"He would have hurt you," he says quietly.
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do. I've researched the Sanctuary. Read testimonies from women who escaped. I know what happens on wedding nights there. How the men are told they have complete ownership over their wives' bodies. How women are expected to submit to anything their husbands demand, no matter how painful or degrading. How saying no isn't an option."
Nausea rolls through me because he's right.
I'd heard whispers from the married women when the men weren't around.
Seen the bruises that got explained away as accidents.
Heard the crying through thin walls at night.
Watched women get pregnant over and over until their bodies gave out.
My mother died having her eighth baby.
Her body was exhausted, worn down by too many pregnancies too close together.
The midwife said she was bleeding too much, that she needed a hospital, but my father and the elders said no.
Said it was God's will.
That modern medicine was sinful.
So, she died.
And I watched it happen.
"That's why you ran," Vaughn continues, his voice gentle now. "Not just because you didn't want to marry him. Becauseyou knew what marriage meant in that place. What he would do. What he would take."
I can't speak.
I can only nod, my throat too tight for words.
"And now you're here. With me. Another man who bought you like property. Another man who could hurt you if he wanted to."
"Yes," I whisper.
"But I won't, Eden."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true." He stands, crossing to the dresser. My heart jumps into my throat as he picks up the unopened box. "Let me show you."
"Show me what?"
"That touch doesn't have to mean pain. That your body can feel good. That you have nothing to be ashamed of."
"No." The word comes out automatic, defensive.
"Eden—"
"I said no."
He sets the box down, studying me with those ice-blue eyes that see too much.
"You're curious," he says. "I can see it in the way you look at that box when you think no one's watching. In the way you've devoured those books. In the way you're trembling right now, and it's not entirely from fear. You want to know if what the books say is true. But you're too afraid to find out alone."
