The two-day stay in Berlin passed rather quickly. I still wasn't ready to face my family, but I couldn't avoid them forever. It had been just over a week since I set Project Chameleon into motion. I was already eager to see if my assets had made any progress with their marks.
Joe and I stood outside of the Hotel Adolphus waiting on our taxi. It was a murky rainy day. I hugged Joe for warmth. He pressed his cheek against my head and laughed quietly. "Josef?" Martin called, interrupting the moment. We both sighed. "I was informed you were leaving."
"Are you here to stop me?" Joe asked. I let go of Joe, but he kept his hand firm on my waist.
Martin shook his head. "No, no, I won't force you to stay. But, there's something you need to see before you go."
"Our plane leaves at three," I informed him.
"I'll drop you at the airport after," Martin assured. "I can't let you leave without knowing the truth, Josef. You deserve to know it."
A blonde girl in a bright blue coat darted in front of Martin. "Joe, I thought that was you!" She looked between us, her blue eyes sparkling. "Oh, you must be Charlotte! Joe mentioned you. I can see why he was so anxious to return to New York."
Martin smiled at the other blonde. "Ah, Ms. Becker, perhaps you could keep Ms. Smith company while I speak with my son?"
Her brows furrowed but she nodded. "Of course, I know the best café around the block. Do you like coffee?"
"Who doesn't?" I looked up at Joe. "Meet you at the airport at three?" He nodded. I kissed him on the cheek and he finally released me. I gave Joe and Martin one last worried glance before following the other woman around the corner.
The café was cute. It had matching mint colored tables and a pastry case fit for a king. It felt as fancy as the hotel we'd just left. It was definitely a step up from the café in Pittsburg where I met Henry. "I'm Nicole by the way," she said. We stepped under the café's awning and she flagged down a waiter. "Joe and I met at one of Martin's parties last week." She snapped open her cigarette case and held it out to me.
I lit my cigarette and took a drag. "The party that almost convinced Joe to leave Berlin," I deduced.
"Did Martin send for you?" She asked as we were seated. "Joe was so set on going back to New York. I thought for sure that was the last I'd seen of him."
I shook my head as I scanned the menu, though I knew I'd just order a black coffee. "I decided to fly over. Perfect timing too, any later and we would've missed each other." Nicole and I ordered our coffees and made small talk while we waited.
"So what do you do in New York?" She asked, resting her elbows on the table.
"I'm a nurse," I told her. "At least I think I still am, I'm a little unsure of my employment status at the moment."
She laughed. "Hey, I know how it is. We're living in a man's world, and you're getting married. Everyone expects you to retire, right?"
"Not exactly." I leaned back in my chair. "My dad was never all that thrilled about me getting married. He actually did everything in his power to prevent it. I guess he thought he was protecting me from myself. He always wanted something more for me." I sighed. "I love my job, I never planned on giving it up. But if I do, it'll be because he pushed me to it," I told her, no longer talking about nursing. "Sorry, don't wanna bore you with my daddy issues."
"Believe me, I know family drama." She leaned forward on her hands and looked at me. "Has anyone ever told you that you could be in the pictures?" I shook my head. "You should let me film you. You'd be a natural."
"Oh, I don't act," I politely declined.
Nicole raised an eyebrow. "You're a born actor, and I get paid to make those sort of observations. Everything you do is a performance, and I mean that as a compliment," she added quickly. "All you need is a script and you're an actress."
I shrugged it off. She was spot on. I was an actress, but not in the traditional sense. Our coffees came and we sipped in silence for a moment. "How do you know Martin?" I asked casually.
"Oh, my father works with him," she explained. "I suspect he invited me to that party so I could meet Joe. I don't think he knew you two were engaged at the time. It isn't like they were in the habit of exchanging Christmas cards."
There was no way it was a coincidence that Nicole had shown up at the hotel the precise moment Martin had. Whatever truth bomb he was about to drop on Joe, he didn't want me around to hear it. I didn't mind being left out. I knew Joe would tell me on the plane.
"When you and Joe have children, they're going to have amazing genes," Nicole mused. "With who his father is, and who your father is…The Führer himself couldn't have made a better match."
I smiled, but all I could think about was Thomas. With a disease like that in my family, my children might never be safe in this world. My eyes flicked to the clock above the register. "I should probably catch a taxi," I told her. "I don't wanna miss my flight."
"Of course, I'll walk you out." Nicole and I finished our coffees and headed out onto the street. "It was nice to meet you, Charlotte. I hope this isn't the last I've seen of you." She smiled like she was in on a secret. She snagged a pen from the closest table and scrawled her number on a napkin. "If you're in Berlin again, call me. You'd like my friends."
OoOoO
When I made it to the airport, there was a message waiting for me at the ticket counter from Joe. He wanted to stay in Berlin for the time being. Martin had sent a car for me, if I wanted to stay too. I rolled my eyes as the attendant read off the last line. Of course I was staying. Berlin was like a nest of vipers, someone had to keep them away from Joe.
The car took me to Martin's house in the suburbs of Berlin. It was gorgeous. My mother would have loved it. It had columns and ivy climbing up the walls. A small elderly woman greeted me at the door. "Charlotte, we've been expecting you," she said happily in German. She put a hand on my back and ushered me into the foyer. "I've prepared a room for you and Josef upstairs. My name is Silvia, I'll be downstairs if either of you need anything."
