May 1, 1918, Ypres, France
"The halo was an omen."

 

In war, she fell love

Vera Betts shouldn't be falling in love with the enigmatic doctor she suspects of espionage. Reeling from her family's betrayal, she's faked her nursing credentials, invented a new name, and run away to the frontlines of the French battlefield. Four years into the Great War and she knows who she is and what she's meant for--to save the living and sit vigil by the dying. When the cagey-yet-earnest Dr. Nicholas Wallace arrives, so do mysterious explosions destroying hospitals. Even as Nick raises her suspicions, he lowered her defenses. He wants the war to end. Are his acts of sabotage politically motivated or a desperate attempt at peace? 
 

In peace, she fell apart.

A year later, Vera is back with her oppressive family, living under her real name, and Nick is on trial for murder. Trapped in grief and guilt, she cannot speak about the past and does not believe in the future. With Nick refusing to defend  himself, she ventures to London to understand why he is so willing to embrace the hangman's noose. Who is he trying to protect? What secrets does he plan to carry to his grave? And why does Nick insist upon hiding her true identity? To save the man she loves, Vera must tear open the past and confront the tragic price for peace.