The Truth About Us

Her knees turned to liquid as her name lingered on his lips, and he pulled her closer, leaning down and brushing his mouth over hers in one soft sweep. Enough to send a warm flush through her body, turning her knees to jelly.

When they parted, he searched her eyes, as if the kiss were a test he could find answers to. Behind them, someone whistled as they strode by, but Abby barely heard it through the pounding of her heart.

“I just needed to make sure last night was real. I thought maybe I’d imagined it,” Kaden whispered.

“You definitely didn’t imagine it.” Because she had been replaying it in her head all night.

“I told you you’d kiss me.”

She rolled her eyes at his smug smile. “Yeah, well, may as well get as many of those in as possible.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because once my parents get a call about my fledgling grades, I’ll be grounded the rest of the semester.”

“Your grades?”

Abby sighed, wishing they could go back to kissing. Kaden’s lips were much more interesting than her plummeting GPA.

“Mr. Delgado has already pulled me aside a couple times in the last two weeks. It’s only a matter of time before he calls home, along with a couple other teachers. I have a feeling my totally bombing the test we just took may be the nail in the coffin.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were having trouble? I can help you, if you—”

“No.” She placed a hand on his chest, then softened her voice. “It’s not so much that I can’t learn the information, or that I’m struggling with it, as it is that I can’t even focus long enough to do the work. All I can think about is my grandmother’s letters. This stupid secret is eating away at my brain. All the information we’ve uncovered in the last few days just keeps percolating, along with how much we have left to learn.”

Kaden pursed his lips. “I get it. Even I had a rough time concentrating today. Though it had less to do with the secret and more to do with something else.” He grinned, then pulled her down the hall toward the cafeteria. “But I was thinking about it. You need to figure this out. And you need to do it now. Let’s crack this thing, so you can get back to your life. As long as you’re trying to uncover whatever this secret is, it’s like you’re in limbo.” He gripped her hand in his, giving it a quick squeeze. “It doesn’t matter why your grandmother put this on you or how unfair it is. The fact is that she did, and we can’t change that, and you’re never going to be able to forget this and focus until it’s over. So, let’s figure this out now, so you can get your life back.”

Or start one, Abby thought.

“Are you sure about this? So far, I’ve done nothing but cause you problems.”

Kaden nodded. “I don’t care what my dad thinks. I can handle school and this. I have nothing all weekend. I know it sucks to wait, but on Saturday, we’re going to Newberry, and we’re going to find something. We’re going to get some answers.”

“I thought driving around all day was a lost cause.”

Kaden shrugged. “We’ll ask around if we have to. Now that we know your grandfather was there, and we’re pretty sure Lawson found something, we know there are answers waiting. We just need to find them, and we’ll do whatever it takes. We’ll call Anna Gutman. We’ll find out what happened with her and your grandmother. In the meantime, we’ll keep calling Kenneth Levine at the Department of Justice until we get answers. We’ll figure this thing out. We’ll do this for your grandmother. Because you loved her and because, fair or not, she wanted this from you. I get that you can’t find closure until it’s over. We’ll close this part of her life, of yours, and you can know you did this one last thing.”

Abigail stopped him and sunk into his arms, wondering how he could understand so perfectly. “Thank you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut as she rested her head against his chest, grateful for his presence in her life.

He ran a hand down the length of her hair. “Let’s put this investigation to rest.”

JUNE 25, 1944

A group of leaders have been formed.

Jozef Deresinski, Zalman Gradowski, Jankiel Handelsman, Ajzyk Kalniak, Lajb Langfus, Zalman Lewental, Lajb Panusz, and Jozef Warszawski. These names go down in infamy either way, and I am honored to be a part of their uprising. I have helped them in any way I can. I have smuggled notes into a secret hiding place, which have reached the women at the munitions plant.

Our defenses may be limited, but we are hiding and smuggling as much as we can with so many eyes on us. We are no longer sitting ducks, waiting to be culled.

Word is they are going to liquidate us soon—the Sonderkommando. So we are preparing, readying for a fight. We will free ourselves and as many as we can manage. We will spring the camp into chaos. We will bide our time, and we will strike when given the call. We will kill as we have been killed. We will fight with all that we have because our lives are no longer ours.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Apparently, small towns breed suspicion when two teenagers coast through, stopping at every diner, waffle, and pancake house within a twenty-mile radius, asking questions about a murdered private investigator and an old man.

No one recognized her grandfather’s picture, but they remembered Lawson, said he met with someone at the diner just outside of town, off the highway. That’s all they knew. It was nothing to go on.