Elise stared at him, her pulse thudding in her ears. “How… how could you possibly know that?” Her voice was barely audible. The veteran looked at her with a sorrow so deep it seemed carved from decades of silence.
There was no mistaking it anymore. This wasn’t a coincidence. This wasn’t vague recognition. This man knew her grandmother. It was no longer about the shared trauma of the war. Elise felt the air around them shift, the truth rising between them like something long buried, finally breaking free.