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“Marty,” Aviva interrupted. “Does he know about this? Your career as a thief? Your founding of the Holocaust center with the proceeds from stolen jewels?” It still didn’t feel real.

“Of course he does. I probably should have told you sooner, too. And there will be plenty of time to talk about this later, dear, but for now, I need your help.” Colette took a deep breath. “You see, there’s a bracelet in an exhibit about to open at the Diamond Museum, and—”

“If you think I’m going to lift a finger to help you steal—”

“No, no,” Colette said quickly. “I would never ask you to do that. This isn’t about taking the bracelet. It’s about finding out where it came from.”

Aviva narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“Because it disappeared the same night my sister was kidnapped and murdered.”

For the second time this morning, Aviva felt like someone had knocked the wind out of her. “ Murdered ?” When Colette’s eyes filled and she nodded, Aviva added, “But you’ve never even told me you had a sister.”

“Yes, well, I did. Her name was Liliane. It’s very painful for me to talk about, you see.

The last thing my mother ever asked me was to go back for her, to find her.

” Colette took a deep breath. “I promised her, Aviva. I failed, and I’ve lived with that for seventy-six years.

But if I can find out where the bracelet has been for all these years, maybe, at the very least, I can learn who took it—and who took Liliane. ”

Aviva gaped at Colette for a moment. The woman felt like a stranger to her now, but she had still been Aviva’s rock through thick and thin over the past two decades.

Regardless of what she had done, Aviva owed it to her to listen.

“You’re telling me the truth? This isn’t just an elaborate way to get me to stop being mad at you? ”

“Dear, I’m not that clever, I assure you.” Colette drew a deep breath. “The night my mother was arrested, Liliane was taken through our bedroom window, and she never came home. She was just four years old.”

Aviva put a hand over her mouth. “And you have no idea what became of her?”

Colette looked down at her lap. “No, I’m afraid I do know.

Her body was found floating in the Seine a few days later.

You see, Aviva, it’s my fault. When the police came that night, I was worried about my mother, and I left Liliane alone.

Never did I imagine that she’d be stolen right from our home. ”

“You were just a child yourself.”

“I was fourteen.” Colette choked on the last word, which came out wrapped in a sob. “Old enough. I was supposed to protect her.”

“Colette, I’m so sorry,” Aviva said, standing and reaching for her, but Colette shook her hand away.

“This is the bracelet she had with her, sewn into the lining of her nightgown, the night she was taken.” She held up the magazine she’d been clutching since she came in the door, and after one more long look at it, she passed it to Aviva.

“When her body was found in the Seine… Liliane’s nightgown…

The hem was ripped open. The bracelet was gone. ”

“Oh, Colette. And now the bracelet is here? In Boston? How can you be certain it’s the same one?”

“Because,” she said, rolling up her sleeve, “I have the other half.”

Aviva leaned forward to stare at the delicate bracelet on Colette’s wrist. It was shaped like a pair of flowers, studded with what looked like a hundred diamonds, all of which twinkled in the light.

“Aviva, I need you to go to the Diamond Museum,” Colette said. “I need you to talk to the museum director and find out where this bracelet has been all these years. He must know who owns it and where it came from.”

“But don’t you want to go and ask him about the bracelet yourself?

” Aviva asked, confused. Colette had never been one to hand tasks off to others; she was defiantly self-sufficient.

But as Colette looked at her, unblinking, realization dawned.

“I see. You can’t go in case you want to steal the bracelet. ”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Colette said.

“But you see, I have no legal claim on it. My mother stole it from a German officer in order to return it to her friend, who perished in the Holocaust. So even if we can establish where it has been all these years, I may not be able to claim it through official channels. I might have no choice.”

“Colette, I want to help you,” Aviva said. “But I can’t aid and abet a crime.”

“I’m not planning a crime right now, Aviva,” Colette said.

“I’m trying to find out who betrayed my mother and murdered my little sister.

I just need you to go in and explain to the museum director that you do pro bono work with the Boston Center for Holocaust Education and are hoping to feature the bracelet in a newsletter article about jewels lost during the Second World War. ”

“Why not just be honest?” Aviva asked. “Why not tell him what happened to your sister?”

“You don’t think he’d be immediately defensive? Or try to protect the wealthy patron who has shared the jewels with the museum? The rich look out for their own, Aviva, and we know nothing about this O’Mara character or where his allegiances lie.”

Aviva groaned. “So you want me to lie to this poor guy?”

“Would it actually be a lie if you did write an article for the newsletter?”

“Do we even have a newsletter?”

Colette gave her a look. “It goes out electronically to both the Boston center and the sister center in New York. Are you not signed up?”

Aviva rolled her eyes.

Colette sat back. “Look, I know I’m probably the last person you want to help right now. If you aren’t comfortable with this…”

She let the words hang there. Finally, Aviva sighed. “I’m your family. Let’s see what I can find out from the museum director, and we’ll go from there.”