Page 109 of Orc's Possession
He’s never once insisted I eat in my life. He always shamed me, because of my weight.
“Youeat it,” I snap.
“If you won’t let us get rid of that beast growing inside you, Paloma,” Councilman Roberts says, “then we’ll be forced to give you to the vints where it will be their problem.”
“It’s a baby, not aproblem.”
“It’s a monster,” my father says. “Perhaps that’s the answer, Mike. Give her to the vints. We’ll get the mine without having to sacrifice one of the women.”
“You’d be sacrificing me,” I remind him.
“You don’t count.”
“Why?” The question has bothered me for months. Of all the women in this colony, my father chose me, without hesitation. “You don’t want me here, do you?”
“I never said that.”
“No, you never say anything that would make you appear to be a bad father.”
“I’m an excellent father.”
“A father doesn’t sell his child! You’re a horrible person and an even worse father.”
“Watch your mouth!”
“Why should I? Show me one good thing you’ve done. You can’t because everything you do is for personal gain. You’re duplicitous and self-centered. You can’t even keep to the terms of a treaty that would have protected the people here. You reneged on the contract with the orcs—a contract which never should have been made in the first place. You sold me to them, and now you want to sell me to the vints!”
A wave of dizziness overcomes me, forcing me to sit down on the bed before I fall and hurt myself or my baby. For the past week I’ve had very little to eat. My guards, men I’ve never respected, started frisking my sisters for contraband—food—earlier this week. Someone figured out they’ve been sneaking food to me. This latest crackdown makes it clearer than ever that Council has been trying to drug me. At least I can trust the water, because the guards drink from the same tap they use to fill my metal thermos.
My father slams the food tray against the bars, the sudden clank making me jump and putting me further on edge.
“Do you know what I’ve had to put up with since you returned here? They all know you’re carrying a monster. It’s bad enough you let yourself get pregnant by an orc, but now you won’t get rid of it. It’s embarrassing as hell.”
“Let myself get pregnant? What did you think was going tohappen when you sold me to them knowing they wanted a woman for baby-making purposes?”
“I thought you’d have the good sense to do the right thing. Get the intel we wanted, then escape or die trying.”
His words shake me. “What did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much that you’d want me dead? Is it because I look like Mom? I thought you loved her.”
“You don’t look like her. You look like him! That bastard who tried to steal her from me.”
All the pieces snap into place. His snide remarks over the years, his barely veiled contempt for me. Selling me so he wouldn’t have tolookat me.
“You’re not my father…” The words leave my mouth in disbelief.
“I have three daughters. Three beautiful, bright daughters.”
Camila. Marta. Renata. My sisters. Who aren’t fully my sisters….
I hug the pillow to my chest and lean against the wall. I want to go home, to feel my warrior’s arms around me, to feel his love for me. Love that knows no bounds. Human, with extra curves, stubbornness… He loved me despite it all.
But I’ll never feel that love again.
My father… No, not my father… the man who raised me… killed Atox, the man I learned to respect and then finally to love.
And Javier Garcia will kill the only part I have left of Atox if I can’t stop him.
I must have fallen asleep.The next time I lift my head, my father and Councilman Roberts are no longer staring at me, talking as if I’m garbage to be dumped on someone else’s property. I’m not even sure what to call my father. The father of mysisters… Oh, god, they aren’t even my sisters, not fully. I’ve lost them in all of this.
