“You are not alone, Ginevra. Please remember. Please know how sorry I am.”
Ginevra smiles at me, eyes glisten. “I know, mia cara amica, I do know.”
The guard shuts the bars between us. In this moment, I realize what I must do.
“I will get you out of here.”
Ginevra's face falls. My words reveal too much for she knows me too well.
“Pearl, please do not do…”
I walk away before she finishes.
GINEVRA
Alone again in my cell, my eyes weep silent tears. If not for the bars around me, I could have been back in my room in the hidden floor of The Beeches, crying myself to sleep as I had so many nights. Except this time, they are tears of joy. Pearl's words touch the deepest part of me, the heart that still beats, if too quickly. Her loyalty, her expressions of love—no, not expressions—the tru
