No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes

Author:Nichelle Giraldes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks

38

ISABEL

Ana had always been the practical one. I lacked a plan, but I knew when I saw the new bruises on her shoulder that I had to convince her to leave Lucas. It was already dark out by the time we slipped away from our families and made our way to our little spot by the creek. It seemed we only got to see each other under the moonlight these days. I longed for a day when we could once again lounge in the sun.

“We must leave. I will figure out some way for us to make money, somewhere for us to go, but, Ana, you cannot stay there with him.” I begged her. I was already crying. I spent most of our time alone together crying.

“I’m not going to pull you from your life,” Ana said. She reached down and squeezed my hand. “Jacob is a good man. You are happy with him.” She wasn’t wrong. If I had known Ana was well, if her marriage had made her happy, I think I could have made a good life with Jacob. But I would never love him like I loved Ana. Leaving him behind was the part of this I regretted most. It would break his heart, but I was willing to do far worse for Ana.

“Not as happy as I would be with you.” She let silence hang in the air for a long moment. “What if I were the one married to the brute?” My voice was tinged with hysteria, the tone rising higher than usual. I was afraid she would leave again at the end of the week and go back to that place. “What if I were the one who showed up with bruises across my back?”

“But you’re not, Isabel,” Ana said. She refused to let my fear seep into her. She was calm, like the moon on a windy night, unaffected by my storms. “You are softer than I am.”

Ana was right. I wouldn’t have been able to endure it. Lucas’s cruelty would have broken me months ago. I would have come home and begged my mother not to make me go back. I wouldn’t have cared about the consequences. But it seemed unfair that my weakness would have saved me. If there were any way I could switch our places, I would. I think I would be able to bear a tremendous amount of cruelty if I knew I was keeping Ana safe.

“It’s breaking me,” I said. “Every day, knowing you are in that house with that awful man, it is breaking me. I wish it were me instead. At least then I would be able to sleep soundly knowing you were safe.”

Ana was quiet. She hated what this was doing to me. She hated that I was hurting because I worried for her. She was better than me in all the ways that counted.

“I am in love with you, Ana,” I confessed. It wasn’t the first time I had said the words, but I hoped she heard them like it was the first time.

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