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Back When the Reckoning Comes Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. They are coming.
  5. I.
  6. II.
  7. III.
  8. Once, they stole away.
  9. IV.
  10. V.
  11. VI.
  12. VII.
  13. VIII.
  14. IX.
  15. X.
  16. XI.
  17. XII.
  18. Those who stayed behind found their own ways to resist.
  19. XIII.
  20. XIV.
  21. They remembered the feeling of their beloveds sold,
  22. XV.
  23. XVI.
  24. XVII.
  25. XVIII.
  26. XIX.
  27. XX.
  28. It took the babies drowning for the rest to say, Enough.
  29. XXI.
  30. XXII.
  31. XXIII.
  32. Tools meant for work became seen as weapons.
  33. XXIV.
  34. XXV.
  35. XXVI.
  36. XXVII.
  37. XXVIII.
  38. When they were caught, punishment was swift and severe in its execution.
  39. XXIX.
  40. Soon it would be morning, and those left behind would prepare for another day.
  41. Acknowledgments
  42. About the Author
  43. Also by LaTanya McQueen
  44. About the Publisher

Celine had been her friend. Awkward and shy, Mira had been bad at making new friends. She sometimes played with some of the neighborhood girls, but she always felt like they were doing it to appease their parents. She never stayed long, was never offered to stay after dinner or sleep over, and Mira would walk home alone as the streetlights blinked on.

Celine was a poor white girl who’d shared her cheese sandwiches with Mira for lunch. They borrowed each other’s clothes, Mira wearing Celine’s jelly sandals despite them falling off her feet when she walked. Mira didn’t care that Celine was white, like Celine didn’t seem to care Mira wasn’t, and they never thought much about what anyone else said, and Mira had believed none of it mattered until the day at the plantation.

Obligation had brought Mira here because of the friend Celine had been. Still, standing in front of the mirror, it felt like it’d been a mistake to come, to agree to any of what she was about to do. Yet she had made a promise. By tomorrow evening the wedding would be over and she could enjoy what remained of her weekend as best she could. They were not far from the coast, a short drive, and she could go see the beach. She didn’t have to go home right away, back to her empty bungalow in the city, nor did she want to. At the very least, by tomorrow she could come back to this cottage and relax. Order room service. Watch their cable. Draw the curtains and sleep until her body got tired of that too. Tomorrow seemed closer than she originally thought, and what lay before her became even more feasible considering, so she took a breath and grabbed her purse, leaving the cottage in haste in the direction of the dinner before she could change her mind.