Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

The final chapter in "A House Divided" chronicles the wartime separation of Aurora and Abraham. The narrator reveals, for the first time, the circumstances of their rift, based on information he learned only shortly before his father's death. Abie took over control of the company, resumed spice shipments to England, and despite three successful interceptions by Nazi U-boats, eventually prevailed. To do so, he was forced to borrow the emeralds from his mother that she had hidden in the synagogue. She agrees, subject to a written covenant to deliver his first-born son to her to be raised in his stead as an observant Jew. Inexplicably, the shipping lanes are cleared, cargos get through, and the company profits soar. Abie does not reveal his secret to Aurora, but a crazed Flory confronts her daughter-in-law ("my Abie's Roman whore") with written proof. Aurora...