Warsaw, 1943. The city is a graveyard where fear walks alongside the living. Ewa Dąbrowska, a widowed schoolteacher, hides more than her grief. By day, she is just another face in a city of ghosts. By night, she becomes a shadow, risking her life as part of the resistance. She smuggles secrets in hollowed-out books and hides notes beneath loose stones, sometimes even beneath the bodies of the fallen.
Major Günther Keller, towering and fearsome, commands the Nazi forces with precision. But behind his iron mask lies a man slowly unraveling under the weight of war. When their paths cross outside a pharmacy one winter afternoon, something unspoken passes between them-a connection neither can name, but both are unable to deny.
What begins as a fleeting glance grows into an unthinkable bond. Through notes left in the most dangerous of places-under the stones of war-torn streets, tucked into the folds of old coats, and hidden where only the dead could bear witness-Ewa and Günther defy the crushing weight of their world.
But love is never safe, and secrets buried beneath stones have a way of surfacing. When Günther's men begin closing in on the resistance, and Ewa's double life edges closer to discovery, their love becomes a desperate act of survival. In a war where loyalty is a death sentence and betrayal could save them both, they must ask: how much can you sacrifice for love when the world demands everything?
As Claire aims to leave her oppressive stepfamily behind, she befriends Zion. Will he be her ticket to freedom or a distraction in achieving her dreams?
*****
Claire Olsen has had a crush on Zion Petrakis since the first time she laid eyes on him, but he never noticed, instead only having eyes on the school's it girl, Maddie Jennings. Knowing she couldn't compete with Maddie, Claire hid her feelings for Zion, satisfied with admiring him from afar. However, when a series of events led Claire closer to Zion, her feelings for him grew from infatuation to love. And despite fighting hard to keep her feelings contained by distancing herself from Zion, he was determined to show her that he's earned a spot in her life.
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