“What? What is it?” I shifted in his hold, peering into his eyes.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
I paused. Normally, if V had a thought, I could pick up on his idea. We were in tune with work, with life. But this time, I had no clue.
Pinching him, I said, “Come on. You can’t leave me hanging like that. Give me something else to think about other than this catastrophe.”
Vaughn shook his head, looking as if he wanted to tear the thought from his brain. “I—no, you don’t need to hear it.”
“And you don’t have to feel my sadness, yet you do.” Sitting up, I untangled his arm from around me. “Tell me.”
He sat taller, running a hand through his glossy black hair. “What if youhadbeen pregnant?”
I froze. “What do you mean?”
He looked away. “This madness with the Hawks is over. The police are involved. The media know everything. You’re as safe as I could make you by telling everyone what I know. But...what if it’s not enough.”
Tremors captured my limbs. Jethro’s text came back to haunt me.
I’m coming for you.
“What do you mean?”
V looked at me, his eyes tight and grave. “What if you had his kid? What if you gave birth to a girl?”
My mind raced. “She’d be a firstborn girl. She’d suffer the same fate our mother and I did. I wouldneverput her through that.”
V shook his head. “She’d be firstborn. She’d be a girl. She’d be a Weaver.” He leaned closer. “But she’d also be a Hawk.”
* * * * *
V’s epiphany changed everything.
I couldn’t stop thinking about alternatives, imagining an entirely different conclusion to the Debt Inheritance, to Jethro, to our future as enemies.
Jethro said he was coming for me.
I didn’t know when and I didn’t know how...but what if I let him?
What if I went back with himwillingly? Instead of saving him and running, why not do something to end the debt completely? I couldendthis—like I’d promised my dead ancestors.
Would it work?
Would my scheming of seducing him over and over again until I became pregnant be abhorrent or justified?
Did it make me a terrible person to contemplate bringing another life into this madness—all in the hope of breaking the debts hold?
Could I even stomach becoming pregnant with a firstborn of mixed blood? Would Jethro agree to something so drastic—so crazy? Would I go to hell for trapping someone that way?
My mind whirled with more and more questions.
If Ididdo all of those things—would it destroy everything? Put an end to debts being collected because the debts were now merged? Why had no one thought of it sooner?
Is it even possible?
There were dreadful flaws to my plan. Cut barely tolerated his own children. I couldn’t see him decreeing the Debt Inheritance null and void just because the firstborn of both houses wasmadefrom both houses. I couldn’t see him giving up that easily.
But Jethro...he might.
