nightingaleknows
She was raised to survive a war. She wasn't raised for casserole.
Giovanna Bellacosa was raised on omertà, Sunday mass, and the family motto of "we don't talk about it." She just didn't expect "it" to include killing a man to save her eight-year-old son.
Now she's hiding out with her estranged brother's small-town Christian family - worship band practice, casserole diplomacy, a hard 8am church start time, and a soundproofed room in every house "just in case." Vanna doesn't do vulnerable. But nothing prepared her for a family that hugs first and asks questions if they remembered.
She came here to disappear. Instead, she got adopted.
But the body's still missing, and someone out there wants her dead badly enough that even home might not be safe again.
Some families bury the bodies. Hers just brings extra dessert.