Whitney couldn't shake the feeling crawling up through her chest. Vito had always sworn, in every way a person could swear something, that he would never let her go. Last night he had framed it as a temporary visit home. But standing there at the dock, hearing him speak, the words had landed differently final, and deliberate, like the closing of a door.
Before she could untangle any of it, he stepped back and put distance between them, his voice hard again. "Go. Before I change my mind."
She looked at him really looked and something in her face went still and confused, like she was staring at someone she used to know. Her hand lifted instinctively toward him, and her lips parted, but nothing came out. What was there to say? What could she possibly do?
This was the freedom she had spent twenty years wanting. It was right here, finally real and within reach. It should have felt like breathing again.
