"If we fall pregnant, we get to leave," Cindy said softly, her voice barely more than a breath against the heavy silence. The faint light from the torch above caught her expression, and for a fleeting moment, hope flickered there, thin and trembling. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sadness that returned to her eyes like a tide. "We don't get to keep the baby," she continued, her tone breaking on the word baby as if it hurt to say it, "but we get our freedom."
