Chapter 10

The next night at dinner time, I just couldn't control my appetite. Everything looked so delicious and I was so hungry.

"Mother, could you please pass me the bread, peas, and potatoes? Oh, and father could you pass me the meat?" My parents just snorted at me as they passed the food. I could tell they knew something was wrong.

"Are you alright Gabi? You look very…different." I dropped my fork on my plate and looked up at my father. There was no way that they could have thought I was pregnant. My belly was still only very small.

"No. I'm just hungry. I can still eat, right?"

And for the rest of the dinner, we ate in silence.

"Will! It kicked!" I ran over to Will and put his hand to my stomach.

"Can you feel it?" I stood perfectly still and watched Will feel my stomach with his hands.

"I can" he whispered. He knelt down on his knees and put his ear to my stomach. I stroked his head gently.

"Not long now, my child." He kissed my stomach and stood up. "So, Gabi, what do you want to name it if it's a girl?" He sat down on his bed and opened up his arms to me. I plopped on his lap and put my arm around his shoulder.

"I don't know? I guess I have always liked the name Rena."

"Rena?" Will echoed. I nodded my head to him and smiled.

"Or Ivana." I pushed the hair out of Will's eyes and smiled. I could tell that he was thinking of girl names in his head as well.

"I love Rena. It's a nice, strong name for a child. But what if it's a boy?" I said the first name that came to my mind.

"Simon." As soon as I said his name, Will looked at the floor.

"He would like that Gabi." I leaned my head closer to Will and kissed his soft cheek.

"How have you kept this a secret still from your parents?"

I wanted desperately to tell my parents my secret but I knew that if I did, I would be putting all of mine, Leah and Will's life in danger. Not to mention my unborn baby. My stomach was growing bigger. Everyday I wore oversized clothing and tried my best to avoid my parents.

"I don't know. I guess it is just prove to how little they notice me" I joked to Will.

"They will eventually find out Gabi. You should just tell them that you have married a…good man that loves you very much and you are having his baby. I know it sounds ridiculous but what else can you tell them?" I tried to think of a way to avoid all of this but I just couldn't.

"Alright" I sighed, "I'll tell them tonight. I won't mention your name. I'll just say that I had been seeing someone for a long time and once he found out I was pregnant, he left me. Maybe that will gain some of their sympathy." I let out a loud groan and laid my head on Will's shoulder. "Why can't they just understand?"

"No just them Gabi. Everyone." Will rubbed my back and tried to calm me down. He always said that all this worrying I was doing couldn't be helping the baby.

A little time passed by when I felt an abrupt shaking on my shoulders. I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep. I forgot how tired I was ever since I was pregnant. I opened my eyes and saw Will hovering over me trying to wake me up.

"Gabi! Gabi! Wake up! They're here! You have to hide!" I shot up in Will's bed and got to my feet.

"Quickly, in here guys." Leah remained calm and collective. That was one of the reasons that I liked her so much. No matter what happens, she was always calm.

Will and I rolled off the rug in the middle of the living room and opened the secret door leading to the cellar. When Will jumped down in it, he reached up his hands for me and I jumped. Leah shut the door and rolled back the rug over our heads. I clutched myself to Will tightly and tried not to breath. I was so close to Will, I could hear his heart beat.

"Shhhhhhh Gabi. It's alright" he whispered in my ear. I nodded my head and held my stomach.

"WHERE IS HE!!!??" Loud German voices filled the entire house. "WHERE IS THE FILTHY JEW YOU ARE HIDING HERE WOMAN!" I thought I felt Will flinch when they said "Jew", but that could have easily been me. "We know your hiding him here so if you tell us now, we will let you live!" I could hear vases being smashed and furniture been tossed around. I stopped breathing for more than thirty seconds when the shadows of the two German Nazis passed over us.

"Sir, I assure you there is nobody here." Leah's voice seemed so small and innocent compared to theirs.

"Why should we believe you?" I felt Will's grip over my chest tighten. "We have an eye witness that says I man about twenty looking has been sneaking out to the creek and back here. And sometimes he's not alone!" I prayed with all my might that they wouldn't find us. All these thoughts about Will, my parents, my baby, my future, rushed through my mind.

