Undivided [Book Three] COMPLETED

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"He didn't say that." Charlotte said with a dry laugh, "Ratman said do I need to remind you of our meal? We were supposed to have a meal together -"

"Do you seriously think anyone is buying this?" Newt asked incredulously, and she said with a small voice, ". . . Yes?"

"Tell them, Char." Thomas said, making her head snap to him, worry clouding her eyes. "We're gone, they can know now."

"Great, the two secret keepers are at it again." Newt grumbled angrily, making her scramble to her feet and stand up, looking directly at him, "Okay, okay."

She took a shaky deep breath, uncomfortable with all eyes on her. Everyone was waiting for an explanation, and she didn't want to give one. In fact, she was hoping that none of them ever found out so she didn't need to have this conversation again, she didn't need to have Newt not trusting her again. Her heart sped up as he finally locked eyes with her, and his obsidian orbs softened.

"When I was in that white room," Charlotte began with an uneven tone, "Janson got me and told me I was just a Variable, never a glader. And upon being that, he told me that. . . he told me that I needed to kill one of you, or they would kill me."

"WHAT?" Newt roared in his seat, his arms uncrossing as he sat up on full alert. She quickly put her hands up in a way to calm him down, explaining, "I obviously wasn't going to do it!"

"No shit." Minho spat as he stood up next to her, "But why the hell didn't you tell us? Don't you think that's a little important?"

"I couldn't tell you. Janson runs that place, he has eyes and ears everywhere. He'd know if I told you, and then I would be killed." She took in a shaky breath, "Back then, I thought he was just lying, all of it was just an excuse to make me scared. But now? I - I think that he wouldn't hesitate to pull a trigger."

"But why does Thomas know all this?" Brenda inquired while shrugging.

"Because we can mind link to one another, remember?" Thomas said, "She thought about how she couldn't kill anybody, I heard her. I forced her to tell me, and only because she accidentally mind linked me it."

Charlotte kept Newt's gaze, praying that he wouldn't react like how he did when he realized that Thomas, Teresa, and her all had telepathy. She couldn't have that reaction again, they were finally on the same page. She didn't realize just how scared she really was of his reaction, which still hadn't happened, until her vision became blurry with tears. She needed him to forgive her for this, she needed it.

The ginger wasn't particularly fond of the fact that she relied heavily on this boy, but he was holding her heart in his hands, and she could do nothing about it. She wished to be more independent so he wouldn't have this unexplainable power over her, but all she could do was stand there and stare at him, eyes begging for mercy.

"And we're all out of there now and never going back, so we don't have to worry about it anymore." Thomas broke the silence that hung in the air with reassuring words, and she nodded at his statement, unable to speak. He met eyes with every single person to see if they were all on board, and one by one each person nodded.

He met Newt and raised an eyebrow, awaiting his response. Newt flickered his gaze to her for just a second, then went back to his friend. A beat later, he nodded slowly, and she sighed in relief, the anxiety curled around her heart slowly fading.

A heavy silence fell among the group as Charlotte attempted to catch her breath, fear still riding out her system. Minho put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and the action helped her calm down faster. She shook deep breaths as she noticed Newt's eyes glaze with worry, but Brenda broke everyone's train of thought with, "I think we should go to Denver."