“Olivia is in love with him.” I shrug as if that says it all.
“Does he love her?”
I’m sure Troy’s brothers, Zara, Simone, and Emily can answer the question better than I can, but I nod anyway. If he can fall in love with me, the woman who is so messed up she doesn’t know which way is up, I have no doubt he’ll fall in love with Olivia. They deserve that love after they lost Colton, the person they both cared deeply for. “He does.”
“But is he in love with her?”
“Doesn’t matter. That will come. Isn’t that what happens? Two people who’ve lost someone important to them lean on each other to get through the bad days and fall in love?”
Avery stares at me for a beat and bursts out laughing, head flung back. “Are you sure you’re not writing a romance?”
I snort a laugh, even though she won’t understand why. Angelique and Johann’s story wasn’t a romance. A love story with a heartbreaking ending? Most definitely. But a romance with a happily ever after wasn’t in the stars for them. Unfortunately.
Tears prick my eyes at how Iris lost the one man she loved, and she never loved again. Is that my future too?
The only difference is, unlike Johann, the man I love is alive and will likely have a long and happy life.
I just won’t be in it.
I look up at my home—the home with echoes of Troy in every inch of it. The place brings me joy, but it also brings me great pain due to those memories.
If I stay in the house, will I eventually be able to move past that pain? Or would I be better off selling my home and moving far away?
55
ANGELIQUE
May 1944
England
My good handtightly grips the Lysander seat while the other arm cradles Anna.Please let us survive this.
The plane’s body rotates in the air, turning the Lysander north, the direction we need to fly to return to England. Nausea churns in my belly.
Strong vibrations travel from under my feet and up my legs and arms. Everything about me is vibrating—either due to the plane’s engine or from fear.
Holding Anna a little more snuggly to my body, I peer out the window to the moon-lit road beneath us. There’s no sign of the enemy driving along it, but that doesn’t mean we have not been noticed.
“Please, nobody spot us,” I whisper to myself, the fast cadence of my heartbeat accompanying the words. “Please, nobody spot us. Please, nobody spot us.”
My gaze shifts to the cloudless night sky, and I search for signs of the Luftwaffe. If they should happen to spot us, they would not hesitate to shoot us down. And Anna and I would be with Johann that much sooner.
But while I know he would have loved to spend more time with our daughter, to watch her grow up, he wouldn’t want her life to end now just so he could be with her. He would prefer she grows old and lives the life he never got to appreciate. My love, he died too young.
As far as I can tell, the enemy is not in our vicinity, but there’s still a risk they will be before we reach English airspace.
Please let us survive this.
I let out a shaky breath. I won’t be able to breathe properly until we have landed safely on English soil. I don’t remember being this nervous while flying to France at the start of my mission, even though I had to parachute from the plane.
We fly over fields and wooded areas that eventually give way to the French coast and English Channel. Only then do I allow myself to relax a little.
I glance at my sweet, sleeping baby. This will probably be one of the biggest moments of her life—a moment she will never remember. And because of the Official Secrets Act I signed prior to leaving England for France, I’m not sure I will ever be able to tell Anna about it. Perhaps that is just as well.
After what feels like several hours of clutching the Lysander seat, my hand cramping something fierce, the most beautiful sight comes into view…the white cliffs of the English coastline.
“We’re almost home, poppet,” I tell Anna. Not much longer and I can finally take a deep breath. Not much longer and I can finally make amends with my sister.
