Page 111 of Outcast’s Vow

He’s different now. Softer. More unguarded.

And that’s all because of me. Of what I’ve done.

I’ve made him vulnerable.

“You know what we were talking about the other day, Baptiste?” I say softly, not turning away from the window. “About my fears? About what might happen if all this went away?”

“You’ve been thinking about it again?”

“I don’t think I was able to word it correctly.”

“What would you change?”

“I was trying to place why it’s so vivid for me, but I couldn’t,” I reply. “But now I know, especially after all that happened yesterday. I think... I think the fear is all about a fear of ending up as my mother.”

Baptiste pauses.

“Your mother?”

“I haven’t mentioned her much,” I admit, unsteady. “But she’s someone I think about a lot. She’s like a pressure that’s always there, you know?”

There’s movement behind me. Baptiste has stirred. He’s sliding toward me, wrapping his big, burly arms around me from behind, holding me tight.

“What about her makes you fearful?”

“It’s the thought of ending up like her. Surrendering everything for an easy life as dictated by her man. She gave up her life for Father. Her independence. She took part in the Castaway Chase so she could find a worthy husband who would own her, and she succeeded. Maybe she thought she had no choice. I’ve seen it firsthand. She lets him treat her as if she’s part of the furniture of the mansion. She has no opinion to share. She’s traded her freedom for the life of a trophy wife to a powerful man, but it’s a life where she has to shut up and say nothing.”

“And do you want that life, Sylvie?”

My voice comes out so quiet I’m barely even giving life to the words.

“No. I don’t.”

“Then you won’t,” my husband says.

“How can you be so sure?”

And then, for the first time, I sense a tension in Baptiste’s body. A tremor. It’s slight, but noticeable.

“I am.”

“You’re lying,” I say. “You hide it well, but you’re afraid.”

“I’m not,” he replies.

I turn my head to face my husband. I look deep into his eyes.

“You’re afraid of the Castaways. You’re afraid of what they’re capable of. Of what they could do to us.”

Baptiste doesn’t say a word. But he nods. Once.

And it’s enough to freak me out.

42

BAPTISTE

“Baptiste, come here. You need to see this.”