Romanov

by Nadine Brandes

fading. “Can their hearts be softened?” “It’s not up to you to soften theirs. It’s up to you to keep yours soft.

“It is if you separate the two—old life and new life. But once you learn that it’s all one life and each day is a new page, it gets a bit easier to let your story take an unexpected path.”

“How?” Yurovsky growled. “Why won’t you die?” “Because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it.”

I’d told him I was trying to forgive him. As I lay in the grass next to the spell that could rid me of heart pain, I realized that a part of forgiveness was accepting the things someone had done—and the pain that came with that—and moving on with love. Forgiveness was a personal battle that must always be fought in my heart. Daily.