Page 142 of The Donor’s Dilemma

“Shut up,” Chloe said. “Just don’t.”

Verity tried again, her voice coming out broken as she fought to keep her breaths small. “It’s okay. I understand.”

Chloe’s head snapped toward her, eyes bloodshot. “I don’t need you to understand.”

“You’re a victim, just as much as me. We can…”

“Stop it.”

A long silence stretched between them, neither of them looking away.

“I know what’s happening in Cliffhaven,” Verity said. “I know people are being attacked in the streets. They need someone to help them. Running away from it isn’t going to fix anything.”

“I said stop,” Chloe said. “I’m not helping you.”

“Where’s Mabel?” Verity asked.

Chloe flinched at the name. “I don’t know. Vivienne said if anything goes wrong tonight, she’ll take my sister back to Cliffhaven and won’t let me go with her.” Her voice cracked on the last words, and something in Verity’s chest broke with it. Chloe’s biggest fear wasn’t what they’d do to her, it was being kept from protecting her sister.

“We can stop that from happening.”

“No, you can’t.” Chloe looked down at her hands, twisting the curtain.

“What about everyone else in Cliffhaven?” Verity asked. “Do you have other family there? Friends?”

Nothing.

“How old are you?” Verity pressed. “I dread to think what’s happening to the people you went to school with.”

Chloe shook her head, tears catching the light. “You can’t fix it,” she said.

“Of course we can. There’s a Rose here, an actual Rose. She’s come to talk to us, to Theo. When we tell her everything...”

“Like a Rose is going to care.”

“Maybe she doesn’t care about the people,” Verity admitted. “But she cares about her reputation, and this makes her look terrible.”

“Pretty weak argument.”

“Please. You know how vain these vampires are. Theo’s brother knows her, knows her well. He thinks we’ve got a real shot at this.”

Chloe bit her lip, eyes lifting to meet Verity’s.

“I know she’s your sister,” Verity went on. “But there are so many more people in Cliffhaven. So many more sisters and daughters and sons who don’t have anybody fighting for them. We have to try, this could be our only chance.”

Chloe’s face crumbled. A small sob on her lips. Verity recognised the look, the same grief and helplessness on Georgie’s father’s face outside the Exchange. A man asking strangers if they’d seen his daughter, still missing, another name added to the list of lives Vivienne’s freedom had cost.

“Please,” Verity said. “Don’t let this happen to another family. There’s still time for Mabel. But how many more are we going to lose if we don’t do something?”

Chloe’s lip trembled. “You have to help me find her,” she said.

Verity nodded, the small movement enough to make her wince. “Help me get out of here first. Please.”

Chloe crossed to her, looking down at the bindings. “Have you got a knife?”

Verity shook her head. Before she could say anything else, Chloe wedged her foot against one arm of the chair, gripped the other, and kicked. Once. Twice. On the third strike the wood splintered. The chair gave way beneath her and Verity hit the floor with a cry, blinded by pain.

She laid there a moment, gasping. Her head turned, and she saw the broken chair, a padded back, the crest of Ashhaven embroidered into it. She knew that pattern. The same chair she’d sat in on her very first day, about to meet Theo. Uncomfortable. Impatient. Nervous to meet the vampire she had been assigned to feed. It felt like yesterday. It also felt like a lifetime ago. She remembered the nerves, the racing heart, Stella’s desk buried under sticky notes and the newspaper she’d picked up while she waited. A headline about Cliffhaven, one year into quarantine.