Sophie doesn’t understand how Vianne can submit to Von Richter’s rape. Just as Julien exhibited the power of parental love in the last chapter, Vianne demonstrates it in this chapter in her conversation with Sophie. An unspoken tension exists between the two of them they feel like strangers to each other. Instead, she waits for a few months, then lies and claims the baby is Antoine’s, conceived on his first night home. Antoine, Vianne’s husband, returns home, and Vianne can’t bear to admit that she is pregnant with Von Richter’s child. As Von Richter leaves, he calls Vianne his “whore” and tells her that although he will forget her, she will not forget him.
The Germans, nearing defeat in the war, pull out of France.
Vianne begins having morning sickness and realizes she is pregnant with Von Richter’s child. Sophie notices her mother’s bruises and guesses the truth, asking Vianne why she doesn’t kill him in his sleep. Von Richter repeatedly and violently rapes Vianne.
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