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subservient race trying to climb up out of the ghetto.   We’re the only hope the Dak-Hiliah have to avoid extinction.   It’s in your best interest to keep us from being—”
    Whore slapped me.  
    I sat in stunned silence with my face turned the way his hand had pushed it.   My cheek felt like it was on fire.  
    My heart thumped so loud I couldn’t hear anything else.   I was still too stunned to move.   My eyeballs went back to Whore though.   He was facing forward gripping the conference table with both hands.  
    “M…Maritza.”
    I slowly turned my head toward him.   I heard him swallow.
    “I…apologize.”
    The shock went away and after it came fear.   It was a powerful slap.   I was reminded how vulnerable I was against a big strong Dak-Hiliah man.   I started to feel like I had ice in the pit of my stomach.  
    Once I could move again I slid to a chair further away from him.   My legs trembled as I forced myself to climb over.   It felt like a rabid dog was next to me.   The side of my body closest to him got hot.   I needed to get out of his reach.
    Whore put his face in his hand.   The fact that he seemed to regret what he’d done gave me a twinge of hope.
    “First you…you disregarded Lord Elentinus’ title…then you spoke of my people and what we endured in such a flippant manner.   I lost control.   It was wrong for me to strike you.   I…I won’t hit you again.   Understood?”
    I forced a weak nod.   My throat felt too tight to speak through.
    “I’ll compromise with you on the letter.”
    A trickle of blood ran down my chin.   I touched my lip and then looked at the blood on my fingers.
    Whore grounded his teeth and swore loudly.   He got up.   “We need to erase your injuries in the infirmary.   Come with me.”
    I stayed seated.   “I want Lord Elentinus to—“
    “You witch!   After I agreed to compromise with you?”
    I curled into myself.   “I…won’t…put up with you hitting me.”
    “I said it wouldn’t happen again!   It was a trifle, anyway.   Most brides get beaten far worse for lessor infractions.”
    And then, like a truly pathetic weak woman, I started to cry.   Of course I wanted to be strong.   Of course I wanted to tell Whore off and just race off to show Elentinus right then and there.   But what’s the truth?   I was scared and dejected.   The one line the asshole hadn’t crossed had just been broken to bits.   If he did it once he could do it again.   I would never be able to stand up to him without that fear.   Violence makes a man the winner in every argument with a woman.  
    I sobbed.   Fuck my life.
    Whore sat back down and rested his face in his hands.   “By the gods…”   He started rubbing his fingers through his hair.   “Damn it!   Damn it!   Damn it!”
    I sniffled and looked at him.   The idiot was panicking.   Good.
    He leaned back and took a breath deep enough to make his chest puff up.   Then he blew it out across the table.   “I’ll let you write what you want to write, within reason , if you’ll just go to the damn infirmary with me!”
    I wiped my lip and my nose on the side of my hand.   I knew I had to take the offer.   Even if I was entitled to selfishly seek protection, I had to help those other women out there who were ‘beaten far worse for lessor infractions.’
    “Okay,” I said with a voice choked by emotion, “I’ll go.”
    He wouldn’t look into my eyes.   “You won’t tell Lord Elentinus I slapped you?”
    What are you worried about?   I’m just a slave, remember?
    “If you let me write a decent letter, then I won’t tell him.   It…it would just stress him out even more right now.”   I paused for another sniffle.   “But if you ever, ever touch me again—I’m going to him with the marks.   And I’ll tell him about this time, too!   I swear I will, Hor-Denay.   This is your one and only chance.”   I broke into tears again but kept going through