An hour went by with just the noise of Leah's house being torn apart until it was finally quiet again.

"We know he's here woman, so you better just tell us." I heard the Nazi's gun click. "now, I'm only going to ask you one more time. Where is the Jew you are hiding?" Both Leah and the Nazi were standing right above us. We could see their shadows above us moving around the house in a panic.

"No one is here!" Leah stood in front of him, unafraid.

"We will be back. And when we do, we will not only take the stinking Jew your hiding, but you too!"

When the door slammed shut, Leah ran back over to us and opened the trap door. When the two of us climbed out, we couldn't believe what we saw. The entire house was ransacked. Not one item in her home had remained untouched.

"Don't worry about that Gabi. I'm just glad that he didn't-" Before she could finish, the front door flew open again and in came the same two Nazi guards. They hadn't left, they just waited outside the house listening for when Will and I came out of hiding.

"You lying bitch!" A hard, swift hand flew across Leah's face causing her to yell out loud. "Here's the Jew!" The guard took his gun in his hand and in one motion, smacked it into the middle of Will's stomach.

"NO!!! Stop that!" Will fell to the ground and clutched his chest. I screamed at the top of my lungs for them to stopped but they just ignored me until one of them stopped beating Will and turned to me. Tears filled the rims of my eyes, blurring my vision. But when I got a good look at the Nazi standing in front of me, I wanted to die.

"F-Father?" I said. It was indeed my father. Standing there in a complete Nazi uniform, beating my husband.

"Gabi? What the hell are you doing here?" My father looked at me, jaw dropped.

"Father, why are you doing this? Since when have you become one of them?" I cried. "Does mama know?" I quickly threw on Will's over sized coat.

"Of course she knows Gabriele. But what are you doing here?" He started to walk towards me but I backed away.

"Father, this is my husband! I am Gabriele Kaiser! Please don't do this father!" I put my hand over my mouth to stop from screaming.

He looked at me with disbelief. "No. You can't be married to him!" He looked back at Will trying to get up. The look on his face was pure disgust.

"I am father! And I love him! I am having his child!" I opened my coat and exposed my bulged belly to my father. "So if you take him…you will have to take me too! I am his Jewish wife, father!"

"You really want to be his wife, Gabi?" My father asked me in an evil tone.

"Yes, father" I whispered to him.

"Well then. You are an adult and will be punished as one! You are no longer a daughter of mine! YOU WILL GO WITH HIM!" I look at my father and wanted to spit at him. A memory flashed in my mind of when I was a child. I had had a terrible dream that night and ran to my father's bedside. I told him about the monsters that lived under my bed. He came back to my room with me and checked every inch of my room for monsters. He assured me that he would always scare the monsters away from me as long as I lived.

"You promised" I blurted out from my memory to my father. "You promised me that you would always scare away the monsters! Well…you are one of them now father!"

"Gabi" Will said to me. "Please! Save yourself and the child!" He looked up at my father. " Please sir. She is still your daughter. I am the Jew, not her. She has always been a loyal German. Don't punish her because of me." My father looked down at Will on his knees, bleeding from his mouth, trying to save my life.

I bent down and took Will's face in my hands. "Will, I'm your wife. I can't and won't leave you. Without you…I'd…I'd be nothing." He closed his eyes and breathed in a long breath.

"Get up then! And get into the truck!" I ran to Leah and kissed her cheeks.

"Without you Leah, we would have never survived this long. And I need you to know that none of this is your fault and that you are a blessed person."

"I will pray for you every second of the day. All of you." She patted my stomach and turned away. It was too much for her to see us leave.

"They don't allow babies where your going. Know that Gabi." It sounded like there was a little sympathy in my father's voice. But I no longer loved him or thought of him as my father. He was just a man that betrayed me.

I helped Will up and lead him out the door. While we were walking to the Nazi truck, Will grabbed my hand. "I love you" he said to me.

I looked up at him. I wanted so badly to tell him that I loved him too, but I knew that the moment I opened my mouth, I'd choke up.

As we climbed into the truck, I glanced once more at the man that used to be my father. He avoided my eyes. Then I took one more glance at Leah's house. The place that had kept everyone I loved safe for a time. And as it slowly disappeared in the distance, so did my hope.