Page 75 of The Strength Of A Woman

Her eyes sparkle with tears, her emotions overflowing as she struggles to keep her chin from trembling.

“Please don’t die,” she says quietly.

“I won’t.”

“So what will happen in the end?”

I look down, smiling, her eyes on me.

“We’ll both be free people.”

When I look up, a tear trickles down her cheek. I lift my hand to her face and wipe it away with my thumb.

Her skin is smooth and warm.

“But not free from this life,” she says.

“Probably not. I, for one, won’t be for sure.”

“What about me?”

Her gaze stays locked with mine as I look into her eyes.

“You’ll have the option to choose,” I say, watching her get flooded with emotions again. “You’ll have a beautiful life. I can promise you that.”

She can no longer speak, so I take her hand, press it into my cheek, and then kiss her palm.

She smells like flowers and the strawberries she just ate with a pinch of vanilla-scented powdered sugar.

“I brought you some clothes from Nona,” I say, lowering her hand from my face.

“Please don’t stop,” she says, rushed, ignoring what I just said about Nona.

I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her smooth skin again, and she becomes a small fire on the mouth of Etna, about to overflow with heat for me.

Her reaction makes me warm, and I know I need to break away from her and leave her alone, or I won’t be able to control myself.

More than ever now, I understand her mystique, the spell she puts on men.

What I don’t understand is why they all had to mistreat her. I don’t even want to think about the one who had her body under his.

I can’t say I haven’t thought about it.

I can’t stop thinking about it.

Could’ve been someone in the house? Someone in their circle? Someone she had picked out of spite?

They already touched her in ways that shouldn’t have been allowed. The question is, who had fully had her?

It’s better if I don’t know, or they’ll end up with a bullet in their head.

I squeeze her hand gently.

“What about you check that suitcase, find something nice to wear, and we go shopping for something new?” I say, watching her eyes glint like distant stars.

“Are you serious?”

“I surely am. Let’s explore this town. We have plenty of time to do that.”