He was furious. He hated her. He wanted her to die.
Nina gasped. She couldn't pretend anymore. She remembered too much. She couldn't have dreamed or imagined or made up that look. It was real. Everything that had happened to Nina was real. She had real handcuffs on her wrists, real scars on her back, real fear flooding her mind.
"They're going to kill me," Nina whispered, and it was almost a relief to finally, finally give up hope.
CHAPTER TWO
Why?" The word exploded in Nina's ears, and she jerked awake. Then she jerked back because a man's face was just inches from hers, yelling at her.
"Why did you betray your country?" the man demanded.
Nina blinked. She was doomed anyway — why not argue? "Betray my country?" she could sneer. "What kind of a country thinks it's a betrayal just to be born? Was I supposed to kill myself out of loyalty? Out of patriotism? How is it my fault that my parents had two babies before me?"
But anything she said would betray her mother and Gran and the aunties — everyone who'd kept her hidden, everyone who'd kept her alive.
She didn't speak.
The man sat back on his heels. It was dark in Nina's prison cell; she thought it was probably the middle of the night. The man's silhouette was just a dim shadow in front of her.
He's a shadow and so am I, Nina thought. She was still groggy enough that that seemed funny.
Then the man turned his head and murmured, "Now." Instantly the entire cell was flooded with harsh, too bright light from the one bare electric bulb overhead. Nina squeezed her eyes shut.
"I know you're awake," the man said softly. "You can't hide."
Nina stiffened at that word, "hide." He knew. Of course he knew. Why else had she been arrested? She thought she'd resigned herself to dying, but suddenly she was drowning in panic. Was this it? Was the man about to shoot her? Or was he going to take her somewhere else to die? How did the Population Police kill illegal children?