell me where they went. And I don’t know how to search for them. But I miss them everyday. If Lucy had been older, we would’ve all left together.”

They both nod their heads in understanding.

“I wanted to wait until Lucy turned eighteen, but my father started hitting me. And I worried that if I left her, he would start to hit Lucy too. He never laid a hand on me before Thomas and Robin left.”

They both hug me this time. I can’t remember a time when I had two hugs in one day. Well, besides from my brother and sisters.

“Will you allow us to tell our families about you and Lucy?” Gráinne asks.

The thought of that scares me. What if they tell on us? Or they decide they don’t want to help us like Gráinne and Rosaura want to?

“I can see you’re scared. But I give you my word that there’s no one in our families that would ever turn you away,” Rosaura says.