In three days you’ll be going back to your mom in France. I look forward to meeting her after I get home.
We’re going to have one wonderful wedding because you’re going to become my wife. I can’t wait.
Be sure that Leia forwards my letters the second she gets them. I won’t be able to live until I start getting your letters and you send me your address in France. You can write to the address on the envelope and I’ll get it no matter where I am.
S’agapo, Mara. I love you. You complete my life. Don’t let anything happen to you. I couldn’t live without you now.
Yours forever,
Nico
Convulsing, Alexa took a long time before her tears ebbed and she was able to search for the second letter he’d written. She tried to read it, but she began crying anew and it was almost impossible.
Agapiménos—my beloved
Boot camp is everything you’ve ever heard about, but I can handle it because I know I’ll get a letter from you at the end of every day, telling me everything you’ve been doing.
When you’re back in France, you better not fall for one of those French guys.
Good news. I’m bunking with a guy named Tio Papadakis. Would you believe his family owns the Papadakis Shipping Lines in Salonica? We have so much in common, it’s crazy.
He’s writing a redheaded girl in Salonica. Her name is Irena and he’s planning to marry her before our tour of duty is finished. They’ll be going to the University of Salonica too. We’ll all be in school together.
Having just met Irena, and being in Tio’s home with his children, Alexa could hardly go on reading. It was too pi
ercingly wonderful and painful at the same time. Her tears made the ink run. Nico’s love of life, his love for her, all of it had been ripped away, depriving them of the joy of marriage, of being parents and raising their precious Dimitra together.
Suddenly she heard noise and realized her daughter had come home. Alexa hurriedly put all the letters back in the bag, and hid it on the floor at the side of the bed. Then she turned off the lamp and drew the covers over her. Tomorrow would come soon enough, changing their lives forever.
* * *
In the middle of the night she couldn’t stand it any longer. After turning on the lamp, she spent the next five hours reading one love letter after the other. Finally she read the last one he’d sent at the end of December, four months after he’d left Salonica. It was so short, it devastated her.
Mara darling
After all this time I believe in my heart something unspeakable has happened to you. Something beyond your control. The woman I love and who loves me wouldn’t do this to us without a reason.
I live for word from you or about you. My prayer is that somehow, some way, you’ll read this letter and be able to get in touch with me by any means available.
I’ll never give up. If this letter is returned to me and I’m still in the dark after my service is over, I’ll come looking for you and never stop.
Love forever,
Nico
Alexa finally recovered enough to put all the letters back in the bag except the last one, then got out of bed. After a shower, she dressed for the day in jeans and a T-shirt. With his last letter tucked in her back pocket, she left the bedroom. Her watch said eight thirty. Her grandfather would be up. She’d talk to him until Dimitra awakened.
Carrying the bag, she found him in the kitchen eating the breakfast Phyllis had prepared. He looked up. “There you are! I thought you’d be up before now. You don’t look well.”
Alexa kissed his forehead. “I’ve been awake since three o’clock. These are the reason why.” She showed him the bag with the letters.
He studied several, then squinted at her. “There’s only one way you’re in possession of them. You’ve seen Nico. So...the long silence has been broken.”
She nodded. “It turns out Nico Angelis was the best friend of Tio Papadakis. Would you believe it? He showed up at the dinner Saturday night. When we got home later, I received a text to meet him at a restaurant on the beach last night. He came with these letters.
“To quote him, ‘For a long time I wanted an answer to the question why, but I don’t need it now. Last night I met your daughter. Clearly you got involved with another man while you were in Greece and had his baby. For what it’s worth, I would say you’ve done a wonderful job of raising her.’ Then he said goodbye before I could tell him anything.”
Her grandfather looked sad. “So he’s a gentleman to the end.”