Finn refused to open his eyes. This time the dream was overwhelming, too good. To wake up would break his heart. This time he wouldn't survive the loss of her.

The weight on his chest moved and his heart seized. His fingers stretched, weaving further into a knot of damp hair. In his dream Emily had been soaked by a rainstorm and he'd teased her wet locks from the tight bun she wore it in as her fingers floated over his chest. His heart jolted and began pumping again.

He had to know. Gritting his teeth he opened his eyes and almost wept at the sight of Emily's delicate nose and swollen lips. Swollen from his kisses. It was real. She had come to the base for him, told him she loved him. He was in her bed.

She lay naked beside him. Except for the chain around her neck holding his anchor. In the palm of his hand, the small charm hardly held any weight. He was surprized the flimsy metal had lasted all these years. His heart skittered at the notion Emily not only still wore the symbol of their love, but protected it.

But why?

The conversation at the party haunted him.

I didn't leave you.

This tarnished, cheap charm supported her case.

"Why Em?" He whispered in the muted light of her bedroom. "Why did you keep this?"

"I promised I'd never take it off." Silver irises tinged with a hint of blue revealed themselves to him. "Because I love you."

In Emily's eyes infinite possibilities blossomed. The future, free of fear, presented itself. Finn saw the woman he loved, loving him back.

Love. Finn closed his eyes, letting the concept of Emily's love coat the jagged edges of his heart. She'd used the present tense. Not I loved you. She still loved him.

A sniffle from Emily and his eyes popped open. Her face was wet with tears again. He hated the site. "More tears of joy?"

More tears streamed down her cheeks and her face crumpled and . "Oh Finn." She lunged at him, locking herself around his neck.

Sharp pangs of fear pricked at him with the sudden change. Finn didn't know what to say or do. His throat seized and his chest ached with Emily's every shaky inhale, and each ragged exhale impaled his heart. He searched for some words to stop this, but his mind came up blank. With no other plan of action, he cradled her to offer comfort while his blood chilled in his veins.

A lifetime later, the earth-shattering tears lessened. She released her grip on his neck slightly, keeping her lips against his neck. "Promise you'll stay with me."

"That's what this is about." This he could fix. With two simple words. "I promise. Not going anywhere." Not tonight. Maybe not ever. He hadn't signed his contract with the Navy. If Emily asked, he'd stay stateside with her. Find something else to do with his life. As long as it involved her.

Emily's head rocked on his shoulder. "Finn...," her voice faltered. "Oh, Finn... my letter... to you. About Japan. There was a second page."

A fissure of cold spiked up his spine. "Another page?"

"Yes." Grey eyes rimmed in red regarded him.

Another page. She'd written more.

All this time, all these years of staring at her words in the dead of night when there was nothing to distract him from his misery, reciting each word as a good luck ritual before a maneuver, in the hospital while recovering, trying to comprehend from the few lines scribbled on a scrap of paper what he'd done wrong, how he'd driven her away. Why she didn't love him?

Another page of words meant for him. An explanation.

His throat felt covered in barnacles. "What... what did it say?"

Emily clutched his hand, weaved her fingers with his. "That I loved you." She placed their entwined hands over her heart. He could feel the muscle pounding against his skin. "I asked you to wait for me. I told you I'd be back on Labour Day. To pick you up to go to Yale. To start our life together."

The world got very small, reality as he knew it, tilting away. What was she saying?

"Finn?" she whispered. "Do you understand?"

Time reversed and he stood in his brother's bar reading Emily's letter. With a second page. With words of love and her promise to return. How different things would have been had he known she'd return to him.

He met her silver irises. Saw the anguish in them, begging him to comprehend. "You... you didn't abandon me."

She bit her lip. "No. I'd never."

"You were coming back."

She nodded. A single tear escaping her eye.

Emily Montgomery hadn't run away from him. The hard, cold lump of resentment jammed in his heart starting the day her sister pushed the note across the bar to him—shifted. Emily Montgomery didn't only love him now, she loved him then. She loved him always. Like he loved her.

