Beautiful Lies by Emilie Richards

money left for my passage, and I rent a room. I did not want to go to China. I knew there would be work here. I disobey my father. And I am cursed.”
    â€œChinn found out you were a woman alone, and he kidnapped you?”
    â€œI was promise a job at his store. I knew he was not a good man, but I thought I could stay away from him.”
    â€œBut you couldn’t.”
    His voice was so gentle, so accepting, that the hated tears rose in her eyes again. “You should not be so kind. I was a disobedient daughter, and I have been punished.”
    â€œNo, you’re only a woman who believed in others who didn’t deserve it.”
    â€œBad things happen because I did not listen.”
    He reached for her hands, and she didn’t shy away. She let him hold them. She was dead, and it didn’t matter.
    â€œWillow…” He squeezed her hands. “If you had been brought up in China, you would have felt differently about your father’s plans. But you were brought up here, where women have more to say about their fate. You were educated, you had a different view of things. What you did was understandable. But because…”
    She looked up when his words trailed off. “Because I disobeyed my father?”
    He shook his head, and his eyes were sad. “No, because you’re Chinese, you had no one here to stand up for you after your father’s death. Chinn’s a powerful man, and your own people were afraid to cross him. And the others in Broome, they wouldn’t interfere.”
    â€œYou were not afraid.”
    His tone hardened. “If I had been here, none of this would have happened. I’m sorry.”
    She didn’t understand. She had done something terrible, something unforgivable, yet Tom sounded as if he thought he was to blame. “I am the one who is disgraced.”
    â€œDisgraced, not dead?” He reached out and touched a tear sliding down her cheek. “We’re making progress.”
    â€œNow I cannot marry. My sons will be outcasts. No woman will let me be a servant in her house. I can only live as Bobby Chinn planned for me.”
    â€œAs a prostitute?”
    â€œI am dead.”
    He sat back on his heels. “When did you last eat?”
    She shook her head.
    â€œAre you starving yourself, then?”
    She looked straight through him. “A dead woman does not eat.”
    â€œA dead woman doesn’t speak, either, or walk or cry.”
    She lifted her chin. “Soon I will not do those things.”
    â€œWillow, you’re not to blame for the things Bobby Chinn did to you. And if there’s no place for you with your own people, then you have to find a different place away from them. You’re educated and intelligent. I’m sure the wife of a pearling master will take you in as a nursemaid or housekeeper. I met some important people tonight. I can find a job for you. Trust me.”
    She was dead. She felt dead inside. And yet Tom insisted on breathing life into her, life she wasn’t worthy to feel. Something like anger stabbed at her, and that made her feel alive, too. “And what must I do for your help? The things I was to do for Bobby Chinn? The things he would have sold me for?”
    He cocked his head. “How long were you at Chinn’s, Willow?”
    â€œLong enough to die.”
    â€œWhy were you alone in that room?”
    â€œA man was to give him much money for me. Chinn kept me away from other men.”
    â€œThen Chinn didn’t…” He shook his head. “Do you really believe I came to get you because I want something from you?”
    â€œThis is something all men want.”
    â€œAll men may want, but all men don’t take. I would never touch you, unless that was what you wanted, too.”
    â€œI want nothing! I am—”
    â€œDead. Yes, I know you think so.”
    The anger jabbed at her again. “You think you know? You are a man. I am