Mara screamed.
Elias sat next to her.
“Are you hurt?”
"No."
The babies were unharmed.
David crawled towards them.
Mara has retired.
“Don’t touch them.”
His face has trumpled.
“Mara, listen to me.”
“You are gone.”
“I have been taken.”
“By your father?”
"Yes."
“You could have turned around.”
“I tried.”
“You let them drag me into the market.”
“I didn’t know!”
His voice was broken.
“You let them call me the damned daughters.”
“I didn’t know!”
The silence hit harder than the shots.
David looked at her, with tears gathering in his eyes.
“They told me you were dead.”
Mara has frozen.
David continued.
“They took me north. He locked me in an abandoned mine. My father said you died in childbirth.”
The sea's fury is fading.
“He lied.”
“Lie about everything.”
- Elias is back.
“Then explain the girls.”
David swallowed in sec.
“My father kept records that Samuel never found.”
