The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,88
He had a growing bruise below his eye, and his bottom lip had been split. “You’re hurt,” she whispered.
“It could be worse.” There was no censure, no anger in his expression.
His injuries both incensed her and made her want to cry. “Why are you protecting me?”
Huan Sun didn’t answer. Instead, he gently took her arm and helped her stand. Then he led her to the cot.
“Rest.”
“But I should help you clean up the damage,” she said, even as she sank onto the cot. “How much did they—”
“Hush,” Huan Sun said. “They could have done much worse. I will clean up. You rest.”
“I shouldn’t be resting.” She knew her voice was hysterical, but she couldn’t help it. “You’re the one who got beaten.”
“You’re pale,” he cut in. “And you have been sick.”
Mei Lien looked away then. She’d been sick, yes, but it wasn’t just because of the tong’s visit.
“What is it?” he asked, his voice gentler.
She couldn’t pretend anymore. Huan Sun would notice soon enough. She looked down at her body, then placed her hands on the new tightness of her belly. “I am pregnant.”
Huan Sun didn’t move, didn’t speak for a moment. Then he sat on the cot next to her with a sigh. There had been no relations between them since she had arrived, but he had not been the only man she’d been with.
“Zhang Wei?” The name cut a path into her soul.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “He was only one night. And you . . .” Her words faded into the bleak room.
Huan Sun nodded.
He wasn’t looking at her, and she didn’t blame him. She was in a shameful state. Being a courtesan had not been the low point of her life, she realized now. Having a fatherless baby was unforgivable. Without a husband and without money to feed the child, she was helpless.
“You cannot stay here,” he said.
She knew that, but hearing him say so widened the crack in her heart. “I don’t want to get rid of my baby. No matter who the father is, this child is mine.”
“It is not because of the baby,” Huan Sun said. “The tong will be back. After following whatever other leads they might have, they’ll circle back because I am the last one who had a contract with you.”
Mei Lien’s breath hitched at this. “Where will I go?”
He exhaled. “I hoped to find a better place, but we are now out of time. There is a laundry business down the street, and the owner said she would take you in. You would have to work for free, and . . . I’d have to pay her as well.”
“But you’re still recovering from your own losses—”
Huan Sun grasped her hand, which silenced her immediately. “I can’t let you fend for yourself on the streets. Especially now that there’s a baby on the way—a child who might be mine.”
She bit her lip as her eyes welled with tears. “I have put you through enough.”
But Huan Sun didn’t let her go; he didn’t turn her away. Instead, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.
“I care about you, Mei Lien,” he said in a quiet voice. “I know that our relationship has been unconventional, but despite everything, I’m fond of you.”
Mei Lien couldn’t have been more surprised. Her imaginations about Huan Sun had always been in her mind only. His arm around her now, and his sincere words, told her that perhaps her future could be different.
She wished she and Huan Sun could move far away from San Francisco and the tong.
Resting her head against his shoulder, she wrapped her arms about his waist. He was warm and solid, and when he kissed the top of her head, she closed her eyes. And held on. She would have to leave him in order to keep him from getting assaulted by the tong again.
“Mei Lien,” he murmured against her hair. “You need to leave tonight. We cannot wait a single day.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “All right. I will be ready.”
He drew away and gazed at her. She scanned the bruising in his face, the dried blood upon his lip. Gently, she placed a hand on the uninjured side of his face. “I am sorry, Huan Sun, very sorry. I did not mean to bring all of this upon you.”
He placed a hand over hers. “You are a beautiful young woman, Mei Lien. It is not your fault that you’ve drawn the attention of the powerful tong. They are responsible