The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau

In mid-June, Annabel visits with her friend Hélène Rosman, with whom she connects over their work with Le Paon, and because they’re both mothers. Hélène doesn’t want her family to relocate to the Free Zone; she thinks she needs to face things in Paris. Annabel describes how she’s sewing jewels into the hems of her daughters’ gowns. Hélène asks Annabel to take an emerald ring of hers, but Annabel says that would be admitting she thinks something will happen. Annabel understands what Hélène’s jewelry, especially her bracelets, mean to her, but she also understands wanting to carry on with life as normal. Daniel and Ruth enter the apartment, wearing the yellow stars on their coats that mark them as Jewish.

Aviva visits Colette the next morning and informs her that they’re attending the opening of the museum exhibit that evening. Colette is concerned that Aviva sees her as an old lady and recalls clubbing at Studio 54, where she often went to steal. Colette calls Marty to ask him about O’Mara and learns the museum director has a college-age daughter and his wife died. Colette is torn, as she can’t steal from a man who has already lost so much, but she feels she owes it to her family to carry on their centuries-old tradition.

Colette decides she’ll feel better if she steals something, so she follows Franklin Gorich, a businessman involved in a corruption scandal. At the restaurant where he’s dining, she pretends to run into him and steals his Rolex. Gorich dismisses her as an old lady. Colette decides to use the proceeds from the watch to fund the Boston food pantry and hopes that she can hold off her nightmares.

Annabel wakes early on the morning of July 16 and sees French policemen bringing Jewish families out of neighboring houses and loading them into vans. Roger is confused that the Germans are taking children to work camps. He decides to talk to a former student who is a policeman, Guillaume Charpentier. Annabel learns that thousands of Jews have been rounded up across the city and are being held in the Vel’ d’Hiv. When Colette wakes, she worries that Tristan has been taken. Her father is upset, reminding her that relationships between Jews and non-Jews are illegal, and Colette thinks, “Her Tristan was just as forbidden as Isolde’s lover had been” (122). Colette reminds her father that they’re all human, and if they let the Nazis tell them not to care, then something has been lost. Liliane sees that Colette is upset and asks her to tell the story of Robin Hood. They make the cry of the eagle to help each other feel better.

Colette is nervous as they enter the Diamond Museum. She finds Lucas O’Mara handsome and familiar. Colette is moved to see the bracelet and determined to reunite the halves. Lucas won’t say who owns the bracelet, and Colette asks if it’s his.

Aviva researches Lucas’s background and finds he married a woman, Vanessa Verdier, whose grandfather, Hubert, came from Paris after the Second World War. Aviva calls Lucas and asks to meet with Hubert, revealing that the bracelet in his exhibit once belonged to a Jewish family in Paris. Hubert is now 102 and not in robust health, so Lucas insists on going with them if Aviva and Colette want to speak with him.

Colette’s mother learns that more than 13,000 Jewish people have been seized by the police and are being sent from the Vélodrome d’Hiver to work camps outside the city. Annabel describes the horrible conditions inside the stadium. Colette asks to go with Annabel. As they approach the stadium, Colette fears that the work her mother is doing with the resistance is for naught. A French boy taunts some Jewish prisoners as they’re brought out, and Colette kicks him. Hélène emerges, looking thin and dazed, and says her husband and children have already been taken. She throws a small, wrapped item to Annabel, asking her to take it. Annabel promises to find the bracelets and keep them for when Hélène returns. Later, Colette sees the name of Tristan Berousek on the list of those taken. She learns later that Tristan died in Auschwitz, where many women and children were deported.

Colette connects the name Hubert Verdier with a policeman who lived in her neighborhood. Colette spoke with him once and now wonders if he murdered Liliane. Marty insists on coming with them, and Aviva points out to Colette that Marty is in love with her.

Hubert lives in the memory care ward of a facility in Braintree. Colette wonders if she’s looking at a murderer. She mentions how he used to take bribes from Le Paon. Hubert becomes hostile when Colette asks how he came into possession of the bracelets. He mentions a woman he loved who liked to show off the jewels. Colette asks why he killed her sister. Hubert insists that he upheld the law. Lucas forces them to leave, upset that they would accuse Hubert of murder. Colette fears that she’ll never learn the truth.

Annabel sees Octavie Duplessis, the mistress of a German officer, wearing Hélène’s bracelets. She suspects that Möckel put the Rosmans on the list of people to seize because he wanted their jewels. Annabel follows them to a club where Nazis and Nazi sympathizers gather. She manages to steal the bracelets but is spotted by a French policeman, who pursues her.

When Annabel returns home, she argues with Roger over her activities. Annabel looks in on her sleeping daughters and decides she’ll sew the bracelets into their nightgowns, “one in each gown, connecting the girls” (166). She imagines the girls can use the jewelry to preserve their lives, if it comes to that.

Lucas visits Aviva at her office and demands to know why she confronted Hubert as she did. He’s concerned for Hubert’s health. Aviva explains that Colette’s sister was found dead and that half of the bracelet was stolen from her. Lucas insists that Hubert isn’t a murderer. He mentions that his grandfather, too, is still alive. Aviva shares how her mother died and how Colette was there for her. They have a coffee date, which Aviva enjoys.

Two days later, Aviva and Colette are working together at the Holocaust Center when a man calls. He identifies himself as Daniel Rosman and says the bracelets belonged to his family. He notes that each is inscribed with an initial, D and R, for him and his sister. He says that Salomon was executed by firing squad, and his mother died in Auschwitz. His sister died 20 years ago. Daniel agrees to come to Boston. Colette thinks it’s time to finish what her mother started.