Chapters (48)
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT
- CONTENTS
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I couldn’t remember the last time we’d voted on anything. Those days were long gone. I turned to Margo. She whimpered in the corner, her baby boy cuddled underneath her chest. Zed. Born four days after Shiloh.
“Why?” I’d give anything, do anything, to prove I was worthy of his covenant. But not my baby. I wouldn’t give him my baby. Anything but that.
“We can’t question his plans. You know that, dear.” Shiloh’s face was furiously red while she screamed in his arms.
My milk spilled out of me at the sound of her, drenching the front of my dress in no time. “Please give her back to me. Let me hold my baby,” I begged him, beyond caring how desperate I sounded.
“She’s not your baby. This is the Lord’s baby.” He stared at me pointedly.
I reached my hands out. “Please, she’s hungry. I need to feed her.”
He handed her back to me, and I couldn’t help but weep. What would I have done if he hadn’t given her back? I pulled her to my breast immediately. Three weeks old today, but it was like life never existed before her. I couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.
Margo’s eyes searched mine, her mind still twisted from her difficult labor. Hers hadn’t gone well. Her pale face let me know she was still losing lots of blood. This would throw her off even more. She was too weak to handle this. I couldn’t lose her. Not again.
“We knew God was going to require a sacrifice in order for my brides to wed me. Both of you were prepared.” His words dropped like lead in our tent.
“Abner, please no.” Margo begged from her spot in the corner. She was too exhausted to move.
“It is not up to me. You know that.” He eyed both of us before exiting the tent.
“Please, we have to think of something. We have to,” Margo cried as soon as we knew he was out of earshot.
“There’s nothing we can do. You know that.”
Shiloh startled on my chest, and I moved her to the other breast. The contact grounded me. She was my light, my love.
Margo frantically shook her head, her face wet with tears and contorted in pain. “What if we left?”
The world rolled underneath me.
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-EIGHT
ABBI
NOW