The Breach by Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger

Author:Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger [Lucyk-Berger, Chrystyna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781985723412
Published: 2018-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

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A ngelo was reading an opinion piece about the German Worker’s Party when Chiara walked into the salon. He wanted to address the visit with Michael, reprimand her for convincing him to do the interview, but she had Marco in her arms, and as soon as the boy saw him, he squirmed to get down. Angelo placed the paper aside and lifted his son onto his lap.

“He wanted to say good night to you since we missed you at dinner,” Chiara said.

Angelo kissed Marco on both cheeks, and his son snuggled into him. “Let him stay.” He turned back to his newspaper to finish the last lines, then asked Chiara, “What do you think of the situation in Germany?”

She was sitting on the settee across from him, her eyes on their son. “You mean the growing anti-Semitism? The blaming of all the wrong people for the treaty’s unfairness? I read that article, calling on Hitler to march on Munich like Mussolini did on Rome.”

Someday he would learn to stop having these discussions with her.

“He’s tired,” she said.

“Hitler?”

“Your son.” Her voice was softer when she spoke again. “They ought to be watched carefully. Hitler seems to follow Mussolini’s path, like a little brother imitating his big brother.”

“Uh-huh.” He reached for his Journal of Civil Engineering, careful not to disturb Marco.

“Edmond believes his party’s nationalistic fight is the right one, but Susi sees through it,” Chiara said. “She says she doesn’t like the smell of it.”

“Really? How quickly the leaf turns. The great divide between the count and countess has grown more than just geographically, I see.”

Marco’s head jerked, and Angelo lowered the journal to look into his son’s face. The boy’s eyes were closed.

“I’ll put him to bed.” Chiara stood and hovered over them.

Angelo touched her wrist before she could take Marco from him. “Michael came to see me today.”

“He said he had.”

So she’d seen him afterwards.

As she scooped up Marco, he put a hand out to her, but she kept her arms around his son. He picked up the newspaper from the table and held it up, the anger rising so quickly it came out in his voice. “Tell me how we can keep the outside world away from us, from my family.”

Chiara’s face read surprise, and she pressed Marco to her. “Obviously you’re as interested as I am in the way things are progressing. Neither of us is in a position where we can keep these things out, Angelo.”

“Chiara, it isn’t who we are. We did not come together as man and wife because we wanted to change the world. I want peace in my house. I want peace between us. I want my wife back.”

“I have always been here. I never went away. I have not changed.”

A bright, sharp sliver raced from the back of his head, over his scar, and pricked his breastbone. He had to look away from her.

“Funny how little peace we have now that the battles are over,” she said. “The war was just the start, wasn’t it? You have served your country to come this far.

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