The Nightingale

by Kristin Hannah

Perhaps that’s why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.

Vianne didn’t hesitate. She knew now that no one could be neutral—not anymore—and as afraid as she was of risking Sophie’s life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil, where a good woman could turn her back on a friend in need.

She looked at Vianne, and the universe of their friendship was in her eyes—the secrets they’d shared, the promises they’d made and kept, the dreams for their children that bound them as neatly as sisters.

“It’s hard to forget,” she said quietly. “And I’ll never forgive.” “But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.”

When he drew back, he stared down at her and the love in his eyes burned away everything bad; it was just them again, Gaëtan and Isabelle, somehow falling in love in a world at war. “You’re as beautiful as I remember,” he said,

Are you kidding me

He leans close and kisses each of my cheeks, whispering, “I loved her all of my life,” as he draws back.

The way I was bawling my eyes out in the middle seat on an airplane reading this- the flight attendant had to give me a napkin to blow my nose ehahahah