I Must Betray You: Chapter 64–Epilogue

by Ruta Sepetys
In 1989 Romania, with the country controlled by a dictator, seventeen-year-old aspiring writer Cristian Florescu dreams of freedom, especially when he is blackmailed by the secret police into informing on the family of an American diplomat.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: "Beneath the Gilded Frame"–Chapter 7, Chapters 8–17, Chapters 18–36, Chapters 37–63, Chapter 64–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. emblem
    special design representing a quality, type, or group
    Without the emblem in the center, the flag resembled our national flag of the 1800s:
    Blue for liberty.
    Yellow for justice.
    Red for blood.
  2. demonstrator
    someone participating in a public display of group feeling
    As people left work for the day, I encouraged them to join the swell of protestors. Our column expanded and became one massive surge of thousands of people. Demonstrators brought flags with holes, they carried signs.
  3. camaraderie
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
    My body had felt uninhabitable for so long. But now the emptiness was replaced by a closeness. A true camaraderie. We all felt it. We saw it in one another’s eyes. It was freedom—and it was glorious.
  4. deploy
    place troops or weapons in battle formation
    Ceauşescu deployed the army. They’re setting up stations.
  5. renegade
    someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw
    Kids ran near our blockade, using their fingers as guns, crouching in poses like the renegades they saw in American movies.
  6. obligation
    the state of being bound to do or pay something
    Luca tried to negotiate with a young soldier. “Hey, put down your weapon. You’re Romanian. Your obligation is to defend our nation and its citizens.”
  7. frisk
    search by running the hands rapidly over the clothing
    When the guard got to me, he didn’t search me, he merely frisked me.
  8. dissipate
    go away, scatter, or disappear
    After several minutes, the sound of screaming dissipated.
  9. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    The room distorted. A garbled voice appeared at my ear.
  10. feral
    wild and menacing
    I heard the ring and clank of a metal chain. A growling. Feral.
  11. corral
    collect or gather
    They corralled the other captives and pushed them out of the room and into a hallway.
  12. prod
    urge on; cause to act
    They slapped us, over and over, prodding us to confess guilt.
  13. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    I jostled over huddled bodies and wedged in next to her.
  14. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    A sprawling monster the color of dry bones that lived south of Bucharest.
  15. grisly
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    Brick archways. Thick metal gates. Grisly history.
  16. incarcerate
    lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
    “It’s the worst of the worst, reserved for political prisoners and people incarcerated for their faith. The inmates are tortured, mutilated, burned, and locked in frozen boxes.”
  17. uprising
    organized opposition to authority
    “I’m scared, Cristian. I’m scared they’ll torture us, but I’m even more frightened the uprising will fail.”
  18. restrained
    under control
    “The older ones, make sure they’re restrained.”
    A guard pushed me against the wall and jammed his club beneath my throat. They tied my hands in front of me with rope.
  19. distinguish
    mark as different
    The tired guards wouldn’t be able to distinguish one protester from another. One positive about bland communist clothing—many of us looked alike.
  20. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    In front of us stood a white, ornate building. Decorative plaster garlands draped over each door and window.
  21. balmy
    mild and pleasant
    The morning chill was balmy and the smoke-smothered streets frothed with war.
  22. detention
    a state of being confined (usually for a short time)
    They’re holding her and a bunch of kids at the detention place your cousin was at.
  23. sliver
    (figurative) a small or narrow piece or slice
    The door opened a crack. A sliver of a face appeared.
  24. triage
    sorting and allocating aid on the basis of need
    If you need dressing for your own wounds, there’s a volunteer triage down the back hallway.
  25. overwhelm
    charge someone with too many tasks
    Hospital staff is totally overwhelmed. Many have never seen gunshot wounds, let alone treated them.
  26. catcall
    utter disapproving cries at
    “It’s them! The Ceauşescus!” The crowd jeered, booed, catcalled, and whistled.
  27. throng
    a large gathering of people
    A throng of protestors appeared on the balcony of the Committee Building.
  28. diminishing
    becoming smaller or less or appearing to do so
    Each step sucked breath and energy from my diminishing reserve.
  29. mangle
    alter so as to make unrecognizable
    Fever sucked me in and out of mangled dreams.
  30. extravagance
    excessive spending
    “Wealth” didn’t accurately describe it. Excess, extravagance, greed, and gluttony, those words were more accurate.
  31. gluttony
    habitual eating to excess
    Excess, extravagance, greed, and gluttony, those words were more accurate. Countless estates across the country, hundreds of millions salted away in foreign bank accounts. They broadcast a video tour of the homes, including their daughter’s, which had a solid gold meat scale and packages of imported veal for her dog.
  32. poignant
    arousing powerful emotions, especially pity or sadness
    It’s a very poignant account from Romania, given to him as a Christmas gift. It’s entitled Screaming Whispers: A Romanian Teenager in Bucharest, authored by Anonymous.
  33. tier
    a relative position or degree of value in a graded group
    A group of second- tier communists took over.
  34. flimsy
    lacking solidity or strength
    I arrived in the reading room to find five massive stacks of decaying papers. Each stack held hundreds of pages wedged between a flimsy cardboard cover and a string binding.
  35. transcript
    a written record of dictated or recorded speech
    The files, they were poisonous, disrupting my life and my conscience. Photos from hidden cameras, transcripts from the listening devices in our apartment.
  36. harbor
    maintain, as a theory, thought, or feeling
    MARIA confirms that her father-in-law is a dissident and her husband harbors anti-communist sentiments.
  37. dissent
    the act of protesting
    Her reports contained many statements that informing about dissent was not only her patriotic duty, but her maternal duty.
  38. denigrate
    attack the good name and reputation of someone
    Her code name was FRITZI and the reports from Paddle Hands about her were denigrating and demeaning.
  39. demeaning
    causing someone to lose status or the respect of others
    Her code name was FRITZI and the reports from Paddle Hands about her were denigrating and demeaning.
  40. sobering
    tending to make someone serious and thoughtful
    In addition to his reports on Cici, Paddle Hands’s reports on me were sobering and, at times, chilling:
    OSCAR is no longer of use. Take necessary measures.
Created on Wed Jan 24 12:58:10 EST 2024 (updated Thu Jan 25 14:39:09 EST 2024)

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