King’s hands didn’t drop but they did loosen their grip.
“She said she’d be his…his mistress if he left us alone.If he…he helped us.”
“Helped you,” he repeated.
She suspected he already knew.“He gave Daphne gifts.Sometimes money.If we were starving he’d throw us some scraps.”
King’s jaw worked but he said nothing.“What happened to your sister?”
“She…” Her throat worked, and despite her best efforts her eyes welled with tears.“She got with child.Hegot her with child,” she rephrased.“But when she began to show he called her fat and ugly.He claimed it was some other man’s child, not his.”She shrugged, just as helpless now as she had been then.“He didn’t want her anymore.He found somebody new.”
She forced her gaze up to meet his.“He was done with her, and us, and…”
“And the baby.”
She nodded.“Daphne never really recovered from childbirth.She was frail and weak.He’d beaten her often, and she…she survived.But she wasn’t the same.”
She stopped, the rest was too hard.
Daphne hadn’t truly been the same from the day she’d given her life to a monster.But after bearing that monster’s son and seeing that all she’d given up had been for naught…
“She walked into the sea and never came out,” she finished.
After a long silence, he exhaled, and King’s sigh seemed to say everything better than words.
For some situations, there are no words.
After another long moment, he walked away, and Kitty shook as a chill struck her anew.
“I will take care of the matter,” he said as he reached the door.“I’ll make sure you and your siblings are safe from Maloney, Kitty, and then…”
She turned to meet his gaze.
She wished she hadn’t.His eyes were hard and cold, filled with ice.
“Then you’ll be gone.”