Flavia glided in. Adding her presence to Kingston and Jamie, the room was now on charisma overload.
She was dressed down, compared to the previous day—a pair of snug-fitting jeans, sweater, and a bouncing ponytail. But the accessory that caught Veronica’s attention was the document she held in her hands.
“Uh-oh,” Maggie said softly.
“That’s the only version you were talking about?” Veronica whispered.
Maggie nodded stoically.
“How can you be sure?” Veronica asked. “Ellen admitted to telling lies for sixty years, what’s one more?”
“Because TJ made the cover—how could she copy that? She wasn’t exactly Bill Gates with the computer.”
Flavia handed the memoir to Kingston, and now Veronica was the one to say, “Uh-oh.”
Flavia turned her head in her direction. It was as if she noticed her presence for the first time. “Veronica?”
“You lying ...”
“It’s not what you think.”
Veronica looked at Maggie, who for the first time looked overwhelmed. She silently stared out into space.
“Then enlighten me,” Veronica said.
“I’m just following Ellen’s orders.”
“Following orders just like those Nazi soldiers?”
Flavia shook her head. “You just don’t understand.”
Those were the same words Eddie used when he took her children. Veronica wasn’t seeking understanding, all she wanted was to take them home to a safe world.
Veronica took another peek at Maggie, who was now catatonic. So Veronica spoke the words she thought her daughter would say in this situation, “Whatever.”
When Kingston held the memoir, he smiled with relief. He had been more worried than he’d let on.
He handed the document to Sterling—still in the wheelchair—who laid it out on his lap. He read the title out loud, “My Family Tree—The Last Leaves of Evil, by Ellen Sarowitz-Peterson.”
He began examining the pages. “This could have ruined everything we worked for,” he said with great relief.
“She was old—she didn’t know any better,” Kingston defended. “I’m just glad we were able to get it back before my enemies could use it against me.”
Sterling flipped to the back of the binder, where he found something taped to the back cover. He pulled off the tape and handed it to Kingston. It was a disc.
“This should be interesting,” Kingston said with an amused look and placed it into a DVD player. Flavia made sure the doors were locked and the room secure.
Ellen appeared on the screen, wearing her Sunday best, along with her usual scowl. Veronica tensed—the last time Ellen made a video they all ended up in the principal’s office.
“Hello, James—this is your grandmother,” Ellen began in her usual curmudgeonly tone.
“I spent the latter part of my life trying to protect my family from the dangers of our heritage. I’d seen too many lives cut short by tragedy. Your father Josef was a victim of it, as was my other son, the half brother you never met, Harry Jr. I tried to protect Maggie’s father and others, but since we’re here today, it means I’ve failed miserably.
“I suspect you are about to be elected President of the United States. And while this is a great achievement, it’s not what defines you. It is what you do with this great responsibility that will. As a man once said—sooner will a camel pass through a needle’s eye than a great man will be discovered through an election.”
“It’s Hitler,” Zach whispered.
Things had gotten so zany that Veronica’s first impulse was to ask, “Where?”
“No—the quote about the camel’s eye, it’s from Mein Kampf. It’s probably why he’s smiling.”
“That or he’s just a sociopath and that’s what they do,” Veronica said back.
“So now begins the last revolution,” Ellen passionately continued onscreen. “In gaining political power the Jew casts off the few cloaks that he still wears. The democratic people’s Jew becomes the blood-Jew and tyrant over peoples. In a few years he tries to exterminate the national intelligentsia and by robbing the peoples of their natural intellectual leadership makes them ripe for the slave’s lot of permanent subjugation
“Around people who offer too violent a resistance to attack from within he weaves a net of enemies, thanks to his international influence, incites them to war, and finally, if necessary plants the flag of revolution on the very battlefields.
“The ignorance of the broad masses about the inner nature of the Jew, the luck of instinct and narrow-mindedness of the upper classes, make people an easy victim for this Jewish campaign of lies.”
Veronica was stunned. “How could this possibly be helping?”
“I have no idea,” Zach whispered back. “But I do know she’s regurgitating Hitler’s words. Those were exact quotes.”