One last text to her older brother Wulfram, the man who had raised her like a father since he had been fifteen and she was six:I love you. I’m sorry for everything, and I love you so much. Dieter did hisbest, but it was too much for even him in the end. Please go on. Please love Rae and the baby and go on. I love you. I love you. I love you.
And to Dieter’s old phone number, just in case he survived that night:I love you. I have always loved you. Wherever you are, wherever I am, I will always love you. I have one last idea to save Alina. Thank you, thank you for these last few months. At leastI had these few months with you and Alina. These months were everything to me. It was an entire lifetime of love. I love you. I love you both.
Last, she pulled up the phone’s mobile internet browser and logged into one of her social media accounts where she told her fifteen million followers,Help! I’ve been kidnapped. I am being kidnapped again right now. If they kill me, it was murder. I amnot suicidal and will not commit suicide. I have everything to live for. If you are in Geneva, CH, call the police and tell them that I’ve been kidnapped in their city. Last address:and she typed the Mirabaud family estate’s address.
She turned the screen down all the way on that one, too, because she knew that texts and reply-backs were going to ping quickly and often. She didn’t turn it offin case someone could track the signal, but she didn’t want that screen to glow in her boot, either.
The car stopped at the rear of a warehouse on the outskirts of town. Dark, hulking buildings blotted out the city lights far away and down the mountain, though the lake was still a black expanse dotted only by the illuminated fountain shooting its jet of water high into the air.
She held Alina’shand while the toddler softly sang a song, and she tried to live in this moment as much as she could.
Her eyes burned.
Flicka’s hand stole inside her coat, and she clutched the alpine mountaineering pin she wore on her blouse that day and every day. The gold wires felt like strength. The center ribbon felt as pure as the alpine snow.
It was one last, beautiful moment that they were together.
Flicka held Alina’s hand and listened to the child sing.
