Page 42 of Good and Gone

I’ve only been sitting for a couple minutes when Rose slides into the chair across from me. She’s younger than I expected and pretty, exotic looking. She’s wearing blue jeans and a cream sweater that hugs her burgeoning belly, a pair of black-framed glasses perched on her nose. Her brown hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail, and it accentuates her huge green eyes.

“Hailey?” she says, looking around the café suspiciously.

“I got your email,” I say calmly.

“Do you mind if I sit?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

I motion toward the chair across from mine. "You don't look so good," she says as she slides into the seat. "You've been sick?"

"I guess you could call it that—anyway, you said you had information for me?"

Rose narrows her eyes at me and then nods. Eventually, she smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She's stalling, and I don't have time for this. “I can’t stay long,” I say. “I have an appointment.”

"I take it you don't remember much of what happened to you."

"I remember enough."

"They aren't going to leave you alone; you know that too, I presume?"

"I'm aware, yes." I cock my head. "Have whoevertheyare, have they sent you to deliver that message?"

"Me? No."

"Then why did you ask me here?"

"It looks like you're not doing so well. I thought you might want answers about what happened to you…”

"How would you know?"

"Because the same thing happened to me."

“I see.”

She shifts in her chair. "I need to be honest, though. You might not like what I'm about to tell you." Her lip quivers, and I think she's going to cry. "In fact, I know you won't."

"Okay?"

"Okay." She takes a deep breath and then looks away toward the street. Finally, she meets my eye. "What do you know about baby farming?"

“About what?” I stammer.

Rose lifts her face, then glances away. "It's a new form of sex trafficking," she explains. "Or a very old one, depending on how you look at it."

"I don't understand," I say, though I think I do.

"They kidnapped you to get you pregnant, Hailey."

Suddenly, a dozen thoughts flood my mind. The examinations, the drugs, the missing IUD, all of it.

Rose looks at me with wide eyes, but I continue to stare at her blankly. "You're pregnant with a baby that they're going to sell.”

“That’s impossible.”

She shrugs. “They were going to kill you, eventually, but you got away.”

A girl walking by looks at me, and I can tell by the way she's staring that I must look like I'm about to pass out.

"I'm not pregnant," I say.

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