Joe appeared at the top of the steps. His face was very serious. "Thank you very much, Silvia," I told her. I took the steps two at a time, knowing it wasn't very ladylike. "What's going on?" Joe motioned for me to follow him into a bedroom. Like the rest of the house, the room was done up in a classical European style. "Joe, you're starting to freak me out."
"You know about the Lebensborn, right?" He asked.
I frowned as I sat down on the bed. "Sure, it was a eugenics program. Aryan women, high-ranking Nazi officials, and a childhood of German propaganda. The recipe for a perfect party member."
"More than I knew two hours ago," he muttered. "Martin took me to a birthing house."
"That's…strange?"
"My birthing house, Lottie."
I starred at him for a moment in silence. "So, you're Lebensborn." Another moment of silence. "I don't know how you expect me to react here, Joe."
"My mother kidnapped me when I was a baby. She told me I was born in Brooklyn in an old tenement because my father abandoned us." He finally stopped pacing and looked at me. "My whole life is a lie, Lottie."
I stood up and draped my arms over his shoulders. "You are still Joe Blake, you will always be Joe Blake. So one tiny part of your life isn't true, that doesn't change the last twenty-seven years. Your parents and some awful Nazi program do not define you, and I know this from personal experience. You make your own choices."
"Martin said the same thing," he said quietly.
"Maybe he and I have more in common than I thought." I pulled Joe toward me and hugged him tight. "I know you, Joe, and this doesn't change who you are." I rested my chin on his shoulder, and we stayed there in each other's arms for a few minutes.
"Are you alright, Lottie?" He asked finally, holding me at arms length. "You said you couldn't go back to New York, did your dad-"
"It's Thomas," I told him. "He was diagnosed with the same thing my uncle had. Right before I left, my dad called and let me talk to him. They were supposed to euthanize him that day."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry." He pulled me back toward him and held me close. The tears I'd been holding back for days finally spilled over.
"I was an awful sister, I took up all dad's time, I never paid attention to him. He was such an over achiever, but he just wanted us to care," I choked out through my tears. "I spent more time with my dog than with my own brother. And now he's gone."
I leaned back and wiped my eyes quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to do this to you. There's nothing you can say to fix this, and now I'm here sobbing like a mad woman."
"Lottie, you're allowed to be upset." Joe steered me back to the bed and sat down next to me. "I know bottling things up is what you do, but I'm not your dad. You don't have to pretend with me." He lay down across the bed and I stretched out next to him. I lay my head on his chest and he rubbed my arm.
"I can't help but think that I could have done something," I whispered. "What's the point of resisting, if I can't save my little brother from something like this?"
Neither of us said anything for a long time. I wasn't sure how long we stayed there, but it felt nice to be together. These past few weeks we'd laid everything on the table. Just when I thought we couldn't get any closer, we had. I'd be lost without him. "Nicole said something earlier, about us. She said that Hitler himself couldn't have made a better pair. It got under my skin. We found each other by chance. Imagine if your mother had stayed in Berlin, or if I hadn't been so intent on buying my own apartment in Brooklyn."
"We would've still found each other," he said quietly. I looked up at him with a faint smile. "Kismet and all that, right?"
"I like the idea of that." I frowned. "Now that I'm thinking about it, Nicole must have known about you. Martin set her up to get me out of the way, and the way she talked, I mean…she had to know."
"I thought Athena was taking a break," Joe teased.
"As much as I want to, I can't flip a switch and turn Athena off," I told him. "My paranoia is firing on all cylinders, all the time."
He shook his head amused. "Anything else bothering you?"
I rolled over and propped myself up on my elbows. "Well, since you're asking, everyone here pronounces Charlotte with an extra syllable. It's really grating on my eardrums." Joe burst out laughing. "I'm not kidding, it pains me to hear it."
"No, I understand, Martin won't stop calling me Josef."
"I don't know, I might start calling you Josef, very European," I teased. He made a face. I leaned down and kissed him, then rolled out of bed.
"Wait, where are you going?" He asked, reaching after me. I dodged his hands.
"I haven't swept for bugs," I told him. "I check the apartment once a week."
"Our apartment?"
"You can make fun of me all you want, but I rather like living. I want to stay that way." He shook his head as I took the lampshade off the lamp. "This is going to take a while, you should try to sleep. I'll be quiet."
OoOoO
I woke up late, and Joe was already gone. I followed the sound of voices to the dinning room. The first thing I saw was the huge spread Silvia had put out. "Wow this looks great." She and Joe both turned looking surprised; they must not have heard me on the stairs.
Silvia looked relieved for the interruption. "Ah, Charlotte, good morning. Have some coffee." She practically shoved the cup she was holding into my hands. "I will let you two enjoy breakfast."
As soon as she was gone I turned back to Joe. "What did I miss?" He nodded up at the photos on the wall. Right in the middle was a portrait of Martin with a woman and two children. "Oh."
"They died in a bombing," he explained. "I'm Martin's last son."
I looked at him for a moment. "Do you want to go home?"
"I want to get out of this house."
I knocked back the cup of coffee. "I know someone we can call."
