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“We’re your daughters,” Meredith said gently, trying to soften the questions her sister had asked “We just want to know you ”

“It hat Dad wanted, too,” Nina said

Mo hand The roo the boat far below “You are right This is no fairy tale But if you want to hear the rest of it, you will allow me to tell the story in the only way I can ”

“But who—”

“No questions, Nina Just listen ” Moht have looked pale and tired, but her voice was pure steel

Nina sat down by Meredith, holding her hand “Okay ”

“Okay, then ” Moerits slick surface For once, the lights were on as she started to speak “Vera fell in love with Sasha on that day in the Summer Garden, and for her, this is a decision that will never change Even though her rees, is afraid of Sasha’s love of poetry, Vera is young and passionately in love with her husband, and when their first child is born, it seems like a ht of Vera’s life When Leo is born the next year, Vera cannot ih it is a bad time in the Soviet Union The world knows this, they know of Stalin’s evil People are disappearing and dying No one knows this better than Vera and Olga, who still cannot safely say their father’s name But in June of 1941, it is impossible to worry, or so it seems to Vera as she kneels in the

rich black earth and tends her garden Here, on the outskirts of the city, she and Sasha have a setables to carry therad winter Vera still works in the library, while Sasha studies at university, learning only what Stalin allows They becoood Soviets, or at least quiet ones, for the black vans are everywhere these days Sasha is only a year away fro position at one of the universities

/>“Mae carrot, etable Vera knows she should chastise him, but his smile is so infectious that she is lost At four he has his father’s golden curls and easy laugh “Put the carrot back, Leo, it still needs tirow ”

“I told him not to pull it up,” says five-year-old Anya, who is as serious as her brother is joyous

“And you were right,” Vera says, struggling not to sh she is only twenty-two years old, the children have turned her into an adult; it is only when she and Sasha are alone that they are really still young

When Vera finishes with her garden, she gathers up her children, takes one in each hand, and begins the long walk back to their apartment

It is late afternoon by the tirad, and the streets are croith people running and shouting At first Vera thinks it is just the belye nochi that has energized everyone, but as she reaches the Fontanka Bridge, she begins to hear snippets of conversation, the start of a dozen arguments, a buzz of anxiety

She hears a squawking sound coh a speaker and the word—Attention —thrown like a knife into wood Clutching her children’s hands, she wades into the crowd just as the announceins “Citizens of the Soviet Unionat four A M without declaration of warGerman troops have attacked our country”

The announceood Soviets, to enlist in the Red Army, to resist the enemy, but Vera cannot listen to anyet home