When no one answered, she called Annika’s name again.
“Luzi—”
She pushed around Hermann and ran into the foyer, panic rising inside her chest. “Annika!”
Hermann followed her, but he didn’t yell for Annika. Instead he collapsed on the front staircase, his head buried deep in the grave of his hands. The entire weight of the Alps seemed to press down on his shoulders, and she feared knowing the reason. She didn’t think she could bear to lose someone else. “Where’s Annika?” she demanded.
“The Gestapo. They took her away.”
Luzi felt as if she might collapse on the floor. “Why would they take her?”
“She claimed to be you.”
His words washed over her, slowly at first. Then they nailed themselves to her heart, one at a time.
“Why—?” But she didn’t have to ask; she knew why Annika would do this.
Greater love had no man or woman.
Greater love had Annika for her and...
Her heart seemed to cave in. She had known Annika loved Max, had seen it clearly in her eyes when Max brought Luzi to her. Max was oblivious, but women—they knew these things.
Still Annika had done the unthinkable for her.
In that moment, Luzi knew that she could never marry Max Dornbach. He belonged with Annika.
“We must stop them,” Luzi said.
Hermann shook his head. “They will arrest you, too.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It should matter.” He looked back up at her. “They will punish her even more severely for hiding you.”
“Then you must go.” She glanced toward the window. “Or Max.”
“We will do everything we can.” But any strength left in his voice broke.
She shivered. “What will they do to her?”
“Take her, I fear, to one of their work camps.”
She crumpled onto the tile floor, wishing she could crawl back into her hiding place, make it all go away. Wishing she could open the panel one more time and see Annika on the other side.
“I must do something,” she said.
“Come home with me, for the sake of your child.” Hermann reached for her hand. “It’s no longer safe for either of you here.”
“It’s no longer safe for us anywhere.”
“I told you to wait for me,” Ernst yelled into the telephone.
The line buzzed back at him, an awful, whining sound.
“Why must we wait?” the man on the other line finally replied, sounding bored. The tone infuriated Ernst.
“Because I wanted to interrogate the girl.”
