All Chapters of IN LOVE WITH HIS ENEMY: Chapter 81 - Chapter 88

Eliza's POV The chapel was small, nestled in the same valley as the nursing home. Gray stone, ivy climbing the walls, a bell tower that hadn't rung in years. I stood at the back, watching the few mourners filter in nurses, a priest, a woman I didn't recognize who kept wiping her eyes. Chloe was at the front, alone. She'd asked me to sit with her. I'd said yes. But when I saw her there, shoulders bent, hands folded, I couldn't move. Adam touched my back. "She needs you." "I know." "Then go." I walked down the aisle. Sat beside my sister. She didn't look at me. But her hand found mine. The Service The priest spoke words I didn't hear. Something about forgiveness, redemption, the mercy of God. Margaret had asked for a small service, no eulogy, no fuss. Just the words and the silence and the closing of a life that had been broken from

Eliza's POVThe garden gate had been broken for weeks.Clara kept promising to fix it. Adam kept offering to hire someone. But every morning, I walked out to find the gate still sagging on its hinges, the latch still hanging loose, the gap still wide enough for anyone to slip through.Reyes noticed. "You need to fix that.""I know.""You're not going to fix it."I looked at the gate. At the garden beyond. At the tree Clara had planted, now tall enough to cast shade across the bench where I sat every evening."I'm thinking about it."Reyes shook her head. "You're impossible.""You're just figuring that out?"She smiled. Left for the city.I stayed in the garden, watching the gate swing in the breeze, and thought about all the things I'd been putting off.The VisitShe came at noon.I knew her before I saw her face. The way she walked. The way she held her

Eliza's POVThe driveway had never felt so long.I sat in the passenger seat, watching the familiar gates approach, the garden visible beyond, the house where Clara was waiting. Daniel was in the back, quiet, his hands folded in his lap. Adam drove with one hand on the wheel, the other resting on my knee."Are you nervous?" I asked, turning to look at my brother."Yes.""Me too."He almost smiled. "You've done this before. Faced the unknown.""I've done it a hundred times. It never gets easier."Adam pulled through the gates. Parked beneath the old oak tree. Cut the engine."Home," he said.I looked at Daniel. "Ready?"He took a breath. "Ready."The GardenEleanor was at the gate.She'd been watching for us, her hands wrapped around the wooden post, her eyes fixed on the car. She didn't move as we walked toward her. Didn't speak.Daniel sto

Eliza's POVDaniel had been with us for a week when he found the journal.It was hidden in the attic, beneath the floorboards where my father had kept his most private papers. I'd never known it was there. Neither had Eleanor.Daniel held it carefully, the leather cracked, the pages yellowed. "I was looking for old books. Something to read. I didn't expect to find this."I took it from him. Opened to the first page.My mother's handwriting.For my children the ones I have and the ones I lost. This is the truth. All of it.The PagesWe read it together, sitting on the floor of the attic, the afternoon light filtering through the small window.My mother had written about everything. Her childhood, her recruitment into the Collective, her escape. The night she met my father. The birth of Daniel the son they took from her arms before she could name him.They told me he died. They lied. I