Chapter Twenty-Five

Ava's hands were shaking as she crept around Heinrich, bending down to pick up his pistol and trying not to be sick while his expressionless eyes stared back at her. She gave him a quick kick with the point of her foot, wanting to make sure he was dead without getting any closer to him, then she dashed around to David, to the man who'd so bravely killed Heinrich, who'd saved her life with so little thought for his own.

He was sitting up now but slumped over to the side, blood seeping through his shirt, and Ava didn't know what to do. She heard a moan and looked past him to Eliana, torn between running to her and helping David.

‘Untie me!' Hanna cried. ‘David, put pressure on the wound. Keep your hand there.'

‘Get the keys,' David groaned. ‘You need keys, for her handcuffs.'

Ava's stomach turned. That would mean groping around Heinrich's dead body looking for them. Her heart started to pound as she thought about the other men downstairs. In all the commotion, she'd forgotten entirely about them.

‘The guards,' she panicked, looking at the door, expecting them to come bursting through at any second. ‘We have—'

‘They're gone,' David said, his voice low, his hand pressed hard to his side as he groaned again.

Ava didn't even want to think about what David had been forced to do. All she cared about was that no one else was coming for them. Yet.

She bent down low over Heinrich, having to grab hold of him and heft him to the side in order to fumble for the keys. She unclipped them from his belt loop and let his body go, backing away from him, wondering how she'd ever loved him, how she'd ever planned to marry him and have children with such a monster.

Ava turned back to her sister, using the edge of her blouse to wipe a splatter of blood from her cheek, her hands shaking as she undid the cuffs and freed her hands. Hanna gave her a quick, hard hug before darting across the room to David. Dropping to her knees, she took his hand away to inspect his wound.

Eliana. Ava's legs wobbled as she ran back across the room and through the connecting door to Eliana, who was hunched forward now, her knees drawn up to her chest, her body trembling. Ava took in the scene before her, knowing instinctively what Heinrich had done to her friend. She sat down and gently put an arm around Eliana, holding her as she cried, pushing the hair from her face. What she wanted was to take her to the bathroom and carefully bathe her, before wrapping her in warm blankets and holding her while she slept away the pain and trauma of what had happened. But they didn't have the luxury of time – the other two SS men could be back at any moment, and she didn't even want to think what they'd do if they came into the house and found three of their own shot dead. She only hoped that Zelda didn't arrive and unexpectedly end up part of the commotion.

‘I'm going to get you a fresh change of clothes,' Ava said.

‘David?' Eliana whispered, looking up at Ava, more child than young woman in that moment.

‘David is in good hands,' Ava murmured. ‘Hanna will look after him.'

Tears began to leak from Eliana's eyes once more, and Ava pressed a kiss to her forehead and quickly hugged her again, before letting go and standing up.

‘Don't leave me,' Eliana whispered, her eyes wide with fear. ‘Please don't leave me, Ava.'

‘I'm only going to get clothes from my room for you. I'll be right back.'

As Ava passed David, he reached out his hand and she clasped it without hesitation. She knew she'd never know how to properly thank him for what he'd done, for the way he'd so selflessly risked his life to save theirs, but she hoped he could sense her gratitude.

‘Thank you,' she said, knowing it wasn't enough but saying it anyway.

He grimaced, his other hand covered in blood, pressed to his bullet wound again. ‘I would do it all over again,' he said, his breath catching, his breath hissing out of him when he tried to move, ‘if it meant keeping you all from harm.'

Something warm and deep swelled inside of Ava. She stared down at David, keeping hold of his hand just a moment longer than she should have. It dawned on her that there were two men in this room, two men who'd been part of her life these past months, and the one who'd pledged to spend the rest of his life with her had been the one who'd tried to kill her.

‘Is she going to be all right?' David asked, looking past her to Eliana.

Ava nodded. ‘It'll just take time. She's been through a lot.'

David looked away, as if he couldn't stand to even acknowledge what they might have done to his sister.

‘Where's Hanna?' she asked, suddenly realising that her sister wasn't there.

‘Getting supplies,' David groaned, slumping back down again.

Ava wished she could lower herself to the carpet and cradle him through his pain, but she needed to help Eliana first. She had begun to walk across the room when she heard the unmistakable creak of the stairs.

‘Where did Hanna say she was going?' Ava whispered.

David looked up at her. She knew he'd heard the noise, too. ‘Down the hall. To fetch water, and a needle and thread.'

Ava glanced at the pistol, sitting on the bed where she'd left it. She didn't doubt that she'd be capable of squeezing the trigger and taking a life if it meant saving David or Eliana, not now.

She lifted the gun, standing protectively in front of David, her breath shallow, her heart racing.

‘Mama?' Ava put the gun down when she saw her and ran forward, opening her arms and throwing herself at her mother.

‘Ava!' Her mother's hug was tight. ‘Where's Hanna? Where are the Goldmans?' She gasped. ‘What happened to David?'

Ava stepped back, pushing her hair from her face as her mother took in the scene in the room. ‘Eliana is in the next room. She needs you. I'm going to get her new clothes.'

‘And Hanna?'

‘I'm here, Mama.' Hanna had returned with towels, a dish of water, and a needle between her lips, her words mumbled from trying not to drop it.

‘Make those clothes warm ones, Ava, just in case. We need to leave now.' She turned to Hanna. ‘You'll have to work fast.'

Ava hurried, pulling clothes from her wardrobe and taking them to Eliana. She let her mother tend to Eliana and went back to look for more things, realising that they all needed to change if they were going to be on the run. They couldn't walk around in bloodstained clothes without being noticed, and her mother was right – who knew how long they might be on the run for? They would need warm layers, particularly if they were to be moving around at night or sleeping rough.

