Her Secret

Heartbreak

The man on the train nods to Tobias and disappears into the crowd. A minute later, the group starts to split and a brunette woman walks to the front. "Tobias?" She asks.

"Mother?" He asks. She nods.

"Evelyn Johnson?" Tris asks.

Evelyn and Tobias' heads snap to look over at her. "You know who I am?" She asks.

"Of course I do. You clearly haven't gotten caught up on your gossip," Tris mutters.

"Did she tell you?" Evelyn asks.

"Of course she did. She still talks about you. She loved you, you know. Then you left her."

"You mean after all of these years, she still cares about me?"

"Can someone please explain what is going on?" Tobias asks.

"Your mother dated my girlfriend," Tris explains. "Before she left her for Marcus. Marcus of all people," Tris explains.

"He was handsome and charming! Plus I didn't belong in Erudite!" Evelyn protests.

"Yeah, but you could've at least told Jeanine that you were planning on leaving! Not break up with her by putting your blood in a different bowl at the choosing ceremony!"

"All Jeanine cared about was her work and Norton's approval. She didn't have time for me. Do you think you're special? It's going to work out the same way. Your relationship isn't going to last," Evelyn says.

Tris glares at her. "That's exactly why she still talks about you a lot," she says sarcastically.

"Enough about Jeanine," Tobias says forcefully.

The two stop bickering and turn to look at him. "It doesn't matter who broke who's heart thirty years ago. What's important is stopping Eric."

"Eric? I thought Jeanine was the problem here," Evelyn says.

"Eric is pinning it in Jeanine, but it's Eric doing the damage," Tris explains.

"How do we know she's not lying? Jeanine is her girlfriend. She could have forced her to tell us such or . . .?"

"Put me under the truth serum. I swear I'm telling the truth!" Tris says, putting her hands up.

"Lower your guns," Evelyn commands. "We're getting off."

They jump off the train, and the small group heads to factionless headquarters. Evelyn is clearly the ring leader of the group, as she is followed by all of the factionless; in the way, a teacher leads a group of students.

She leads them through a small maze of buildings until they get to a spot in which Evelyn had clearly claimed for her own. "Dinner will be ready soon. I expect you're staying?" She asks, raising her eyebrows at the three of them.

"We're leaving in the morning," Tobias says gruffly.

Evelyn nods. "Very well. I'll have a sleeping space prepared." She leans over to talk to Edgar, and he nods before running off.

As Evelyn promised, dinner was ready quickly. It wasn't much though as it was basically canned food stolen or thrown out from the factions. All of the factionless eat together before heading off their separate ways.

Evelyn pulls them aside to talk. "Have you been to Candor yet?" She asks.

Tobias shakes his head. "We're heading there tomorrow."

"Good, good." She then falls quiet. "I suppose. It's getting late. You should all head off to bed. I don't want to keep you up."

Tris nods and allows a Factionless guard to lead her to her sleeping accommodations. Tobias stays behind with his mother, talking late into the night.

At a very late time in the night, Tris overhears the two talking and decides to eavesdrop.

"Tobias, you know that you have to rally everyone together to join our cause. Jeanine isn't going to go for it, so you have to win over the girl," she whispers.

"Mother, she's not going to fall for it either. She's not dumb. Why would any erudite want to overthrow the faction system? They've all been brainwashed by Jeanine Matthews." He whispers back.

Tris wanted to barge in and yell that not all of the erudite have been brainwashed into agreeing with their faction leader. However, she was madder that they were talking about her and Jeanine in a negative way. She knew that many people didn't like Jeanine, but she didn't figure that Evelyn would be one of them.

She listens longer. "I figure we can at least get the Candor to agree. They see reason. And if you can get yourself elected as one of the new leaders of dauntless, then we're set."

Tris pulls her phone out of her pocket and turns it on. She checks to see if there are any new texts or calls from Jeanine. She was surprised to see that there were at least twenty texts and five missed calls.  She quickly texts Jeanine back.

We fled Amity this morning when Eric invaded. Staying the night at the factionless area. Don't worry, I'm safe. But I've got big news. I'll call you tomorrow if I can get some free time away from the people that I'm traveling with. Our plan is to head to Candor next.

Tris reads over the text before sending it. She realizes that it's probably a bad time to text her being it was almost three am. She then becomes even more surprised when she almost immediately receives a response.

I'm not going to bother asking why you're up, because clearly, I am too. Thank you for finally responding. I can sleep well now that I know you're safe.

Tris smiles at the text, happy that Jeanine was worried for her.

T: Aw, you're so sweet, Jean.

J: Don't push it, darling.

Meanwhile, Jeanine was still in her office at this point but locks her phone. Jeanine hadn't been able to sleep in her bed much since Tris had left, so she grabs her coat and covers herself with it. She then curls up in the armchair in her office and drifts off into a peaceful sleep.