Two weeks later, Elise stood at her sister’s memorial, admiring the fresh flowers she’d placed there with her little helper. She’d created the memorial beside her parents’ graves when she’d returned, but she’d always been void of emotion, too scared to truly think back and remember what she’d lost, what they’d once had. But with Harry home, she’d learnt to grieve for her sister, to stop hiding her tears; she’d broken wide open and yet at the same time was no longer broken like she’d once been.

Louis stood by her side, his pudgy arm around her leg, his hand caught in hers. And this time, when she saw Harry coming up the path, she didn’t startle. In such a short time, he’d started to fill out, and he was already looking like her Harry again.

Today he was holding a newspaper, and she smiled as he came closer and scooped Louis up with one strong arm, kissing his cheek before kissing hers. He might have missed out on the early years of his son’s life, but he was making up for lost time every hour of every day.

“Look at this,” he said, holding the newspaper out. “You won’t believe it.”

She took the paper from him, her eyes casting over the words as Harry read aloud over her shoulder, starting with the headline. She gripped his arm tightly, staring, not believing his words.

“Nazi commander charged with war crimes,” he read.

Elise thought her legs were going to buckle as she gripped the paper, needing to read for herself. Never in a million years did she think there could or would be justice, but perhaps she’d been wrong. Could this really be him?

“The accused, Commander Wolfgang Schmidt, a highly decorated Nazi soldier, has been nicknamed the butcher of Le Paradis,” she read. “Schmidt was found in a prisoner-of-war camp in Sheffield, England, and was picked up by Americans and later transferred to a camp in Yorkshire. The commander is on trial for war crimes committed in the French village of Le Paradis, where he is accused of the massacre of almost one hundred British soldiers. The unit, known as the Royal Norfolk Regiment, were slain in cold blood following their surrender, with Schmidt allegedly giving the order to open fire, killing all but two British soldiers with machine-gun fire and bayonets.”

Elise glanced up at Harry. His eyes were filled with tears, and she leant against him as she continued to read.

“The War Crimes Investigation Unit describes Schmidt as a man like his Nazi comrades, well versed in brutality and not showing a hint of remorse. It is understood he is still refusing to acknowledge his actions.”

Elise shut her eyes, remembering the man, remembering what she’d lost and what he’d been responsible for.