Valentina Ortiz Inside Out 2 Novels & Stories

RENZO’S POV We reached the inner secure wing and stepped inside. The space was smaller than the rest of the house, with reinforced doors and no easy way out. Valentina walked into the side room without looking at me and closed the door harder than she needed to. A few minutes later, Don Valetti called me over to the main area while she stayed in the next room. “They are not just asking questions anymore,” he said in a low voice. “ They know who Valentina is now."

She leaves as I climb the stairs to the front door. "Where is my wife?" I ask Hamish once I'm inside. He gestures up the stairs and I go up to our bedroom. Valentina is walking out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around herself. Her hair is clipped up and dry. I'm angry that she let Cielo in, but when I see her, and when I see how she stops and looks at me, I just take her in my arms and hold her to me. We don't talk for a long time. I just hold her, and she clings to me.

I reached out and held her hand, my voice sincere. Valerie froze, eyes wide with shock. "Austin, did you even understand what I just said?" "I did," I replied, my tone unusually understanding. "I know how much Mrs. Dyer means to you. Without her, you wouldn't have come to this college, and we'd have never met. We owe her everything." My earnest words seemed to lower Valerie's guard. She hesitated, then continued, "I'm glad you understand. Don't worry, Eugene and I have agreed to do this through IVF. We would never betray you.

I look at the inviting potato chips and hesitate to eat more fat because I have noticed that I am starting to have an unexciting looking tummy. “He's not even that famous,” Joanna retorts, putting a potato chip covered in ketchup in her mouth. “Bad is when the ‘bad intentions’ come.” Valentina makes the gesture of quotation marks with her fingers. “I agree. Like a potato. It will be difficult to be without you.” I change the subject, still looking at the boys. “Jimmy was contacted by an athlete from Madrid,” Valentina lets loose with an open smile. “If everything works out in October, I'll be in Madrid.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she struggled helplessly beneath the weight of those disgusting animals. And Valentina… She stood there, recording it. Smiling. A dark fire erupted inside me. I charged forward, grabbing the first man and hurling him across the room. The second one didn’t even have time to turn before my fist crushed his jaw. The last one tried to fight back—but I kicked him so hard he screamed, collapsing instantly. Elena curled into herself, shaking. I ripped off my jacket and wrapped it securely around her fragile body. I walked toward Valentina—slowly, every step vibrating with danger. Her smile vanished. She tried to hide her phone behind her, but I snatched it and smas

Valentina. She doesn’t belong in daylight. She belongs in shadows and smoke, but there she is in her velvet blouse and that smile...sharp as glass, aimed at me. She doesn’t walk toward the counter. She walks toward us. My heart pounds. Gianna stiffens beside me, protective in her quiet way. But Valentina is already sliding into the empty chair at our table, like she’s been invited. Like she belongs. “I thought you should see it from me,” she purrs, dropping her phone onto the table. The screen is already playing. The video. That video. Dante’s hand braced against the wall, her body pressed into his, his head bent low. Damning.

Dante spoke with ruthless clarity, his every word a blade. And then the door opened. Valentina stepped inside. Every head turned. Her robe was gone, replaced with simple black trousers and a fitted blouse that belonged more to a soldier than a pawn. Her hair was tied back, her face pale but steady, her eyes sharp. For a moment, the room froze. Dante’s gaze locked on her, unreadable. “I’m coming with you,” Valentina said. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the smoke and steel like glass.

"Under what name?" I understood what he was asking. Was I still Lina Vale, the woman with no past, or Elena Valenti, the daughter who had walked away? I tightened my fingers around the mug. "Elena Valenti."

Rosa looks at her with the assessment that has been running since October, two and a half years ago, when Valentina came to Sant Andreu on a Wednesday morning and asked what she wanted for her birthday. "Next Sunday lunch," Rosa says. "Bring Ethan. Pep would like to meet you both." Valentina sets the fifth bowl on the shelf beside the fourth. They look right together — different stages of the same practice, the same hands learning what they can do. "We'll be there," she says. Rosa nods once, in the way of a woman who has decided to receive good things without apologizing for wanting them. This, Valentina thinks, is also what the second life was for. Not just her own loops. Her mother's too.

A small figure lumbered through the door, the small frame of a human that I recognized to be Valentina, and as soon as her fearful green eyes met mine she darted her eyes to the farthest place in the room. The door to the washroom opened and Junis came into the room, almost bumping into Travis. “Travis, you’re here already.” He seemed a bit surprised, he was wiping the rim of his eyeglasses, and his eyes left Travis and then rested on Valentina’s small frame. “Ah… this must be Miss Valentina.” He stepped closer to her and held her hands, Valentina took a few steps backward barely able to balance on her own, she looked pale and her eyes were red as though she had cried.