"But I never—" Pink lacquered nails sliding the envelope across the polished bar at the Waterfront. His jaw ached as he swore through clenched teeth. "Mary."

Emily flinched. Her fingers held his in a vice grip. "She removed the second page. Put my initial on the first page and gave that to you." Emily relayed the conversation with her sister after Mary had tried to snatch his letter away.

He'd been a fool. The whole summer Mary had conspired to separate them. At every turn Emily proved she wanted him. But the first time she wasn't there to defend herself, he let Mary manipulate him. She barely had to try, he'd never questioned the validity of the letter. It was in Emily's handwriting after all.

His jaw threatened to shatter. "That bitch."

Emily sank back into the bed and Finn hated himself for hurting her. "I'm sorry. I know she's your sister but—"

"She's a bitch." Emily threw her arm over her face. "Believe me, I know. She may have lied to you once, but she's been lying to my face for years. She saw...everything and never once spoke up."

The roaring in Finn's ears silenced. Emily had lived with this betrayal for eight years. Not knowing how to ease her pain, he inched closer to her, peppering her shoulder, neck and cheek with kisses. Her fingers wove into his hair and the ribbons of steel in her limbs beneath him eased.

Still, her voice betrayed her anguish. "If only I'd known."

Finn brushed an errant strand off her face. "If only I'd believed in you."

"Why didn't you?" Her whisper tore at his heart.

He cleared the lump in his throat. "You were always too good to be true." She attempted to protest, but he stopped her words with a kiss. A kiss that begged for forgiveness at his folly. A kiss that promised to never doubt her again.

But something snagged in his mind. He tore his lips from hers, ignoring the flushed glow on her cheeks. "Wait. Why didn't try to contact me?"

She gasped, her body stiffening. "I did."

"What?"

"I called the bar over and over." Emily's eyes fell. "Simon told me you didn't want to speak to me."

Clarity sharpened Finn's vision. A 'no' escaped his lips as the ramifications of what Emily was saying hit him.

His brother.

Her sister.

Mary delivering the message. The note in Emily's handwriting. The words asking him to believe Mary. Mary who removed the second page. Mary gleefully telling him Emily didn't want him.

But she didn't act alone.

Facts rearranged themselves in his head like battle plan maneuvers. "Did you keep your promise?" He forced the question past clenched teeth. "Did you come to Bridgetown on Labour Day?"

Emily's defiant 'yes' almost cracked his heart back into the shards he'd lived with for years. "I took an early flight. A late flight actually, the time change was confusing. Wanted to be there for breakfast." Her fingers dug into his shoulder. "I remember Simon was late opening that day. Said he'd slept in."

The lie hit Finn hard. Ignoring the jabs of betrayal kicking at his ribs, he had to know the whole truth. "Did you ask about me?"

"Of course." Emily's eyes shot up. "I was there for you. To beg you to reconsider."

"What did my—" The word caught in his throat, but he spit it out. "—brother say?"

There was a wobble in her voice again, as if she was reliving a painful memory. "He told me you'd left the week before. Start bootcamp early. Why?"

The lie clawed at the guilt Finn stored in his heart for refusing to visit Simon in Bridgetown. The avoided calls, the unanswered texts. During his first months in training, every time Simon hinted at discussing Emily, Finn shut him down, often hanging up on him.

By that Christmas, despair had turned to fury. There weren't enough drills in the world to drown out the rage burning in Finn's chest. Sleepless nights spend cursing her for making him fall in love. When he did catch some shuteye, she haunted his dreams. He couldn't stand the thought of hearing about Emily's perfect life at university, dreading to hear the words she had a new boyfriend.

Finn met Emily's questioning expression. "Simon was late that morning because he'd dropped me off at the bus station. He insisted I leave early to get to the base."

Mary and Simon had conspired together to break them apart.

Mary and Simon had denied them their happiness for eight painful years.

Flames of rage flared, searing into every nerve.