Reyna Feldman, a twenty year old Jewish girl from the tiniest of villages in France, is on the run. Captured by German soldiers while trying to escape over the border, she's taken to an internment camp in Freiburg, Germany, where she meets SS Philli...
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Happy April!!!! I know it's been a minute since I've updated you guys, and I know last chapter left things on a bit of a cliffhanger... This chapter has just been extremely difficult to write if I'm honest. Full disclosure... ***(TRIGGER WARNING)*** This chapter is EXTREMELY DARK and has EXPLICIT depictions of violence as well as some SA. While these chapters are always necessary when I write them, they are extremely difficult for me to write and feel as though I've done it justice. So if you've been wondering why it's taken so long for an update, that's why! With that being said, I hope you guys enjoy this chap, because it's truly been a labor of love!
Reyna threw a log on the fire, stoking it with the poker until the flames rose, lapping against the brick interior of the fireplace. It had been three days since Luca had confessed what he'd been keeping from her. Three days since her world had been flipped upside down yet again.
Phillip loved her. He loved her. Every doubt she'd had about that love had melted away with each word Luca had uttered. He wanted her - wanted a life with her. And he was willing to leave everything else behind to have it. For the first time in weeks she'd felt hope. That hope had been immediately crushed though. Crushed under the weight of the harsh reality she found herself in.
Luca had told her to leave him behind. And looking into his eyes - those eyes that she'd once trusted with her life - those eyes that had betrayed her - she'd known he'd meant it. He was prepared to die if it meant she might forgive him for what he'd done.
She wasn't willing to do either of those things though - forgive him, or let him die. She hated what he'd done. Hated the selfishness that had cost her so much. But try as she might, she couldn't hate him. That was one thing she couldn't do.
She glanced over at the kitchen counter where her copy of 'A Farewell to Arms' sat. She picked it up, turning it over in her hands. The cover was worn, and there was a permanent crease in the binding from all the times it had been opened and read. Her mind flashed back to the night she'd given it to Luca. Despite her circumstances, it had somehow been a happier time - a simpler time.
He'd held on to it this whole time - had made sure to bring it with him, making room for it in the limited space of his pack. She'd thought he'd kept it because he hadn't finished reading it. It had been more than that though - had meant more than that. How had she not known? How had she not seen what was so clear to her now? Maybe if she had - maybe if she'd made her feelings clearer - they wouldn't be in the mess they were now.
She thumbed through the book, stopping when she came to a familiar paragraph, the top corner of the page wrinkled and bent from being earmarked so many times.
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."
The world had certainly broken her. She didn't feel strong at those broken places though. There was a time when she had ... when she'd had Phillip at her side, those pieces had begun to mend themselves back together. She hadn't realized just how whole she'd become until such a large piece had been ripped away from her – until he'd been ripped away from her.
