Page 95 (1/2)

She spoke the words and gave hiift He would die today At least she could give hi hi of his life

"Beautiful Grace," he said, taking her hand and kissing the center of her palhed and the laughter shattered into tears as he let her go and started to walk away into the woods As he reached the tree line, Grace called out after him

"She said you were the best man on earth"

Søren turned around

"She says that all the tione

Grace spoke tords that only she and God would ever hear

"I did"

Standing in the middle of the road she held her stomach The painshe’d never known such pain She could have screamed so that every devil in hell heard her cry and it wouldn’t relieve the pain, the betrayal, she felt She would not live in a world where soht to hurt him, to hurt the woman he loved, the woman he would die for She wouldn’t do it She wouldn’t stand for it

So instead she ran for it

30

THE QUEEN

Nora lay on her side on the floor She’d been left alone in Marie-Laure’s room It seemed that they’d lost interest in her now They’d expected so that hadn’t happened It scared her, this sudden lack of loathing, lack of fascination with her Marie-Laure’s obsession with Nora’s stories had kept her alive for a couple of days Now she wanted no more stories

No more stories, no more Nora

Alone on the floor Nora prayed her last prayers If she did die today she prayed it would be clean and quick She hated the thought of dying screaotten bored with her, then they ht sione

She prayed for her mother, too, prayed she would be okay, wouldn’t be broken by losing her only child like this She prayed for Wesley, that he would find so he wanted and deserved--e, children, an equal partner and an undivided heart For Kingsley she prayed, too She prayed he’d understand that she never wanted to steal Søren froed Søren’s love for hiive her for not having his child and not asking what he wanted She’d been so afraid of the answer she hadn’t dared ask the question She prayed he would find peace with Juliette and everything else he needed

For Søren she prayed that he would survive losing her, that he would remember his faith and know that he’d only lost her a little while, and she would be with hiain someday

Her final prayer she devoted to Grace and Zach, who ached so badly to have a child Maybe the final prayer of a condeet God’s attention