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Chapter 21.1
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Lunches had been awkward since Nyla had stopped speaking to Eason. To her own surprise Nyla found she as painful as her silence was, she couldn’t bring herself to forgive Eason yet. Sarah pulled Nyla aside the day after Veronica had given her tentative permission. “Nyla, when are you going to out Eason out of his misery?”
Nyla blinked slowly at her. “What do you mean?”
“Either tell him you never want to see him again and break off whatever you had, or talk it out with him. It’s not fair to him to keep him in limbo, and it’s not good for you, either. You’re both hot messes. I don’t know how his parents haven’t noticed.”
Blushing, Nyla glanced over to where Eason sat chatting with Breanne looking forlorn and lost.
“But Sarah, he kept something from me that hurt me.”
Sarah shook her head. “Sometimes people make mistakes they can’t take back. The people around them have to learn to let the person go or let the mistake go. You’re at that point now.
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Nyla stared at the letter in mind-numbing confusion, her hands still shaking uncontrollably. An endless list of possible senders crossed her mind, everyone she’d ever met getting their own moment of consideration. Finally, she stopped on the impossible. The Major. He was the only one who knew about the chocolate incident. No one else had been around. They’d shared a tent after all. She forced her hands to be still and brought the paper up to her eyes. She’d only ever seen the Major’s handwriting on a holopad, but she was almost sure this writing matched. Her eyes glazed over and grew out of focus, the words became just green blurs. Is he dead or not? Because this letter has recent events listed, things the Major would know nothing about. A knock on the door scared Nyla, and she yelped. Shoving the letter under her pillow once more, she rose and scurried to the door. Opening it she found Eason staring in puzzlement. “Why was this locked?”
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Halfway through dinner, something happened that shocked and astounded the family – Roger dropped Nyla’s plate while attempting to set it down. No one could ever remember Roger performing his duties less than perfectly. “Roger!” snapped Edmond, banging his fist on the table. “It slipped, sir. I’ll go grab her a new one. I’m very sorry, Miss Nyla.” He scurried off to the kitchen to procure a replacement, leaving an uncomfortable silence in his wake. When he returned, Nyla had twice as much food as everyone else, a silent apology. Sometime during the last course, Nyla started feeling different than she ever had before. The room was going in and out of focus. She rubbed her eyes. No improvement. Forcing herself to take one bite after another, she began missing the food and hitting the plate with soft clicks of metal on porcelain. Mason leaned over to her. “Are you okay?” Nyla was surprised to find genuine concern lacing her voice. She saw Edmond g
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As the familiar words drifted through the air, they touched a place deep inside Nyla for the first time. Nyla sank back into a slumber too deep to wake up from. Sunlight streaming into the room woke her. It took her groggy mind several seconds to remember the events of the night before. She jumped out of bed, still wearing her clothes from yesterday. Stumbling over her shoes that were set neatly next to her bed, not her closet, she tumbled to the floor. Picking herself up, she hastily searched her room from top to bottom, looking for any signs that a second person had been there for even a moment. There were none. Dejectedly she plopped onto her bed. She sat there for several minutes before she remembered she had to go to school. Leaping up, she got ready in record time, flying downstairs to meet Eason by the door.&nb
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Mason flashed her a bright, real smile, the very first one. “Good. Then we’re going to go get you some dresses because you sure do have the figure for them.” “Why don’t we go to Savannah's? They have adorable clothing,” Molly suggested. When no objections arose, they moved as a pack to the store, parting the crowd as they went. It was a smaller boutique that contained only the bored sales clerk. She looked up at the incoming group and stood up straighter, paling a little. “Can I help you?” “Get us a couple fitting rooms,” Mason commanded. The girl scurried to comply. Staring at the racks of clothing, it finally occurred to Nyla she didn’t know how to shop. “What do I do?” Nyla turned blan
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Nyla sat on the edge of her chair in the tucked-away coffee shop, with her back perfectly erect. Sargent Ryan sat across from her stirring his coffee with the little spoon given to him. He glanced around them with uneasy eyes. Answering the unspoken question, Nyla said, “If Eason said he can give us an uninterrupted twenty minutes, then so can he.” Sargent nodded once before lifting his gaze to eat up Nyla’s face.Breaking the silence again, she admitted, “I’m so happy to see you, Sargent Ryan.”“Call me Lance, please. I’m not a Sargent anymore. I’m done with the war and everything it brought with it.”“Okay, Lance.” The name stuck on her tongue, unfamiliar and strange.He inspected her. “At first glance, you still look like you, but the more I look, well, it’s almost like you’re someone who just resembles the Nyla I know. Hell, you smiled at me.” She felt a ne
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