Page 82 of City of Love

Because didn’t she say the exact same thing to me?

Though I desperately try to stop it, my mind opens with the possibilities this could present. “What are you saying?” I say carefully, because I can’t afford to misunderstand. “That you want to carry on even if I leave?”

“I’m saying that this whole deal with the Saints is my fault, and I want to finish what I started,” Vic says, looking even more determined. “I lifted the Rolex. I got us in this trouble. I’ll get us out, and you don’t have to be involved at all. You can go fix things with your girl, and we can handle things here from now on.”

My heart picks up speed, his words forcing my mind to visualize any number of possible futures—futures where I’m not a street thief, where I don’t owe the Saints anything else. Futures where Lydia might at some point be able to forgive me.

“I can’t decide what’s good for you,” I murmur, though I’m mostly talking to myself. I turn the words over in my mind, again and again, before I feel themclicksomewhere deep in my chest—feel them sink in with a clarity that suddenly shows me exactly what I want to do.

“I can’t condone this,” I say carefully, because Lydia really was right about our thieving. “But if you’re determined—”

“We are,” Vic says, and Tom and Gabin nod.

I nod too. “In that case, you have my blessing.”

The words are simple, but they feel monumental. “I’ll get in touch with Comtois and tell him that from now on, he’s dealing with you.”

Vic nods, looking relieved, and relief floods through me as well.

And something in my shattered heart trembles, trying desperately to break free—hope.

Chapter 27

Lydia

No one but me will ever want you.

No one but Marcus wants me when the class visits le Mont-Saint-Michel, though he’s not present; I hear whispers that he’s been sent home.

No one.

Marseille.

No one.

Normandy.

No one.

Back to Paris.

No one.

No one will ever want me. Not in Paris, nor in Stone Springs when I finally cave and buy a ticket home. I don’t tell Noel that I’m leaving early, and he mercifully doesn’t come looking for me before then.

No one will ever want me.

Not even myself.

Chapter 28

Noel

My mother tells me when Lydia leaves France.

It takes my mind a second to fully understand what she means—not that she speaks with any complexity, but not having Lydia in the same country as me is something that feels inherently wrong. When her words finally penetrate my thick skull, though, I jump into action, ready to stop her from going. It’s only then that my mother shakes her head and tells me that the plane left this morning.

I swear and storm out of the room, grabbing my computer and searching for a good deal on tickets to Wyoming. I told her I would give her time, and I have. Not much time, but some, and I can’t let her move even farther away from me. If things hadn’t changed, I might let it go, but theyhavechanged.

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