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I looked at Beatrice, who sat alone, her expression so forlorn it looked as if she might burst into tears. Claire was occupied with her coloring, so I slid over and came close to her. “You okay?”
She didn’t react to my words, as if she didn’t hear me.
I assumed Laura had just told her everything she’d told me, and Beatrice was a bit stung by it all. “We’re going to figure out a way out of here, alright?”
She slowly turned to look at me, her features undeniably pretty like the rest of the women here, some of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my life. She had big, round eyes and sculpted cheekbones. But when she was devastated, her beauty was diminished. “The Malevolent follow our every move, and we have no idea where we are… Come on.”
I was scared too. I was hopeless too. But giving up right off the bat couldn’t be the decision. “Look, I’m scared too. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. I’m not ashamed to say that. Anyone else would feel the exact same way. But we can’t just give up. We can’t just accept what has happened to us. It won’t happen overnight, but in time…we’ll figure it out.” I had to keep telling myself that, had to stay focused on some ideal, because if I didn’t…I would lose my mind. And if I lost my mind, I would lose my body too. “We’re in this together.”
She faced forward again, her eyes glossing over like she didn’t take a single word to heart.
“Just think of Claire.” A mother’s strength was unparalleled. They would do anything for their child, take any risk to give them a better life. She was just disturbed right now, but that instinctual fight would hit her. “And your boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
I didn’t want to ask her about their complicated relationship because it was none of my business. “Claire’s father. You’ve got to get back to him.”
She shook her head slightly. “We aren’t close.”
“Oh…”
She turned back to me. “We hooked up a couple times, got pregnant, and then…we turned into parents. We just hand her back and forth, but he has her most of the time.”
“Well, he asked about you, so I know he cares about you.”
It was the first time she wore a slight smile, but it was deeply sarcastic. She released a cold chuckle. “That man only cares about one woman—Claire. She’s the only woman he’ll ever love. The rest of us…mean nothing to him.”
Now I didn’t know what to say, and I felt like I’d crossed a boundary I shouldn’t have. “You have a sweet and beautiful daughter, so it’s still a blessing.” Having a family hadn’t been on my list of priorities because I was a struggling dancer who went through men like a deck of cards. I never found an ace. But when that happened…if I ever got out of here…I would want a family.
“Yeah.”
I turned quiet, unsure if I should continue to talk to her because she seemed closed off and withdrawn. I wanted us to be friends and allies since we were neighbors, but she still seemed to be in shock about the whole thing. “So, you’re a dancer too?”
“I was.” She turned back to me, tucking her long hair behind her ear. “Benton is our only chance to get out of here, and if he can’t make it happen, then there’s no hope. With every passing day, my hope grows weaker and weaker…”
“Why is he our only chance?”
She rolled her bottom lip into her mouth as she considered how to answer the question. “He’s got connections. He was never part of something like this, but he used to be a part of this world.”
“Part of this world?” I whispered. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know a lot about it,” she said. “Only what I forced out of him. He used to be an underworld criminal, basically. He never wanted to have kids, and whatever he was mixed up in forbade him from having kids, so when we found out about Claire…he was furious. He said it compromised his commitment, his eternal pledge of fidelity to his brothers. We were total strangers, and after a couple passionate nights, we were both thrust into lives we didn’t want.”
“Did you use protection?”
“Yes. He accused me of tricking him, but I reminded him he was the one who supplied the condom. It was just a fluke, that one percent chance, and then it happened. Not to mention, I’ve never wanted to have kids. I’m just not the motherly type.” She looked past me and stared at Claire at the edge of the bench, oblivious to our conversation as she colored. “So, he had to leave that life behind, which was the last thing he wanted.”
