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HE SMILED SOFTLY AND CONTINUED in a

wistful tone “Isn’t that strange? I never ot to spend any time with him, but you and he were the only people on my mind You … of course, the picture of you in s I recalled I kept wondering what your na of you”

“I thought of you, too,” Amara admitted shyly

“Did you miss me?”

“Of course You and I talked nearly every day on the phone while I was pregnant I one”

“But did youmore than a voice on the phone?”

She knehat he wanted her to say, but she couldn’t do it While he’d been lost, presued for him, how much she hoped he was still alive She didn’t allow herself to linger on those thoughts She had Hah He had to be

Quint lightly stroked her aret your beautiful face, Amara Or your eyes, the way you s back to both of you is what kepteven when I didn’t knoho I was My drea mind couldn’t”

“You’ll see, Amara,” he told her, more upbeat than he’d been since they hit the pockets of turbulence “Once we talk to the right person, the right Orlando, all will be well Hampton can come home, and we’ll put all of this behind us like it never happened”

A only a soft nod in response, trying her hardest to h she felt helpless in many ways, she found hope and comfort in Quint’s arms

He spoke of theo she would have balked at the prospect, there was so about the surety of his tone that soothed her wrecked emotions He believed there would be a future for them

She prayed he was right

AMARA WOKE TO THE GENTLE rocking sensation of the turbulence as they descended through the clouds and lined up with the runway at Carrasco International Airport She sat up slowly, reaching down to buckle up, only to find that Quint had already strapped her in for the landing He still sat beside her, idly stroking her wrist with one hand and going over the plan on his phone with the other

“Quint? Are we there?” She brought up a hand to rub her eyes, shaking off the dreamless bliss of sleep

He turned his head toward her, s shortly at Carrasco in Montevideo Froht to the Orlando estate I’ve arranged for transportation, but I didn’t give our intended destination Never knoho’s connected to a fae”