Opening
The final movement unites past and present as revelations shatter and then remake a family’s story. Alice Michaels finally uncovers the truth that binds her grandmother’s wartime choices to her own strained marriage and motherhood, while Alina Dziak reaches peace at last. Love, sacrifice, identity, and communication converge in decisive, life-altering moments.
What Happens
Chapter 36: Alice
Exhausted and ready to flee home, Alice decides to cut her trip short—until Zofia persuades her to give herself one last full day. Alice turns off her phone, releases her grip on her family’s problems, and rides a cable car into the Tatra mountains. On the summit above Zakopane, she breathes, looks, and remembers who she is outside of her roles. For a brief, luminous stretch, she is simply Alice.
Back on the ground, her phone lights up. Lia, the granddaughter of Emilia Slaski, apologizes and begs Alice to call; a clinic doctor, Agnieszka Truchen, also urges immediate contact. When Alice calls Lia, she learns that Emilia now desperately wants to meet. The door that has stayed shut swings wide.
Chapter 37: Alina
In 1942 Buzuluk, Alina and Saul Weiss survive in a crowded refugee camp. Saul works in the infirmary using Tomasz Slaski’s papers; Alina tends orphans while guarding the microfilm sealed in her plaster cast. The itch under the cast torments her, and Saul carefully relieves it without endangering what they carry. Weeks become months. Alina’s constant nausea proves to be morning sickness—she is pregnant.
Knowing the danger and stigma an unmarried mother faces, Saul insists they marry—only until Tomasz arrives—so she and the baby are protected. A priest blesses their union; friends cobble together a “wedding night” tent. The marriage is platonic yet sheltering: Saul secures extra food and lighter work for Alina. When British soldiers arrive asking for “Tomasz Slaski” to retrieve the courier and the film, panic grips Alina; the real Tomasz has not come. Saul pleads with her to go—for the mission and the baby. Trusting his promise that Tomasz will find her, Alina leaves Buzuluk for an airfield and the unknown.
Chapter 38: Alice
Alice and Zofia arrive at the opulent Krakow apartment of Emilia Gorka (née Slaski). The family resemblance floors everyone; Emilia cradles Alice’s face, sobbing at the sight of her brother’s features. A FaceTime call connects Emilia and Alina in Florida; their Polish flows fast and tender across seventy years.
Through Zofia’s translation, Emilia reveals the truth. Tomasz secretly aids the resistance and Jewish families, including Saul’s. After Saul’s family is betrayed and murdered, Tomasz arranges for Alina to escape with Saul, who will carry microfilm—images from Auschwitz—under Tomasz’s name. To stop the manhunt and clear checkpoint searches so their truck passes, Tomasz turns himself in to the Nazis. His final message to Alina: he will wait for her “on the other side.” The man Alice calls Grandfather is Saul, not Tomasz.
Alice tells her mother, Julita Slaski-Davis. Julita bears the blow with contained grief and asks Alice to tell Emilia that Saul lived well, and Tomasz’s sacrifice mattered. That night, Alice FaceTimes with her daughter, Callie, and watches Wade play chess with Eddie Michaels, using Eddie’s AAC to talk through the moves. In that moment of connection, Alice finally solves Babcia’s broken phrase—“Babcia fire Tomasz” means cremation: Alina wants her ashes returned to Tomasz’s grave.
Chapter 39: Alina
In London, medics remove Alina’s cast. The microfilm is intact—and a letter from Tomasz slides free, swearing enduring love and promising reunion. While Alina battles morning sickness, Saul meets an American judge—Henry’s contact—who produces visas for “Tomasz and Hanna Slaski.” In a split-second decision, Saul keeps their assumed identities to secure Alina’s and the baby’s future.
On the ship and in America, they see antisemitism persist; for safety, Alina insists they keep the lie until it is safe to undo. Years pass. The lie becomes life. Saul builds a brilliant career as a pediatric surgeon under Tomasz’s name; together they raise Julita with devotion, their partnership deep, their marriage unconsummated out of fidelity to their lost loves. Alina never stops waiting for Tomasz. When Saul’s vascular dementia overtakes him, the chance to tell Julita vanishes. As Alice closes the circle in the present, Alina looks back with peace: a beautiful life with Saul, and the certainty that Tomasz waits.
