I flinched, knowing that was the same bullshit line I’d used to justify my role at the camp for years.Ian had even joked about it, saying ‘I do what I have to do’would end up being my epitaph.Tensing, I accepted that the odious prick might still end up being right.
“What is it?”she murmured, no doubt noticing my furrowing brow.“You don’t look well.I’m worried about you, Sir.Is it your head?”
“No,” I reassured her, even though I had no way of knowing what had caused my out-of-character self-doubt.“After all this time, I think it’s just my conscience unloading itself.It took getting away from home for me to realize how fucking bad things had got there, and how many women’s lives we tore apart to get what we wanted...”
My voice trailed away, my remaining words unwilling to vocalize the scale and abhorrence of the so-called achievement.
“In the end, you helped us.”Her smile was sad.“You helped me, you got Fern the medicine she needed, and you set goodness knows how many more women free as we fled.You’re a good man, Adam Harper, even if, for a while, you forgot who you were.”
“Yeah.”A fresh memory of the scores of women’s shocked expressions was also burned into my psyche, their eyes wide and their mouths falling open as they acknowledged justwhowas releasing them from incarceration in the middle of the night.“I’m quite the hero, huh?”
“You’remyhero.”Her voice was small but serious.“You got me here, and whatever comes next will be down to you as well.Without you, I’d be dead.”
Gazing at her, I couldn’t find the right words to form a coherent answer.I’d done everything I could to protect Caroline because, ultimately, I accepted the truth burning inside me.
There was no conceivable future for me that didn’t include her.
“I love you.”In the end, it was all I could muster.
Sniffing back her tears, her lips curled as she snuggled against my chest.“I love you, too, Adam.Don’t ever forget that.”
Chapter Seven
Caroline
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SLEEP WAS STRANGE ANDfitful, the type of slumber that left me feeling exhausted rather than rested.Still, as pale light stirred me from my most recent vivid dream, I was grateful for the bed Hans had offered us and the man holding me.
“What time is it?”His voice was croaky as he stretched out beside me.
“I haven’t a clue, Sir.”Turning my head on the pillow, I watched his deep blue eyes flutter open.“Prisoners weren’t allowed watches.”
“Right.”His tone was dry, the way his lips twisted suggesting he didn’t appreciate my irony, but secretly, I was pleased I could offer the sardonic reply.
For too many months, I’d been silenced, either physically or through fear and coercion.Too terrified to speak up, even when my aggressors were so obviously in the wrong.Even in the unfamiliar confines of Anneke’s spare room, it was the first morning I’d woken up a liberated woman for a long time, and that was worthy of celebration.
