“Oh God,” Caleb whispered at the sight of the baby in Silver’s arms. I couldn’t move as he approached us. He was talking to the baby, who was watching him with bright eyes. The baby’s little fingers were hanging onto Silver’s hair.
Silver came to a stop directly in front of me.
“Your sister named her Willa. After your grandmother.”
“No,” I whispered as I covered my eyes with my hand. “No, it can’t be true,” I said as I shook my head. But I knew it was.
My sister was dead.
My beautiful, fun-loving, kindhearted, perfect baby sister was dead.
I felt Caleb tug me against him and then his arms were around me. “I’m sorry, Jace.”
I pressed my face against his shoulder and nodded. As badly as I wanted to let go of my emotions, I knew I couldn’t. I forced myself to straighten and wiped at my face. I settled my eyes on my sister’s child.
Her daughter.
I knew Silver could be lying about the baby, but I couldn’t even come up with one reason why he would. And to have known my grandmother’s name? Maggie would have had to have told him that.
“What happened to Maggie?” I asked as I tried to process that the little bundle in Silver’s arms was my last link to my sister.
I had a niece.
I was an uncle.
“I met Maggie about a year ago. She was brought to the house I was living at.”
“Living at?” I asked. “Were you like her? Were you taken?”
“Not exactly,” Silver hedged. “I was sold… by my parents.”
“Sold to who?” I asked.
“His name is Ivan Petrov. He’s a well-known businessman over here. Has ties to the Kremlin. But his business is just a front.”
“For human trafficking?” Caleb asked.
Silver nodded. “He has an estate in Brandenburg. It’s near a lake called Trebelsee. He keeps some girls there… for private parties.”
I felt bile rise into the back of my throat.
“How did you and Maggie meet?”
“I had more free rein than most,” Silver murmured. “It meant I could move around the house more freely than the others. Ivan trusted me with the girls and would have me take care of them when one of the customers got too rough with them.”
I was grateful when Silver didn’t bring up details about whatever circumstances had led to him meeting Maggie.
“After a couple of months, Maggie confided in me that she was pregnant. She knew what happened to the girls who ended up in that condition.” Silver dropped his eyes and said, “Most of the girls welcomed the forced abortions, but Maggie was different. She wanted the baby. But she knew it was impossible.”
“What happened?” Caleb asked.
“She hid the pregnancy as long as she could. When it was finally discovered, she was almost five months along. Ivan told his men to get rid of it, but the guy who was in charge of the day-to-day stuff told Ivan that a white newborn of American descent would fetch a hefty price tag. He agreed to let Maggie carry it to term.”
Caleb’s fingers dug into my hand, but I welcomed the distraction. It kept me from collapsing into a ball on the floor.
“They let Maggie keep the baby with her while they found a buyer. Maggie begged me to help her escape. I knew it was impossible, but she pleaded with me to help her. She didn’t want her baby to end up with people that could do to it what was done to her… to me.”
Silver bounced Willa in his arms as she began to fuss a bit. “Itended up taking almost six weeks for Ivan to find a buyer and make the arrangements. When I found out he’d located someone, I managed to steal the key for the fence surrounding the estate from the guard assigned to watch me. I was able to knock him out, and Maggie and I made a run for it that night. But when we were climbing out the window from the second-floor room she was in, she hurt her ankle. I tried to help her, but she couldn’t run. The alarm was sounded when she was discovered missing. We were nowhere near the fence and Maggie knew she’d never make it. She told me to take Willa and run.”
