Prologue: The Last Goodbye (1943)

The train station was shrouded in early morning mist, the air thick with the scent of coal and damp wool. Clara stood on the platform, her fingers clutching the lapels of Millor's army coat, as if holding tighter could freeze time. He cupped her face, his calloused thumbs brushing away tears she hadn't realized were falling. "I'll come home to you, Clara. I swear it." His voice was steady, but his eyes betrayed him - dark blue pools of fear and love. She memorized the feel of his hands, the scar on his jaw from a childhood accident, the way his uniform hung just slightly loose on his broad frame. When the whistle blew, he pressed a small velvet box into her palm. Inside was a silver locket, engraved with Forever Yours.

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Chapter 1: The Beginning (1938)

Five years earlier, Clara had been a librarian in the quiet town of Maplewood, Vermont. Millor, a carpenter with a crooked smile, had stumbled into her life - literally - while balancing a stack of books on repairing porch railings. They'd collided in the fiction aisle, sending Pride and Prejudice skidding across the floor. "You're trouble," she'd laughed, brushing sawdust from his hair. He'd shown up the next day with a hand-carved bookmark and a promise to "return all future books on time." Their courtship was a dance of picnics by the lake, stolen kisses under autumn maples, and winters spent reading by the fire. He proposed at dawn on the Fourth of July, fireworks reflecting in her tears.