“You’re trying to protect her?” she asks at last.
I exhale wearily. “Get out of my office, Mother. I have work to do.”
I’ve done the math again and again.
Almost three months to the day since I was brought here.
Three months without my family.
Three months of Aleks’s cruelty, laced through with just enough moments of the lightness inside of him to keep me from giving up hope altogether.
And also… three months since my period.
I try telling myself I’m stressed, I’m scared, my body’s in no mood for reproduction, so of course it makes sense to miss a few cycles.
But in my bones, in my soul, I see that for what it is: bullshit.
I’ve spent the last hour standing in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at my body for evidence. But there are no immediate signs that it’s true. My belly i
