Chapter Twenty-Three

HANNA

Hanna touched the boy's forehead with the back of her hand, concerned that his fever still hadn't broken. Her shift had ended almost an hour ago, but she'd chosen to stay and look after those who needed her. She never liked leaving the children, not when she had no family of her own to go home to. She adored her sister and her parents, but they could never replace what she'd lost.

She was walking down the ward to check on her other patients when she heard the sound of tyres crunching over gravel outside. It wouldn't have alarmed her usually to hear a vehicle arrive – they had ambulances arriving throughout the day after all – but to have three cars pull up one after the other... She patted one of the children on the leg as she moved around the bed, leaning over to part the curtain and look out of the window. The hairs on her arms rose as she heard the sound of multiple doors closing and realised who their visitors were.

There were three unmistakable SS vehicles parked across the entrance to the hospital, effectively blocking it, and six men were marching briskly towards the door. Hanna's blood ran cold. Either there was a medical emergency or they were looking for someone. And she had the most overwhelming, gut-wrenching feeling that they were looking for her.

They're coming for me. There's no one else here they could be looking for. Run. I have to run!

Hanna fled the room, walking as quickly as she could so as not to alarm the children, but when she reached the hallway she began to run. Fear knotted in her stomach as she heard the heavy thud-thud-thud of boots, and she propelled herself forward even faster, the doors and doctors she passed a blur as she raced for the back exit, crashing into one of the doctors and not even pausing to apologise as she stumbled on.

I just have to make it to the door. I have to get home. I have to warn Mama. This cannot be the end, not yet.

‘There she is! The Müller girl is there!'

The sound of boots chasing after her became louder, but Hanna could see the door now, all she had to do was make it through and she could hide outside, it would be so much harder for them to find her out there. She'd known this day might come, but now that it was here, her fear was greater than she could ever have imagined, her desperation to not be caught driving her forward.

Five more steps. One. Almost there.

Hanna almost slammed into the door as she reached for the handle, but just as she thought she was about to escape, a hand caught her hair, yanking her backwards, pulling her clean off her feet and dropping her on to the floor. She sat up, frantically trying to push her back against the wall so she could at least face her captors, but a black boot came down hard on her stomach, pressing so hard, so heavily, that she could barely breathe, her lungs feeling as if they'd been crushed.

‘Put the handcuffs on her.'

Hanna didn't bother trying to fight; she didn't try to proclaim her innocence as one of the men stood over her and spat in her face. But she also didn't react when the boot pressed harder into her abdomen, even though the pain was sharp and immediate, even though she began to see black as her vision swam. She'd been prepared for this, she'd known all along that she could lose her life for the work she'd done, but it had been worth it. All she cared about was finding a way to convince them that the rest of her family hadn't been involved in any way. Protecting Ava, her mother and the Goldmans was all that mattered to her now.

‘Traitor bitch,' the SS man who cuffed her said as he hauled her to her feet, the metal cutting deeply into the flesh around her wrists. ‘Just like her father.'

She considered fighting and flailing, spitting back at them like a wildcat and kicking with all her might, but as nurses and doctors came to stand in open doors to see what the commotion was, she simply hung her head. There was no point fighting against the inevitable, and she didn't want to make a scene that her patients could hear, that would make what was happening any worse for those who were watching.

It's over. Her only regret was that she wouldn't be able to rescue any more children, or help any more Jewish families and children still hidden in the city. She wouldn't be there for her sister, or for Eliana. A tear slipped down her cheek. It's all over for Papa now, too.

‘We've got them both,' the man striding ahead of her, the one whose boot had been pressed to her body, called out triumphantly. ‘We caught the other one looking for her.'

And just as Hanna was wondering who they were talking about, just as she lifted her head to look, everything changed.

Someone further down the hall screamed. It was unmistakably a woman, the sound piercing and heart-wrenching all at once, and when the man in front of Hanna moved slightly to the side, she saw a scene that broke her heart.

‘No!' Hanna cried. She saw Eliana, her hands in cuffs behind her back, as one of the men used the back of his hand to smack her across the face, his knuckles leaving a smear of blood on her pale skin. She dropped to her knees, her nose dribbling red.

Please God, no. Not Eliana.

‘Let me go!' Hanna screamed, snatching her hands away from the man holding on to her, trying to escape, forgetting all about not making a scene.

But she was no match for the men surrounding her, no matter how hard she kicked or thrusted. She frantically tried to bite one of them when he pressed his thick, ugly arm around her neck, but she received a sharp slap to the face in return that sent blood dripping from her mouth, one of her teeth rattling loose.

‘Hanna!' Eliana cried.

Hanna fought again, so hard she feared the cuffs were going to cut through her wrists to the bone, not certain whether the screams she could hear were coming from her or Eliana. All she knew was that it was her fault Eliana was here – the only reason she could possibly be in the hospital building was for her. She'd come to warn her, and instead she'd been captured.

‘Keep her still!' a man yelled, just as the butt of a pistol connected with the side of Hanna's head, sending her reeling sideways. The ground came up to meet her and everything went black.