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But Cecily is so sloves She’s gasping andto die

"I can’t," I say

"I’ll look out for her," Jenna says "I’llhappens"

I know she would I trust her But she doesn’t know the story about Rose’s baby, how Rose gave birth with no one but Vaughn to take care of her, and the awful thing he did when she was too sedated to stop hi sierous when Linden’s wives are unable to fight back

And I will not leave this rooown

So else keeps me frozen to that spot too Cecily has become a sister to me, and I feel it’s my place to protect her just as oes on for what feels like hours Sos, and other times she drifts in and out of sleep, or chews on ice chips that Elle feeds her from a paper cup Once she asks me to tell her a story about the twins I’d rather not share my life stories with a roohn, so I tell her one of my mother’s stories instead, and I embellish to hborhood where everyone flew kites

They had hang gliders, too, which were giant kites that people could ride The riders would stand soe or at the top of a very tall building Then they would julider would catch the wind They would fly Cecily sighs dreaic"

"It was," I say And on top of everything else now, I miss my mother She would knohat to do; so , expectant mothers would donate their children to research labs; in exchange they were given prenatal care, a fearm months off the street And my mother was always so careful with the newborns All she wanted to do was find an antidote so that the new generations would be able to live full and normal lives When I was little, I believed she and my father would do it, but when they were killed in that explosion, Rowan said it was pointless He said there was no saving this miserable world at all, and I believed hieneration firsthand, and I don’t knohat I believe I just knoant it to be alive

Cecily’s body is seized by another contraction, and her back arches off of thethe other, and for a strange h ratitude Now shesound Her lip quivers Linden tries to soothe her, but she jerks her face fro voices I feel tears bri in my own eyes, as I watch the tears streahn, "Can’t you do so more for her pain?"

Genius that he is, expert on the hu antidote

His eyes meetCecily’s legs up on a pair of strange platforms that look like bicycle pedals I think they call thehn leans close and kisses Cecily’s sweaty forehead and says, "It’s al wonderfully" She smiles wearily

Jenna sits on the divan in the corner, looking pale herself A little while ago she braided Cecily’s sweaty hair back for her, but she hasn’t spoken o and sit with her, to comfort her and be corip onher to push

To her credit she has stopped ainst the headboard, and a new deter to assue Her skin is sunburn pink She grits her teeth and claets trapped in her throat and escapes as a spluttering gasp

This happens once, then again, then again, with a few seconds between for her to catch her breath She’s getting frustrated, and Vaughn tells her this next tiht She pushes, and there’s a horrible bloody sound as the baby comes out of her But worse than that is the silence that follows

Chapter 20

We wait, and ait I want to look away, and I think Linden does too, as this white infant is held up by one of the attendants, bloody and still, but we’re frozen

All of us are frozen Jenna on the divan Cecily clinging to our hands The attendants like sleeping cattle

I barely have tihn will let this baby die like his last grandchild, before he goes into action He takes his new grandchild and sticks some kind of turkey-baster device into its mouth, and in a second the rooin to thrash Cecily deflates

"Congratulations," Vaughn says, holding the writhing child up in his gloved hands "You have a son"

All at once the roo, is taken away to be cleaned and inspected Linden holds Cecily’s face close to his, and they’re talking to each other in fast, hushed voices and kissing between the words

I fall beside Jenna on the divan, and we put an aroodness that’s over"

"Maybe not," Jenna says

We watch as the attendants tend to Cecily, who has delivered the placenta, who is still bleeding, who is still too pale for courney, and I a to her hand, and I say, "I’ll go with her"

"Go?" Vaughn laughs "No, she’s not going anywhere