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“I lived with her mother and father for a while”

He’d called therandparents There was a world ofin the way he’d phrased that

“The state put me there but—but it did not work out So the state put me into a home for kids like me” His mouth thinned “That didn’t work out, either”

“And after that?” Emily said, while her heart broke for a little dark-eyed boy, all alone in the world

“I ran ahen I was sixteen Worked odd jobs I was strong Big for e I saved and saved Then I landed a job as laborer with a crew building a vacation home for a rich American”

“The stone wall,” Emily said

He nodded “Si I learned a great deal that summer, not just about walls but about Ae, too He said America was a land of opportunity He said ain Ah, he could beco “So I saved my money and came to this country End of story”

“Why do I think there’sme?”

“Ah, cara, don’t look at me that way

This is not the sad tale of a boy who led a difficult life; it is the tale of one who saw the chance to change what fate had planned for hiain “I tell you all of this because I want you to know me Not the Marco Santini the world knows The real one The one who still lives inside ht for what he wants And sometimes—sometimes, he is hard on those around him”

Ey in advance for the tiree with no patience for errors?”

“Who is this Siree?”

“A character in a book He was a slave driver”

“I a about my temporary PA?”

“You mean,” Emily said sweetly, “the one I never saw because you’d terrified her into running away?”