Page 47 of The Lost Husband

His gaze cuts through me. Past me. As if I’m no one.

Boots scrape the floor as a Russian guard steps closer to him, grabbing the rope at his wrists, yanking him forward. “Eyes down!”

My heart cracks, and my foot shifts toward him before I can stop myself. One small step.

“Nyet!” a voice barks from behind me, and I whip around at the sound. He nods toward the soldier with Noah. “Take that one to interrogation first.” My heart thrashes against my rib cage and I gasp for air, jumping backward.

Not him. Not first. No, no, no.

“Someone, take her out of here,” another soldier snaps.

“I—I… There’s been—you have the wrong man…” I blurt out, pointing toward the group of German prisoners.

He’s alive. Noah’s alive.

And I’m not leaving him here.

Papers shuffle. Soldiers laugh. And I risk one last desperate glance at Noah, ready to show them who he is…that he’s not who they think he is.He can’t be.I spot him for a brief second, but he doesn’t look at me again.

“Enough,” a soldier grunts, grabbing my arm. I stumble a step, my legs threatening to give out.

“Please, you must listen to me…” I beg, trying to pull my arm from the soldier’s hand, but he tightens his grip.

“I will only warn you once to shut up,” he spews, yanking me out of the building into a slap of cold air.

Tears fill my eyes as my heart quakes through my body, wanting to plead again, fearing what will happen if I open my mouth—fearing what will happen if I don’t. Another soldierstands guard at the back of a truck, his rifle pointed to the ground, but his finger on the trigger.

“Not another word,” the soldier mutters before tossing me into the truck.

Avi and Elias are already seated on the bench along the right. “Celina!” Avi cries.

I drop to my knees and turn around to pull myself back out of the truck just as the gate slams shut between us, separating me from Noah…again. “Please,” I whimper, the word becoming lost within the engine’s rumble.

“Are—are you all right?” Avi whispers.

I thrash my fist against the metal gate again and again before the truck jerks forward, slinging me backward.

“Celina,” Elias hisses. He leans forward and scrapes me up from the ground, pulling me up to the bench between him and Avi.

“What happened?” Avi presses again.

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

“We didn’t get far after they spotted you. They separated us and asked us too many questions, repeatedly, before they brought each of us into a room with a bunch of Polish villagers who didn’t speak a word to us. We asked where you were, but they wouldn’t tell us anything,” Elias says. “They fed us, didn’t hurt us or anything. Same for you?”

I shake my head again, staring across the truck into the dark folds of the curved canopy top.

TWENTY

CURRENT DAY

Myslowice, Poland

How far away are they taking us? How will I find my way back here?

“I don’t know where we’re going,” Elias whispers. “Do you?”

A displacement shelter down the road.That’s what Igor said. Down the road. That must mean not far away.