The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff [highly recommended books txt] 📗

her. She stepped back, clutching the place where my fingers had left red marks on her neck. “How dare you?” she gasped. “I should have you arrested right now.”

She wouldn’t, I knew instantly. The spectacle of having her own stepdaughter removed from her house by the police was more embarrassment than she could bear. “You are evil, Ana Lucia. But your time is almost over. The Allied armies are advancing. They will liberate the city soon.” It was a bluff—though I had heard of the German military’s recent struggles against both the Allies in Italy and the Soviets to the east, I had no idea when or if either would actually reach Kraków.

But Ana Lucia did not know that. “The Russians are nowhere near the city,” she retorted. Doubt flickered behind her eyes.

I continued, “The first thing they will do after they chase the Germans out is come for collaborators like you.”

She blinked several times, as if she had not entirely considered the reality of her situation until now. The fear behind her eyes deepened.

I stepped back, satisfied, and started away.

“Ella, wait.” I turned toward her. Ana Lucia’s face was panicked now as she processed the implications of what I had said. “Perhaps I’ve been too hasty. If you stop aiding the Jews, maybe we can help each other, find a way out of this.” There was a note of pleading in her voice. “We could go to the South of France. I have some money stored away in Zurich. You could write to Maciej, ask him to send a visa for me as well.” I had not told her about the visa that Maciej’s friend, Phillipe, had sent me. I should not have been surprised, yet I realized for the first time that she had been reading my mail.

I hesitated for a beat. Once upon a time, I had wanted my stepmother’s acceptance. Now she was dangling it in front of me like a carrot and part of me wanted to take it. But she was only speaking out of desperation, the fact that I might be able to give some help that she needed. Then I saw Sadie’s beloved necklace crumpled in Ana Lucia’s fat, greedy fingers.

“Go to hell, Ana Lucia.”

I grabbed the necklace from her hand and, with only the clothes on my back, started down the stairs. At the front door, I turned back to gaze one last time at the place that held just about every memory of my family I would ever have. Squaring my shoulders, I started away, leaving my childhood home forever.

Outside, I ran through the streets heedlessly, as if Ana Lucia had already called the police and they might apprehend me at any second. My heart pounded. Then, seeing the alarmed expressions of those around me, I slowed to a walk; I could not afford to attract attention.

I crossed the bridge into Dębniki and started in the direction of the café. Then I hesitated. Just a short while earlier it had been closed. But it was morning now and I prayed that Krys, or at least Kara, would be there. Mercifully, the café door was unlocked. There was no one inside and so I walked swiftly down the steps into the piwnica. I found Krys behind the bar, studying a map of some sort that he had laid out across the floor.

“Ella.” Seeing me, he stood. He did not smile. His face was haggard, eyes sunken and ringed with worry, as if he had not slept at all. “You can’t be here.” His voice was terse and I wondered if he was angry with me for quarreling about the munitions the previous evening.

But I could tell from his grim expression that his worries went much deeper than our disagreement. “What is it?” I asked. “Did something happen to Sadie?”

“She’s fine.” He paused. “Only the munitions...someone took them.”

Dread filled my stomach like a rock. “Who?”

“We don’t know. The police, we think, or maybe a German patrol.”

“They went into the sewer?” He nodded. I was aghast. The very worst thing, which Krys had sworn was not possible, had happened. “Do they know about Sadie and the others?”

“I don’t think so.” He hesitated for a beat. “I don’t know.”

Alarm flooded my brain. I wanted to shout at Krys that I knew he never should have hidden the munitions in the sewer, that I had told him so. I imagined how terrified Sadie must have been to discover that someone had been there. But none of that mattered anymore.

“We’re going after the munitions and whoever took them,” Krys said. “There’s a team searching for them and I’m going to join them now. But in any event, we’re going to have to move Sadie and the others right away.”

“It’s probably for the best anyway,” I said.

Now it was his turn to look puzzled. “Why? What do you mean?”

“Ana Lucia, she found Sadie’s necklace that I was hiding for her.” Krys’ eyes darkened as he processed the implications of what I was telling him. I waited for him to berate me for doing something as foolish as hiding Jewish valuables, but he did not. “She put two and two together and figured out that I’ve been helping Jews. She doesn’t know about the sewer yet, at least I don’t think so. But she threw me out of the house.”

Anger clouded his face, followed quickly by resignation. “I’m sorry. I know how upset you must be. But honestly, that part is for the best. When the Allies finally do liberate the city, you don’t want to be anywhere near a collaborator like her.”

He was right, of course. “But it’s only a matter of time before she tells the Germans what I’ve done.” I waited for him to disagree.

He did not. “We’ll find you a place to go, get you out of the city,” he replied instead. I watched his eyes dart about as he formulated a plan. “Your brother is in Paris, isn’t he? You can go to