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“And she’s still here?”
Sapphire drew back and looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “I’m guessing you haven’t read the contract in a while,” she said. “No one leaves once they’re here. It would be a logistical nightmare for the owners to keep track of everyone and make sure they’re not telling anyone about this place. It’s much easier to just keep everyone here forever.”
My mind was spinning. On some level, I’d already known that the women in this place could never leave, but I’d never heard someone say it out loud. Sapphire’s revelation made me realize that my subconscious had been clinging to another tiny piece of hope—that perhaps I could be freed from this place once I was no longer fertile.
I should’ve known better.
“But that’s the deal we make,” Sapphire went on. “In return for our wombs, the society takes care of us. Even after we can’t have kids anymore.”
“Right. So what does Emma do all day?” I asked, wondering what someone would get up to in a place like this when they knew they could never rejoin the outside world.
Sapphire shrugged. “Whatever she wants, really,” she said. “She spends most of her time gardening. She loves growing herbs. She’s working on a sci-fi novel too. It’s quite good.”
“So… she’s actually happy here?”
“Yeah. She seems pretty happy.”
“What about you?” I asked, tilting my head. “Are you happy here?”
“No.” Sapphire’s lips thinned. “I’m not like Emma. I’m like you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I didn’t choose to be here, but I had to accept it eventually,” she said, gazing wistfully at the horizon. “Happiness is never going to be a part of my life. The best I can hope for is contentment in the things I have in this place. Like the nice scenery. Nice food. No need to work or pay for anything.”
“How do you know I didn’t choose to be here?”
She turned and gave me a wry smile. “You have a certain look in your eye that I recognized as soon as I saw you,” she said. “But it’s also obvious because they put you in the mansion.”
“What do you mean?”
“They only put women in mansion suites for one of two reasons. The first is high-risk pregnancies, so they’re closer to the medical center,” she said. “The second reason is if they consider a woman to be high-risk for escape attempts.”
I frowned. “Why would it matter where they are for that?”
“The mansion has more security measures than the cottages. If you leave your room after eight o’clock at night, a silent alarm gets triggered. It’s the same with the doors leading outside. An alarm goes off in the security center if anyone steps through them after a certain time. That way the guards can stay alert and make sure none of the women are trying to leave the property.”
“So we aren’t allowed out after eight?”
“Technically, we’re allowed to be out whenever we want. You just have to realize that you’re always being watched on surveillance cameras if you leave your suite after a certain time,” Sapphire said, lips flattening again. “Once the staff trust you, you might be allowed to move into one of the cottages. They’re really nice. But the mansion is nice too, because you’re closer to all of the amenities there. So either way, you’ll be okay, as long as you don’t try to run away.”
“Has anyone ever escaped before?”
Sapphire slowly shook her head. “A few have tried. It didn’t work out for them.”
“They were all caught?”
“Yes. There’s no way out of this place. The sooner you accept that, the better,” she said, eyes tightening at the corners. “Trust me, you don’t want to end up like one of those women.”
“Why?” I asked, heart thudding in my chest. “What happens when they get caught?”
Sapphire went silent for a moment. “It depends on the situation,” she finally said. “The younger ones who still have a lot of fertile years left are allowed to stay, as long as they permanently remain in their suites. The others aren’t so lucky.”
“What happens to them?” I asked. Deep down, I already knew the answer from the context clues, but I needed to hear it out loud.
Sapphire turned and pointed into the distance. “They’re buried somewhere in those vineyards,” she said. “I guess the bodies make good fertilizer.”
My blood froze in my veins as bile rushed up my throat. I keeled over and vomited in the closest garden bed.
