Chapter 7: The Knock on the Pine
The knock on the heavy pine door was not the sharp, demanding summons of a landlord or a process server. It was three slow, hesitant raps, barely audible over the crackle of the birch logs in the stove.
Elena paused, the wooden spoon suspended above the simmering broth.
Nora was in town at the historical society until eight. A neighbor would have called first from the lane.
She wiped her hands on her apron, walked to the door, and turned the brass deadbolt.
When the door swung inward, the freezing sea wind rushed into the room, carrying with it the scent of salt marsh and winter pine.
Standing on the threshold was Dante.
His dark hair was dusted with snow, his face hollowed by four months of grief, his dark eyes wide and terrified as he looked down at her. He was shivering, dressed only in his shearling coat, his hands bare and red from the frost.
Elena stepped back involuntarily, her hand flying to the swell of her belly in an ancient, protective reflex.
"Dante," she breathed. The word was cold, sharp, and cut through the room like a drawn knife.
Dante did not step across the threshold. He remained outside in the freezing dusk, his gaze dropping to her rounded waist, his jaw working as tears gathered in his eyes and froze against his dark stubble.
"Elena," he said, his voice broken into a ragged whisper. "I’m not coming in. I won't step inside unless you tell me to. But please... please let me look at you for five seconds."
Elena’s heart hammered against her ribs, the twins kicking suddenly in response to the spike of adrenaline. "How did you find me?"
"The coastal survey," he answered, his teeth chattering. "The botanical plates. I recognized your hand in the white pine sketches. You always draw the needles in clusters of five."
May you like
He looked at her stomach again, a choked sob tearing from his chest. He sank to his knees in the two-foot drift on the porch, his head bowed, his hands resting open and empty on his denim thighs.
"I didn't come to force you back," Dante wept, the proud titan of Wall Street reduced to a broken man kneeling in the Maine snow. "I didn't come with lawyers. I just came to tell you that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Ellie. I let the world turn me into a monster, and you paid the price for it."
