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“You’re not just nervous. You’re waiting.”

She opens them again. “For what?”

“To be found.”

“I’m not running from the law,” she says.

“Then what?”

Her lips press together. I see the moment she decides not to say it. But she doesn’t lie either.

“You want to stay here?” I ask. “Near our kid? You’re gonna have to tell us the truth.”

“I’ve spent my whole life learning how to stay quiet to survive.”

She’s not spinning a story, but she’s not willing to tell me what I need to know.

“I’m trying,” she says. “To be something else. To want something else.”

“And what is it you want?”

That’s when she meets my eyes fully. She locks in, and something tightens low in my stomach.

“You’re the one who wants something,” she says.

And then—barely a whisper, but every syllable cuts clean?—

“Isn’t that right?”

My gut pulls tight. Something hot coils in my chest. I don’t even realize I’ve taken another step toward her until she shifts back.

I exhale through my nose. Force my hands to stay at my sides.

“I don’t trust you,” I say.

“I know.”

“You haven’t earned my trust.”

“I know that, too.”

I turn and walk out of the room with a rock-hard cock.

And that’s a problem I’m not ready to tackle yet.

I do my best to avoid Ani for the rest of the day. I’m not sure I trust myself to be anywhere near her right now. Later that night, I step onto the porch to get away from all of them but I peer inside without them seeing me.

Ani’s inside, crouched near Mae with a book open across her lap. Her back is rounded, arms tucked in close to her sides.

Mae isn’t even looking at her. She’s got her knees pulled up to her chest and her face turned away, hair spilling down over one side of her face so all you can see is part of her furrowed brow. She’s not looking at the book. But she’s not leaving either.

Ani keeps reading. I can’t make out the words from here, but the rhythm is soft and steady.

She turns the page, then holds the book out just a little, showing Mae the picture like she might look this time. But she doesn’t.

I see the exact second it hits her. The way her shoulders slump just a little. The way she blinks and swallows. She’s damn close to crying.

And something in me cracks.