Eloise leaned forward and drew her into an embrace. She held her and let her tears fall before pulling back again and handing Ans a lace handkerchief. “What I need to tell you, Ans, may be very difficult for you to hear. Please understand that I’m saying it because I love you.” Ans nodded, wiping her eyes. “Your boyfriend has worked for the Nazis for five years. He’s a member of the Dutch Nazi Party. What better way to win their favor than to expose a Resistance cell and take credit for their arrest? If we offered to hide him here or on your parents’ farm, imagine the reward he’d receive for turning in hidden Jews like Meta and Sientje and Elisheva.”

“I know . . .”

“But even if it isn’t a trap, why does he want to go into hiding now? Is it because the Allies are winning and he may face punishment for working with the Nazis?” She paused as if to let Ans digest her words. “Why did he remain on the police force and join the NSB? Why didn’t he become an onderduiker a long time ago?”

Ans struggled to remember. “They would have sent him to a work camp if he refused. He wanted to stay so he could do good as a policeman. He could protect people from the Nazis.”

“And has he done that? Did he work with the Resistance behind the scenes, sharing information with them? I’ve heard of police officers in other cities who helped prisoners escape. The Resistance wanted to free Herman and the others from the Leiden jail, but there weren’t any sympathetic policemen we could trust. No, Ans. Erik did everything the Nazis told him to do. When they started rounding up Jews, he helped them do it.”

“He could have arrested me when he caught me with the underground newspapers —”

“Instead, he tried to control you. He made you promise to stop doing the work that your heart told you to do.”

“He saved my life when he warned me about the raid in Zoeterwoude.”

“If you had been arrested, he would have been under suspicion too, as your boyfriend. He was saving you but also himself. He didn’t care about the people in that apartment. And did he show any compassion for Avi and Miriam? Did he offer to help them because they were your friends? No. He wanted you to stop saving Jews and working for the underground because he didn’t want to lose you.”

“He loves me.”