And not alone, it seemed, for a tall, dark young woman followed her into the building. As soon as Bobeshi spied Ava from her window, she knew the miracle had been accomplished. It was an amazing achievement, but it brought its own sorrow. The time for Lea to leave had arrived.

“Pack up anything that matters,” Bobeshi told her granddaughter. “The suitcase is under the bed.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Lea insisted. But when she saw her grandmother’s dark expression she did not dare to argue.

By now Hanni had unlocked the apartment, and Lea ran to embrace her mother. She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Bobeshi said I should pack.”

“You should,” Hanni said. “Right now.”

“And when will you pack?” Lea asked.

Hanni turned to the woman lingering in the doorway. “Come in. Come in,” Hanni told her before turning back to Lea. “Here is your cousin, Ava. Say hello.”

In time Lea would forget how suspicious and angry she was and would come to remember the details of this day as if a light had poured over them. She would forget the way she glared at the stranger, and how she had taken a step back, as if ready to run and hide. Instead she would recall the blue pot of soup on the stove, the ticking of the clock on the mantel, the way Bobeshi covered her face so no one would see her cry, the stranger’s heavy boots, more suited to a man than to a young, pretty woman, her mother’s dark hair swept up with tortoiseshell combs, the sadness in her eyes, the gauzy curtains that made it seem as if the world was still the same, if you narrowed your eyes, if you didn’t look too closely, if you managed to still have hope in the world.

“I didn’t know we had cousins.” Lea was cautious. Too much was happening all at once. The world was turned upside down and nothing made sense.

“You have many,” Hanni insisted. “You’ve just never met them. You’ll be visiting cousins who live in Paris.”

Hanni turned away so that her daughter wouldn’t see her eyes brimming with tears. It didn’t matter. Lea saw her mother as she was, fierce as always, but broken inside.

“Where will you be?” Lea asked.

“I’ll be here, taking care of Bobeshi.”

Bright tears burned in Lea’s eyes. “Then I will be, too.”

“No,” Hanni said. “You must honor your mother, as I honor mine. This is not a choice. You must do as I say.”

“You’ll send me away alone?”

“Of course not. You’ll be safe with Ava. She will follow you to the ends of the earth. And she’s stronger than a hundred horsemen. What you ask her to do, she will do without question.”

“I won’t go,” Lea cried. “You can’t make me.”