Aequitas by Hope Anika (best ebook pdf reader android txt) 📖

Dear Honor—

I have thought about what you said. And I remember the fight over the doll. But the rest…perhaps someday. I do not know.

My father says I must try. Even though you would make him a monster, he tells me you are family, and it is wrong of me to blame you for what happened that night. You were a child. You had no choice.

Neither of us did. So I am willing to try.

But I warn you, if you attack or harm my father in any way, you will learn the worst of me quickly. I will not tolerate any interference in that relationship, and that is something you must accept if this is to work.

I leave for Damascus tomorrow. Perhaps, if you come to Tallinn, we can meet when I return.

I have given this note to your fiancé, who has promised to deliver it. I can only hope he has done so. I wonder if you can see the irony of your concern over my father, when your man is so very dangerous himself.

Be careful with him. I hope to see you soon.

Your sister, Anna

Honor swallowed hard against the emotion that sat in her throat like a thick, sodden lump. She couldn’t seem to swallow it down, even though it had been over an hour since she’d read Hannah—Anna’s—letter. Even though Cian sat beside her, his hand warm and strong and possessive around hers. Even though—so far—Sam and Lucia’s wedding was coming off without a hitch.

They sat outside Sam’s cabin, the sun shining down brightly from above, the faint breeze scented by carnations and lilies. The crowd had finally sat down in the rows of metal folding chairs, and Sam and Ben and Alexander stood at the makeshift altar in freshly pressed pale blue shirts and black pants. Ben was shimmying—dancing—and Alexander watched the crowd tensely, stiff beneath the hand Sam had on his shoulder. And Sam…

Sam looked ecstatic.

Honor was so happy for him, she was nearly bursting.

Cian slid her a sideways look, his brows arched. He wore a sleek steel-gray suit and dark, blood red silk shirt. He was beautiful.

“Happy?” he murmured and lifted her hand to press a gentle kiss against it.

“Aye,” she whispered. Happy. Something that, before today, had only occurred in her fantasies.

And reality had blown them to dust.

“Good,” Cian said. “I plan on keeping you that way.”

He smiled that roguish smile, and her heart leapt. She hadn’t told him of Aequitas’ demise, or the plan currently percolating in her brain. That could wait. Today was about Sam and Lucia, about moving forward and leaping.

Because Honor had finally realized that was what everything was about. Rolling the dice, to hell with the consequences. Living. Instead of just existing.

No matter her fears.

There were no guarantees Sam and Lucia would live happily ever after, and Honor was a realist. She understood there was no “ever after” for anyone. There was only here and now, this moment, and it was meant to be sipped from and savored. Faith, she thought, a concept she’d only ever attributed to a God she didn’t worship. But faith was about trust, not idolatry, about belief, not ritual.

And in the end, it simply didn’t matter what became of anything. Worrying about tomorrow only sullied today, and today…

Today was a wonderful day.