Chapter 20

"A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring. - William Carlos Williams Ryan removed the suitcase from his car's trunk and looked up to stare at the house that had been for a long time, a symbol of his misery. "No. That is wrong." He shook his head in denial. Refusing to blame another person. He alone had been responsible for his actions and that said, the source of all his pain and misery had been his fear and his cowardice. He acknowledged that he should have been braver, fought harder to protect her, but then again, she had never needed his protection. "A General's daughter?" He laughed at the thought. Despite all he had been through, despite all he had feared, he had been the one to wrong her, to harm her and not his father despite all the words and threats he had issued. He, Ryan, and not his father had been the one to break her. He had broken Malisha, but now she was happy. Another thing that he had almost ruined as he