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“Is that why you won’t tellyou?”

Gabriel exhaled loudly

“No I’s out in my mind”

“Without me”

“I’ll share it with you eventually As I said in U it with you first I just need soue with him

“Will you continue your ith the Italian Home for Children?”

“Yes They need raduate high school with an excellent grade point average that I’ll send the the lives of children You should be proud of yourself”

He gave her a half-smile “Are you sure you aren’t ready for adoption? We’d love her”

His eyes were dark with eht back to what she’d seen that day—the way Gabriel ith Maria and the other children At thatfor But she knerong

“We would But if we love her, we need to do what’s best for her And that’s probably finding a local family Not two A You’d have to give up s”

“That isn’t a probles, aren’t you?”

She squirmed and he frowned at her

“You don’t seem to have a lot of confidence in me”

“I have every confidence in you But you have to remember that I watched led hi to relapse”

“Good”

“Maybe we should talk about your own relapses Just lastand you turned to Paul”

Julia’s brown eyes flashed “You don’t get to throw that back in ht I’ an honest and open conversation? Or are you trying toan honest and open conversation I apologize for bringing up Paul”

She sighed

“I understand that it’s difficult to ith the children at the orphanage and to leave them there I feel it too But it isn’t in Maria’s best interest for us to take her now”

“The orphanage is good, but it isn’t the sa a family”

“Which is exactly e shouldn’t take her”

Gabriel ”

“Oh, yes it is” She stood in front of hiive the clothes off her back to a homeless person”

She took a step closer, her face flushed with anger

“I would give the clothes off my back for Maria But I want her to be with a family who are stable and experienced when it co her to a place where she doesn’t know the language, away from her city and her friends, would only upset her We’d be hurting, not helping And I won’t let you do that And I don’t care if you think that I’ a coldhearted bitch or whatever the hell you have running through yourto the bedroolass of water and throwing it

The glass shattered against the floor of the terrace

From a distance, Gabriel heard the door to the bathrooainst the edge, and hung his head