“Because it is the right thing to do,” Saul said quietly. I was stunned. “My grandmother is right: if the baby stays here, we are all dead. And I won’t lose you, Sadie, not if I can save you.” I knew he was thinking of Shifra, and the ways in which he had failed her. “You can’t stop her,” he added in a low voice, gesturing with his head toward my mother. “She is determined to leave. The only thing you can do now is help her to go safely.”

I took in all that he had said, numb with disbelief. He was right. None of us could stop her from going. But I could not stay here without her. “Take me, too,” I begged. “I will come with you,” I insisted. “I know the way out. I can help carry the baby.”

Mama shook her head. “No, you must stay here. Together we would be more easily spotted. I can move more quickly alone. I will be back in a few hours, a day at most.” She forced certainty into her voice.

“If you wait until my friend Ella comes, I can ask for her help.” I didn’t know how Ella could possibly help hide a baby, but I was stalling for time, anything to keep Mama from going.

She shook her head. “I can’t wait. Every time the baby cries, it puts us all at risk. We can’t count on anyone else now. Just let me get her to safety and I will come back to you, I swear.”

So it was decided. My sister would go. Mama would take her. And I would be left here alone.

Mama set down the satchel and passed the baby to me while she reached for her coat. Then she hesitated. The coat sleeve still bore the white armband with a blue star that we had been ordered to wear. “Here, take this,” Bubbe Rosenberg said, walking across the chamber with her own dark cape.

“Thank you.” Mama took the cape and put it on. I saw then how Mama’s blond hair had begun to turn to gray and her once-rosy skin was pale and withered like tissue paper. The sewer had aged her, seemingly overnight. She took the baby back from me.

Bubbe put her hand on Mama’s shoulder and then touched the baby’s head. I wanted to smack her hand away. How dare she feign kindness after what she had done? “We will keep her safe until you return,” she said, nodding her head in my direction. I was confused. Mama said she would not be gone more than a day, but Bubbe’s words made it seem like so much longer. An uneasy feeling balled like a fist in my stomach.

Mama picked up the satchel once more and walked to the entrance of the chamber with the baby. “Come,” she said to me. “I need you to show me the way.” My stomach twisted. Was she really asking me to help her leave?