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A Father’s Shadow
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2026-01-09 10:51:13The image seared my retina--the face of my dad, bruised and terrified, with duct tape over his mouth, the background his small apartment in New York that remained easily identifiable--and I was falling over to the world tipping the scales and my legs shaking as Mantovani picked me up, and the only thing supporting me is his face, which was duct taped, and I kept saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Mom looked at the screen and s
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Candice’s P.O.V.Three years after we planted those first lilies, the cliff garden had become something wild and generous.The original bulbs had multiplied into drifts of white trumpets that spilled down the slope toward the sea, mingling with wild rosemary and sea lavender that had taken root on their own. Every spring they bloomed thicker than the year before, as if the ground itself remembered how close we had come to losing everything and decided to give us beauty in return. I walked among them barefoot most mornings, coffee in one hand, the other resting on the gentle swell of my second pregnancy—this one a boy, already kicking like he wanted to join the world early.Mantovani found me there just after sunrise, moving with the easy stride he had reclaimed over time. The limp was gone. The cane lived in the hall closet beside the old rifle we both hoped would never be needed again. He wore loose linen pants and an open shirt, the long silver sca
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Candice’s P.O.V.The Portuguese sun felt different here—warmer, slower, like it had all the time in the world and wanted us to borrow some of it. I stood barefoot on the wide stone terrace the next morning, coffee mug warm between my palms, watching the Atlantic sparkle below the cliff lik
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Candice’s P.O.V.Morning arrived gently in Portugal, slipping through the open balcony doors on a breeze that carried the scent of lemon trees and salt-kissed air. I woke slowly, wrapped in warmth that had nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with the man beside me. Mantov
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