Chapter Ten Chloe
Chapter Ten
Chloe
‘No!’ Claude’s guttural cry shuddered through her body and almost shattered her resolve, but Chloe forced herself to keep her head high.
‘You?’ the SS man spat, stalking towards her, his eyes narrowed. ‘You expect me to believe that it was you?’
Her lower lip quivered but she fought the tears, the emotion clogging her throat, and nodded.
‘Arrest her,’ he ordered the man behind him, shrugging as if he didn’t care whom he took, so long as he took one of them.
Relief settled over her as she realised they’d believed her, replaced almost immediately by a terror that rolled through her stomach and clutched her around the throat. But if she hadn’t said something, Claude would be dead now.
‘Chloe,’ Claude pleaded from across the room as she was roughly shoved forward, falling to her knees. ‘Please . . .’
‘Keep him safe,’ she said, pleading with her eyes. ‘Protect him, Claude. You’re all he has now.’
Her father cried, tears silently falling down his cheeks, but he said nothing as she was hauled to her feet.
‘Should we take the older boy, too?’ asked the other SS man.
‘He’s innocent,’ Chloe cried, as fear threatened to choke her again. ‘He knows nothing of what I was involved in. It was only me!’
She looked away from Claude, eyes barely grazing her father’s, and turned her head to Adrian. Her darling little brother, with his big brown eyes and even bigger heart.
‘I love you,’ she whispered, as something sharp prodded her in the back and forced her forward. ‘I love you so much.’
He cried and went to bolt towards her, but Claude stopped him, hauling him into his arms, holding him as he cried for her.
What have I done? The thought reverberated through her. What have I done?
‘Silly bitch,’ said the man prodding her, shoving her so sharply out of the door and down the stairs that she was barely able to stop herself from falling. ‘Should have let your brother take the blame.’
‘You’ve signed up for a fate worse than death, girl.’
Fear sent goosebumps across her arms and down her legs. She shivered as she was pushed out into the cool night air, wishing for a coat or anything to stop the wind from biting her skin, wishing also that there had been another way.
But she’d promised her mother, she’d promised her she’d keep her brothers safe, that she wouldn’t let any harm come to them.
She’d sat there and held her hand, on her deathbed, and told her that she’d love them and look after them as if they were her own sons.
She’d lost so much of herself after her mother had died; she’d lost her dreams and her writing, but this she could do.
A mother would have sacrificed herself to keep her children safe. A mother would do this.
Chloe had made a promise, and she’d never regret fulfilling it.
‘Move!’ the man behind her said, his boot connecting with her leg as he kicked her.
She gritted her teeth and forced her feet to keep moving, trying her hardest to ignore the pain shooting like fire down the back of her thigh.
But this time, no matter how hard she tried, she was powerless to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks, and they fell as rapidly as rain cascading from the sky.