Under a sky blazing with stars, the boy's eyes shone brighter than any of them. He held my hand so tightly it almost hurt. "Serena, I never want to leave you—not in this lifetime. Let's be together forever, okay?"
I'd believed we would have that forever.
Until the day Damian and I went traveling in the mountains and came across a fourteen-year-old girl named Edna Fox.
Several men had her pinned to the ground, trying to hoist her onto the back of a three-wheeled cart. She was on her knees, thrashing, begging through sobs.
"Dad, please don't give me away. I can go up the mountain to chop firewood, I can work the fields, I can earn money—"
Tears and dust caked her dark, gaunt face. Her hair was a wild, brittle tangle.
From the murmurs of the onlookers, I pieced together what was happening: her own father was selling her to a fifty-year-old man for enough cash to build a house.
Pity surged through me. I shoved the men back and pulled her behind me.
After a heated argument, Damian handed over all the money we'd budgeted for the trip to Edna's father. He saved her. He promised to sponsor her education.