Page 41 of The Sin

I thought he knew Amelia from The Smoke. “You were at WOE together?”

“Not WOE.”

“You told me that’s where you grew up.” The Widows and Orphans Establishment in Capra.

“I told you I was an orphan,” he said.

I’d assumed the rest, and he hadn’t corrected me.

“The Protectorate runs the Gardens Children Home here in The Smoke,” he went on. “I wasn’t born in Capra.”

“Oh.” And since we were on the subject and I had a burning desire to know as much about Roman as he’d tell, I asked gently, “What happened to your parents?”

He looked at me with surprise, as if he’d never been asked that before.

“I’m sorry, if you don’t—”

“It’s okay,” he cut in. “It doesn’t matter. I never knew anything about my parents. Neither did Amelia. That’s not uncommon here in The Smoke.”

Again, one answer birthed a hundred questions.

I let it go.

“Where is Amelia now, then?”

“She was sold.”

My last sip of wine went down the wrong pipe. I spluttered, my eyes widening on him.

“That happens here.” His features hardened to brittle granite. One false prick, and he would shatter. “I didn’t know that back then, not until Amelia just disappeared one day. But I learned fast.”

“Sold to who?” I asked. “And why?”

“One or other baron.” Bitterness laced his voice, dulled with something that could be acceptance, but sounded more like determination or commitment, or resolve. To do what? “She’d just turned twelve, and twelve year old girls are a high commodity.”

I tried to wrap my head around the obvious point I was missing, and couldn’t. Why would twelve year old girls be so valuable to the Outerlanders? Because there were so few women out there? The ratio of men to women was 7-3. That may not be true in The Smoke, but I’d seen far more men than women across the bridge at Sector Five.

But buying girls? And why not wait for them to grow up first?

“That’s horrific,” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry. That’s the last time you saw Amelia?”

His jaw worked. “I didn’t know at first what had happened. She just went missing. But I went looking, and I found an underground human trafficking ring. I found the bastard who took Amelia and I killed him.”

“You what?” I exclaimed.

“He deserved it.”

“That may be so, but you were only fifteen, Roman.” I’d heard something about his past. Tainted past, Rose has called it. I guess this was it, and it was sadder than anything I could imagine. “That’s a terrible burden to carry.”

“The only burden I carry is regret that I didn’t kill him before he took Amelia,” Roman said, his voice as stone cold as his eyes. That dark pain from earlier was gone. Any vulnerability was gone. “If James hadn’t stopped me, I would have gone after every one of those bastards.”

“Who is James?”

“James Gordon is the senior warden sponsoring me. He brought me into Capra and he’s nominated me as his successor when he retires next month.”

Our food arrived, and Roman went quiet as the server set out the platter and asked if we needed anything. I assured him we were fine and he left.

Roman drained his glass of wine and refilled it.

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