CHAPTER 121 — NADIA WRITES BACK

Her reply came three weeks after they sent the letter.It arrived through Vandermeersch's forwarding channel — she had no direct address for them, and the channel had become, quietly, the conduit for this specific correspondence, which Vandermeersch managed with the particular discretion of someone who understood that some things were not legal proceedings but were nonetheless important.Dante was in the garden when Elian brought the phone outside.He handed it over without speaking.Dante read it.Dear Mr. Voss and Mr. Rhys,Thank you for writing back. I didn't know if you would. I've been waiting three weeks and I almost convinced myself that the letter had gone to the wrong place or that you were too busy or that what I wrote was too much and too direct. My mother says I'm always too direct. I think I got that from my father.You said he was brave. I've been thinking about that word since I read your letter. People say brave like it's a simple thing, like it just means not being af

CHAPTER 122 — THE DOCUMENTARY

The call from the production company came in December, a time when the world seemed to slow down, wrapped in the quiet of winter. The air was crisp, and the garden outside Dante’s kitchen window lay bare, its bones exposed to the chill. Inside, the range emitted a comforting warmth, a stark contrast to the cold outside. It was a moment of stillness, one that Dante often found himself seeking amidst the chaos of his life.The call was from Annika, Dante’s trusted advisor and confidante. She had been instrumental in vetting the production company, the director, and the broadcasters involved in the documentary about the Meridian’s collapse. The project was backed by two reputable European broadcasters who had been closely following the trial and its aftermath. The director, Fleur Demers, was a Belgian woman with a reputation for her rigorous yet humane approach to storytelling. Her previous documentaries had delved into the murky waters of European institutional corruption, earning her a

CHAPTER 123 — FLEUR DEMERS

She came to the Alentejo in January.Not to film — the filming would be later, in Brussels and wherever else the documentary required. She came first to talk, as she always did. “I need to know the person before I know the story,” she said. “The person is the story.”Fleur Demers was Belgian, fifty-two, with the particular composure of someone who had spent thirty years looking at difficult things—wars, disappearances, betrayals, the kinds of truths that resisted simplification. She had learned to look long enough for understanding to emerge, rather than be defeated by the first wave of sorrow or shock. Her directness came from experience, a soft efficiency that bypassed the ornamental. Clarity, she believed, was a form of kindness.She arrived in the muted light of an Alentejo afternoon, the horizon pale gold and gray with winter sun. Dante met her at the gate, his hands in the pockets of his worn jacket. He gave her the same orientation he gave all visitors: the house first, then th

CHAPTER 124 — WHAT THE DOCUMENTARY FINDS

The filming happened over three weeks in February and March, a period that felt both compressed and expansive to those involved. Each location, each day of shooting, was a careful stitch in the tapestry Fleur was determined to weave. The documentary sought not only to capture events but to expose the quiet architecture of a life, of decisions made over decades, and of love expressed in the most deliberate, patient forms.Brussels was the starting point, a city that held the echoes of courtroom whispers and the weighted silence of waiting rooms. The federal court building loomed with its solemn authority, its marble corridors full of the ghostly footsteps of those who had come seeking justice or defense. Dante had walked those hallways many times, the hard soles of his shoes striking a rhythm that he would never forget: the rhythm of testimony, of exposure, of irreversibility. He knew every turn, every echoing corner where he had paused to steady himself. Within those walls, the trial

burn between us のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 121 - チャプター 124

CHAPTER 121 — NADIA WRITES BACK

CHAPTER 122 — THE DOCUMENTARY

CHAPTER 123 — FLEUR DEMERS

CHAPTER 124 — WHAT THE DOCUMENTARY FINDS