The Secrets We Kept

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of suicidal ideation and sexual violence.

In Paris under the name Lenore Miller, Sally posts a letter to the fake dry cleaners with the details about Henry Rennet’s posting in Beirut. She intended to expose him as a mole, but she opted for this course of action after she was fired. Her new connections make contact by way of white roses in her hotel room. She spends her days visiting bookstores and buying copies of Doctor Zhivago until she runs out of money and needs to return some of them. She then encounters a woman who tells her that Henry checked out of his Beirut hotel with the help of two bellmen in their employment. Sally realizes that she is now officially a double agent.

Olga battles conflicting emotions of pride that Boris won the Nobel Prize—and that she served as the inspiration for the character of Lara—and fear of retaliation from the State. She recognizes that they have both aged and may not be able to handle the strife that is surely to come. The Soviet Writers’ Union starts gathering writers—some of them friends of Boris—to condemn him. Ira reports that her school held a demonstration against him and attendance was mandatory.