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I was grateful when Silver didn’t bring up details about whatever circumstances had led to him meeting Maggie.
“After a couple of months, Maggie confided in me that she was pregnant. She knew what happened to the girls who ended up in that condition.” Silver dropped his eyes and said, “Most of the girls welcomed the forced abortions, but Maggie was different. She wanted the baby. But she knew it was impossible.”
“What happened?” Caleb asked.
“She hid the pregnancy as long as she could. When it was finally discovered, she was almost five months along. Ivan told his men to get rid of it, but the guy who was in charge of the day-to-day stuff told Ivan that a white newborn of American descent would fetch a hefty price tag. He agreed to let Maggie carry it to term.”
Caleb’s fingers dug into my hand, but I welcomed the distraction. It kept me from collapsing into a ball on the floor.
“They let Maggie keep the baby with her while they found a buyer. Maggie begged me to help her escape. I knew it was impossible, but she pleaded with me to help her. She didn’t want her baby to end up with people that could do to it what was done to her… to me.”
Silver bounced Willa in his arms as she began to fuss a bit. “It ended up taking almost six weeks for Ivan to find a buyer and make the arrangements. When I found out he’d located someone, I managed to steal the key for the fence surrounding the estate from the guard assigned to watch me. I was able to knock him out, and Maggie and I made a run for it that night. But when we were climbing out the window from the second-floor room she was in, she hurt her ankle. I tried to help her, but she couldn’t run. The alarm was sounded when she was discovered missing. We were nowhere near the fence and Maggie knew she’d never make it. She told me to take Willa and run.”
Silver’s eyes met mine. “She told me to get the baby to you, no matter what. She made me memorize your number. I didn’t want to leave her, but I knew there was no way I could get her and Willa out of there. I’m so sorry,” he whispered. Tears coasted down his face and he quickly wiped them away.
“How do you know she’s dead?” Caleb asked.
“I saw them kill her,” Silver murmured. “I managed to reach the woods beyond the fence. None of the guards had seen me make a run for it, so they didn’t chase me. I hid in the woods. She was surrounded by guards on the patio and then Ivan came outside and demanded to know who’d helped her and where the baby was. She wouldn’t tell him. I… I saw him shoot her.”
The baby seemed to sense Silver’s distress because her little face scrunched up and she started to cry. The young man immediately set out to soothe the baby by rocking her back and forth in his arms.
“How long ago was all this?” I asked. I felt numb inside.
Maggie really is dead.
“Six days ago,” Silver said.
The baby was still fussing, so he looked at me and said, “Can you hold her a second while I get her bottle ready?”
I was frozen in place and couldn’t force myself to reach for her. Thankfully, Caleb stepped in and took her from Silver. I couldn’t even bear to look at the baby, so I began moving around the small apartment. Caleb followed Silver to the kitchen and spoke softly to the baby as Silver got the bottle ready.
I was dimly aware of the two young men talking, but I tuned them out. My limbs felt heavy and my head hurt. It felt like my body was shutting down.
Maggie’s dead.
I lost all sense of everything until Caleb asked, “Jace, do you want to hold her?” I hadn’t even noticed him appear at my side. I shook my head, even as shame curled through me. The last thing I wanted to do was hold her. It was wrong, but I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe Maggie would have been alive if the baby had never existed.
“Here,” Silver said as he came out of the bedroom. There was a bag slung over his shoulder and he had a small stuffed panda in his hand. “This one’s her favorite.”
Understanding dawned.
We were taking the baby with us.
Because that was what Maggie had wanted.
Maggie is dead.
God, why the fuck couldn’t I think clearly?
Before I could say anything, there was the faint screech of tires outside. Silver froze in place for a split second as his gaze swung to the window. Then he was pushing past us. I followed him and saw several black SUVs sitting in the middle of the street. I felt my gut clench as more than a half-dozen men got out of the vehicles. They were dressed in dark clothes and immediately began looking around. They weren’t holding weapons, but I saw the outline of more than one gun underneath their suit jackets.
