"It seems the facility you chose became crowded some two years after you dropped him off." Palnedo's voice rammed into Hisa's ear, no matter how clotted she tried to will it. You don't hear him. You can't hear his lies.

"The selection process started to slip, I'm told," he went on. "Many of the children... I was fortunate enough to trace the couple that ended up with our boy."

His words... they were a burn goring into the back of her shoulders, scoring through to her heart. "Where? Where is he?"

"Are you demanding?" he uttered, amused.

"You would pay whatever it took." Hisa hissed through her teeth. There were no tears for her, not with this man. "Your daughter's dead and your to self-important to die the lone millionaire. You need someone to carry your name."

His hand clutched her arm then. "My name, fair Hisa. Not yours."

"Where is he?!" Hisa pulled away from his breath, whirling on him. But Palnedo's face stopped her hand from delivering its slap. "It seems his adoptees found him more valuable as the cargo of a ship."

Ship? Cargo?... A slave ship!? Hisa's hand covered her mouth, protesting the bile that climbed her throat. His eyes watched her and it was too late for her to pull the horror back. He didn't smile, didn't frown... his indifference was the only cord holding her up.

"Circus destroyed the ship on its fourth day out."

She dropped her eyes to the knees of his slacks, pressed and crisp at the seams. This was her punishment for thinking that... Hisa jerked back as his knuckles slithered to touch her cheek. He held his hand there, his indifference gone and a contemplative smile in its place. "I discovered this only last year. It never sat with me, the look in your eyes that night. But then..."

Hisa turned away. She couldn't let him see her break, no matter how futile her efforts. Palnedo was up behind her in an instant, his fingers back to suffocating her arm. "I rather wished that it had been true. My daughter and son-in-law having passed on, I would've welcomed him."

"You would've controlled him." Hisa corrected him. Her chest.. it was burning, the heat needing to be released. "Gotten him to think like you-"

He pulled her in, his hold enough to make her veins pop. "It's important to keep one's legacy in the family. Teach them their expectations... and their place."

"His place..." Hisa's voice moved on its own. "would never have been with you."

Palnedo let go of her arm to run his thumb along her jawline. "Impudent as ever. Though... a little too wrinkly for my taste."

Hisa kept her gaze straight ahead as his thumb fell away. She listened to his steps and the door click back open. "I have not chosen a final staff for this household yet, but I think you'll make a reliable addition. It's the type of place that's sure to have you reflect on the decisions of the past."

The door shut behind him, leaving the study silent and Hisa in the middle of it. She didn't move the first few moments, images clouding her vision. A ship, destroyed by Circus, the ultimate defense force over the towns and countries. None of their operations went quietly... had the ship burned before the sea had claimed it? She shuttered at the thought of burning metal, gallons of cold, salty water... which had killed her baby? How had he suffered?

No. Hisa bent to a knee in an absent reach for her plastic tub of supplies. Don't... stop thinking! Get cleaning; stop thinking!

That was the logic, but her body didn't move. And her mind raced. Her son, his two-year-old self screaming through the heat as the ship burned. Her little boy sinking, the waves pushing his black hair over his eyes, pulling him into the deep, deep darkness... Hisa's head pulled the rest of her body until her forehead cracked against the floor. She didn't feel it. The rip that had started in her heart nine years ago, now tore straight through. It tore up her throat, escaping in a sound only akin to a wounded animal.

I was stupid. Hisa choked in. I was so stupid to think myself clever. Why did he have to be the one to pay for it?! The sacrifice that I was capable of...

She had lied to her son. And every 'I love you' that she had whispered in the lonely dawns and dusks... it was all a lie now.