Romanov

by Nadine Brandes

But even empty promises could fill a heart for a moment.

The best place to hide an item was on your person. But when you couldn’t manage that, the next best place was to hide it in plain view. People searched there last.

The more starved we were of kindness, the more we clung to any crumb of it.

And the best rule of thumb was to tell the truth unless you absolutely had to lie. Truth was easier to keep track of, and no matter how good one was at lying, it could often be detected.

But there was still light—we were just learning how to find it.