‘Where's Papa?' Ava asked when she came back, dropping to her knees to assist Hanna, who was preparing to take out the bullet lodged in David's flesh. His guttural groans made Ava flinch, hating to see him in so much pain. ‘He warned me but then I never saw him again.'

‘Your father is gone,' her mother said, her voice so low that Ava wondered if she'd misheard her.

‘Gone?' Ava echoed. Am I truly never to see Papa again? It seemed like only hours ago that his hand had been so warm, his touch light as he'd whispered in her ear, had passed her the note in a move that had ultimately saved her life. ‘He's already gone?' What did she even mean by gone?

‘They've already executed him for treason, but he has forged papers in his study, locked in his safe for all of you.' Her mother cleared her throat, clearly trying not to cry, to be brave for them. ‘We have to leave as soon as Hanna has that bullet out of David, and we must save our grief for later. Your father would want us to be safe, he'd want us to do anything we could to stay alive, do you understand?'

Ava understood. No one was coming to save them. If their father was truly gone, then it was all over. The resistance network valued them, but she'd seen first-hand how ruthless they could be, which didn't give her any hope that they might risk coming to help. She refused to cry, knowing that her mother was right. They would have to wait to grieve – that was what her father would have wanted.

‘It will be a death sentence if we stay,' Hanna said, looking up at Ava, as if she could read her thoughts.

‘We need to go and get Frau and Herr Goldman,' Ava said, looking away as her mother dressed Eliana, not wanting to see the ugly purple bruises on her skin, caused by a man she'd once willingly let touch her. ‘They will have heard the gunshots and they'll be terrified out there.'

While Ava was downstairs rifling through her father's drawers and opening his safe to find the documents, her mother called out that she was going to get Herr and Frau Goldman, and they were to meet in the kitchen in five minutes' time. Ava found the identity papers hidden away for all of them, and she also took the money from the safe, a diamond necklace she'd never seen before, and a loaded pistol. She hated the idea of carrying a gun, but she figured it was better if they had two.

Ava went to the kitchen, quickly finding a bag and putting together two small sacks of food and filling some bottles with water. It wasn't much, but it was something, and they could all take something else to eat with them on the way.

Eliana appeared in the kitchen first, her arms wrapped around her body, which was covered in a bulky coat that looked too thick for her slender frame. David and Hanna followed, and Ava paled at the sight of David, who grimaced with each step. She had no idea how he was going to walk far with his injury.

‘Here are your papers,' Ava said, passing a document to each of them. ‘Memorise your new name and birth date until they're your own.'

She thought of the final set of papers inside the safe, the ones that had clearly been intended for her father to use. Part of her had wanted to take them, but she knew she had to leave them behind, in case her mother had been wrong and he came back. She wasn't going to give up hope until she knew for certain that he'd been taken from them.

The back door opened and suddenly everyone was in the room. The Goldmans were all hugging one another, happy to be reunited, and her mother came to stand beside her.

‘Every minute we're here, we risk being discovered,' she said. ‘You need to go now.'

‘Yes, we need to go. I have food packed and—'

‘No, you need to go, Ava,' her mother said, reaching up a hand to stroke her face, her eyes filled with an expression that Ava didn't want to see. ‘I'm staying here.'

‘Mama, no,' Ava said, shaking her head. ‘I can't go without you! I can't, I—'

‘We are also staying,' Frau Goldman said. ‘We will stay hidden and let the four of you go.'

‘But we have papers for everyone,' Ava said. ‘We can all go, we can't leave you here. I can't leave you here.'

‘We will only slow you down,' Herr Goldman said, ‘and it will be much harder for us to pass as non-Jews. If we go, we'll all be caught.'

‘Papa,' Eliana said, her eyes filling with tears as she clung to her mother.

‘We have decided,' he said. ‘But now it's time for you to go, while you still can. All this time hidden, it can't be for nothing.'

Ava knew there was no point in arguing; her mother's chin was raised, her shoulders were squared, and the Goldmans looked equally as resolute.

‘I will stay also,' Hanna said.

‘Hanna, no! I won't leave you, there is no reason for you to stay,' Ava said.

Hanna smiled, leaving David to lean on his father and coming to hug Ava. ‘Yes, you will,' she said. ‘I'll find you, I promise, we can meet in Cologne. Eliana has told me that's where Ethan told you to go. But you must get Eliana and David to safety, you have to do this for them, to finish what Papa started.'

‘Hanna,' Ava mumbled, burying her face in her sister's hair, hugging her so fiercely she wondered how she'd ever let go.

‘You can do this, I know you can. Please, do it for me, and for Mama and Papa, too.'

‘You promise you'll find us?' Ava asked, wiping her cheeks; Hanna stood beside their mother. ‘You promise you'll follow when you can?'

She didn't miss the hesitation in her sister's voice before she finally spoke. ‘I promise. Now go. Make Papa proud.'

Ava looked from her mother to her sister, before finally nodding and collecting the small sacks of food. For the first time in her life, it appeared that she was in charge – the destiny of others rested squarely on her shoulders.

‘We shall head directly for Cologne,' she said. ‘We will stay hidden there for a day with Ethan's family, maybe two, while we form a plan to leave Germany. We might even be able to get to the Netherlands with these papers.'

Her sister nodded, and her mother took her hands in hers, lifting them to press a kiss to her skin.

‘Stay safe, my love.'

Ava looked to David and then Eliana, knowing that she had to be brave, for them. ‘I will. I'll see you both soon.'

Even as she said the words, she wondered if she would ever see her darling, sweet mother or her impossibly brave sister again.