Chapter 40: Alice
A predawn call from Julita jolts Alice awake: Babcia has had a massive stroke and is moved to palliative care. Alice reaches the hospital in time to hold her grandmother’s hand as she slips away at 6:30 a.m. Only then does Julita’s composure crack into wrenching sobs.
At home, the family gathers before Alice can speak. Eddie’s AAC says, “Babcia finished.” Wade explains Eddie has been repeating it since 6:30—the precise moment of Alina’s death. They fold into a family embrace; Eddie, outside the crush, reaches out to touch Alice’s cheek. In grief, their love re-forms into something stronger, ready to hold what remains and what is to come.
Character Development
These chapters complete each arc by pairing revelation with choice, and grief with connection. Characters don’t become new people; they become sharper versions of who they already are.
- Alice Michaels: Claims a day for herself, rediscovers “simply Alice,” solves the family mystery, and deciphers Babcia’s last wish. Her confidence grows as she witnesses Wade meet Eddie on Eddie’s terms.
- Alina Dziak: Endures, protects, and remains fiercely loyal to Tomasz while building a life of steadfast love with Saul. She ends at peace.
- Saul Weiss: Sacrifices identity to safeguard Alina and the mission, then spends a lifetime honoring both Tomasz’s memory and his family’s needs.
- Tomasz Slaski: Defines love through ultimate self-sacrifice, shaping every life in his wake.
- Julita Slaski-Davis: Receives the truth with quiet strength, then finally allows herself to break—grief unlocking her own healing.
- Eddie Michaels: Communicates powerfully via AAC and intuition; his timed message affirms deep, nonverbal family bonds.
- Wade Michaels: Moves from frustration to connection by learning Eddie’s language, signaling a turning point for their family.
Themes & Symbols
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Love, Sacrifice, and Loyalty
The novel’s core triad reaches full expression: Tomasz offers his life to free Alina and protect the mission; Saul relinquishes his name and future to shelter Alina and her child; Alina remains loyal to Tomasz while honoring a different, steadfast love with Saul. Their choices redefine love as action—what you give up, not just what you feel. -
Communication and Silence
Silence preserves lives but fractures identities. Emilia’s confession breaks decades of quiet, releasing generations from half-truths. In the present, Wade’s embrace of AAC mirrors that release—communication meets the person where they are. Eddie’s timed phrase shows that connection can exceed language. -
Family Legacy and Intergenerational Connection
Faces mirror faces; choices echo across time. Alice steps into a lineage of resilient women, and Eddie’s intuition stretches the family bond beyond the visible, suggesting an inheritance of feeling as real as blood. -
Symbol: Fire
“Babcia fire Tomasz” shifts from metaphor to instruction. Fire means cremation; ashes returning to Tomasz’s grave complete a promised reunion—love held in the earth of home.
Key Quotes
“simply Alice.”
Freed from every role, Alice glimpses the self beneath service and guilt. This clarity powers her later choices—staying present, seeking truth, and trusting her family to survive without her constant rescue.
“He would be waiting for her on the other side.”
Tomasz’s last message sanctifies his sacrifice. It reframes death as a continuation of love, giving Alina a compass for decades of waiting and the family a language for closure.
“Babcia fire Tomasz.”
Once a puzzle, the phrase resolves into an instruction for cremation and reunion. The miscommunication highlights how meaning can hide in plain sight—and how understanding arrives when people finally learn to speak one another’s language.
“Babcia finished.”
Eddie’s perfectly timed message collapses distance between life and death, speech and silence. It confirms his profound attunement and affirms the novel’s belief that love communicates beyond words.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters deliver the narrative and emotional climax: the secret of Tomasz’s sacrifice and Saul’s assumed identity reframes every earlier scene. The past’s moral choices send lifelines into the present, where new forms of connection—truth-telling, AAC, intuitive knowing—heal what secrecy once protected. By pairing revelations with acts of love in both timelines, the section argues that identity is not what we keep hidden but what we choose to honor, together.