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I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.

“No one,” I managed to say weakly.

Emely shook my knees gently.

“Julie, please.”

I continued to sob, shaking my head even more frantically.

“Nothing,” I gasped. “There's nothing. Please...”

The ice behind me cracked. Only now did I notice that it had formed outside my car.

Suddenly, the two rear doors of the car opened.

I hastily wiped the tears from my face.

“Hey, Julie.”

I felt Larissa's hand on my shoulder and saw Bayla diagonally across from me in the back seat.

“What happened?” she asked, looking at Emely.

I stared straight into Emely’s eyes, silently begging her not to say a word about something being wrong with me, about me being broken.

“The babies are fine. Isn’t that what matters most?” Larissa said.

“That’s what you see, Larissa.” I pulled a wet strand of hair from my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. “These children...” I pointed to my belly, hidden by my coat. “...will grow up in this town. In a place where we are all prisoners of our origins.”

Emely gently stroked my knees, and I let her, because it was actually quite soothing.

Without her, I would probably have already lost my mind and completely frozen my car.

Still, I wished Erik were here to hold me. Just like he had done at the DLSC when I had frozen everything around me.

“I don't want these children to suffer the same fate as me,” I sobbed.

I felt pathetic, had wanted to be stronger, but now I was sitting here, like the old Julie, in a mess of tears.

“This city will kill them.”

My voice was now shaking just like my hands before Larissa reached for my right hand from the back seat.

“What if we get them out of here?” she asked.

I looked up, confused.

“Where to? To whom?”

“What if you leave town?” she corrected herself. “Somewhere... Out of Canada. To Europe. To the U.S. I’ll help you. Maybe I can find a place.”

Now Bayla reached through the seats for my last free hand.

I let her, letting the warmth of all three girls wash over me, because none of them were as cold as my blue fingertips. If I hadn't been so weak, I would have pulled away, asked them not to touch me because I might hurt them.

I tried to think about Larissa's suggestion, but all my thoughts led me to the same devastating conclusion.

“I can't,” I whispered. “I would, but I just can't. They're doomed…”