"Of course," she says.

She purses her lips and frowns.

"... Is there something wrong?"

oh no, he made Evie upset

She starts to cry.

Oh no, he's really fucked up now. Hugs? Will a hug help?

She cries into his shoulder. "Jing Yi, we can't."

"--we can work something out. Even if it's not official."

"I wish I could, but-- I'm so sorry I didn't tell you."

This is not the problem he expected. "What happened?"

"I just," she sniffles, "I just wanted to feel loved-- That I could marry--" She cries again.

He rubs her back soothingly. "I promise, if this is a problem I can solve, I will do my utmost."

"My father-- gambles more than he should and he wound up in debt to some-- very bad people. Gambles and goes to-- to brothels-- and takes opium-- And he has nothing to give anyone, except that I'm-- very beautiful, and my mother always taught me to be pleasing to men, and that's how my parents see me. And he talked to a man he knew. Chris Parker. And Chris Parker made it clear that he would make it all go away and give my father as much money as he needed-- if--"

"You're already engaged to him."

"Yes." She sobs again into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry--"

--Jing Yi has seen sobbing like that before. That practiced, that careful.

Specifically, he has seen it when the Triads figured out his weakness for a girl with a pretty face and a tragic story. It left him with a broken ankle, a phobia of concealed weapons, and-- just barely-- his life.

Look, he likes Evie, even if he hasn't known her that long. And he's aware that he could be being wildly paranoid, seeing patterns that aren't there. But... he didn't become paranoid for no reason.

He isn't going to feel used yet, but he's definitely prepared to find out he's been a useful patsy this whole time.

There's no reason for Evie to know that. Maybe she is honest and just... cries weird. (His instincts are Unconvinced by that explanation.) "Would me having a word with Parker help?"

"If you could--" She cries again. "He's a cruel man. I'm scared. And--"

"Look, I've got some experience with the type." (Including experience being beaten half to death and having a pen knife to his throat, natch.) "I can see what I can do."

She looks up at him with huge, teary, beautiful eyes. "My time of the month didn't come this month. It must have been the first time we were together--"

--OhshitfuckGODDAMN. He's trying not to look at her through the lens of what acting choices she's made. Because that's just an entirely plausible claim. It's probably true, and why did he not think this was a possibility? How the fuck did he forget where babies come from? "Well, that's all the more reason to get this sorted out sooner rather than later. Make sure the little one isn't any more of a bastard than they grow up to be." It's a lame joke, but it's all he has.

"He wants to marry me quickly-- I'd pass it off as his except-- he's white--"

"I was thinking along the same lines. That's... not going to work." Unless that kid somehow throws heritability for a loop and looks like a copy of their mother. But that is not a plan you can rely on. "I'll talk to Parker."

"I'm scared for you."

"I've handled people like that before." He does not promise it will be fine. That seems like that would jinx it.

"He's in his apartment most of the time," she says, "and when he's not he's guarded by Michael Coombs-- he's a dangerous man with a lot of enemies--"

"...I don't plan to stab him. Just talk."

Stabbing him does, in fact, seem like a good solution to the problem. His mouth forms the sentence "but I could stab him if you wanted me to" without his brain really having much input into the subject.

He adds, "If you think it's the best course of action."

"I don't know--" She sobs. "He thinks I'm his, and he doesn't like giving up any of his possessions. Not his books, not his collections, not the people he owns. I'm just another beautiful thing to him, like a table, or a painting. And if he thinks that you're going to steal me-- he kills to keep his things safe--"