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“That’s precisely what I am,” she muttered miserably.
“Do the O’Donnellys know that their fucking men treat women like this?”
She shrugged. “Probably not, but we’re chattel.”
“Women stopped being that—”
“No, you misunderstand me.We.Men and women alike. They’re just the same. Didn’t you hear that Eoghan O’Donnelly is going to have to marry a daughter of the Bratva?”
“I had heard that,” I confirmed.
“Eoghan won’t like that,” she said wryly. “He won’t want that. But he’ll do it. Because that’s what we do. We get married and we have kids and we keep the Five Points alive.” Her teeth bit down on her bottom lip again. “Truly, I knew it was coming. I could have accepted it if it was someone my age, someone I knew and liked, but…” She shook her head. “He did this to hurt me.”
“Who did? Your father?”
She nodded. “He hates Mother, and because I look just like her, he hates me.”
“That’s illogical.”
Her smile was timid. “Hatred tends to be illogical.”
I conceded that with a grimace.
She tugged on my fingers. “I’m sorry for bringing this trouble to your door. I was just… I was hoping Sin would be able to help me run away.”
“You can’t go to your mother for help?”
That was wishful thinking because I knew what a piece of work Sin’s egg donor was.
“She’d throw me to the wolves as soon as she looked at me,” she disregarded instantly. “She had this fate. She even tried to run. That Sin exists at all says she succeeded for a time, but the life still caught up to her. It always does.” Her eyes clenched closed. “God, I’m going tobecomeher, aren’t I?”
If she cried, I didn’t have a fucking clue what I’d do. I hated when women cried. It made me angry and sad and all kinds of agitated.
Only, she didn’t.
Her eyes opened. They were glossy with emotion, but no tears began to fall, and somehow, that packed more power than a Category Four hurricane, and it shook me in my boots.
“I should go back, shouldn’t I?” Her distress acute, she rubbed her brow. “I should go home before he realizes I tried to run.” Those peridot irises were wild, the pupils tiny as fear ate at her. “There might still be time. Class only got out forty minutes ago. Going back would be the best thing to do—”
A half hour ago, I’d have said yes.
Now?
With her manicured fingers digging into my palm, her never-seen-a-day’s-work-in-her-life hands tucked in mine, I couldn’t do that.
I just fucking couldn’t.
“There’s another way,” I countered.
“I’ve already wasted your time. I’m so sorry—”
I squeezed her fingers. “No. A trapped animal will always try to escape, but you’re not an animal, Mary Catherine. You’re a person, with choices and goals and desires of your own. Let me help you.”
“Why would you want to? I’m nothing to you.”
“Sin isn’t. I meant it when I said he’s helped me out over the years. I have an idea, and you might not like it, but it’ll work.”
Her gaze caught mine, distraught and scared but… now, there was a tiny glimmer of hope.
