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WHEN NORA PATEL—stepped off the train into the Grand City Station, the sun had divided the sky in two. Busy passengers rushed in all directions, knocking elbows and shoulders with her as they brushed past. Some lugged large suitcases behind them while others carefully tucked handbags under their arms. Nora had barely left the platform when the intercom announced the next train.
That was when she felt the abrupt thudding in her chest begin.
She'd thought she'd be able to control herself until she met with Camille, but there she was, walking through the station with sweaty palms and shaky knees. Her right hand gripped the handle of her suitcase with a sheer force that set her knuckles alight. All the bright lights and muffled voices of people passing by only amplified her racing heart as she stood there.
Breathe, breathe, breathe, she kept telling herself as she waited.
Six years.
Six years since she'd last seen the Grand City. Six years since she'd been away from home. From the minute she entered the world, the small town of Alcombey, three hours north, had been Nora's home—even for a year after graduating high school. Nora was fourteen years old when she last saw the Grand city during a holiday with her father, and now, six years later, she was about to truly encompass all that had changed since then.
That also meant it would be six years since she'd last seen Camille Clemonte, her best friend, the girl she knew back when she could barely read. In only a matter of minutes, they would be reunited. Because this time, Nora wasn't stumbling through the Grand City Station for the weekend. She was back in the Grand City for good.
The empty space beside her seemed to glow in Nora's peripheral vision, only exacerbating the gaping hole in her chest that had led her there in the first place. The last time she'd been in the Grand City, Nora didn't come alone. She could almost see her father's towering physique now, broad shoulders shrunken and soft eyes scanning for an opening in the crowd. He'd always had an air to him that calmed the nerves buzzing in Nora's chest.
Yet, the space beside her was still empty. And she couldn't ignore the overgrowing feeling that a part of her was, too.
"Miss Patel?"
Nora turned to a soft tap on her shoulder to a man a few inches shorted than her. He was dressed in a suit and tie, holding clasped hands in front of him. She recognised those abnormally bushy eyebrows and hesitant smile in an instant.
"Gordon!" Nora smiled as the sight of a familiar face seemed to stop the ground from spinning for a sweet moment.
"Good afternoon, miss," he replied. "I apologise for my delay."
"Oh, that's okay. I would've met you by the car."
Gordon waved dismissively before gently taking her suitcase from her. "Ah, nonsense. Miss Clemonte ordered me to retrieve you the moment you stepped off the train."
