Waiting for Amber Skyy

Chapter 12

I woke up to the door opening and casting a glow down our aisle. I didn't move because Speck was still sleeping on my hand. I watched as a group of scientists, their silhouettes, stood in the doorway. Just the usual. I closed my eyes and tried to get back to some kind of sleep.

"Jelly bean?"

My eyes flared open. I knew that voice. That nickname.

I turned my body slowly, letting Speck's head move to the floor of her cage. She shifted away and I pulled my arm back to look at the people in front of me. I stared in shock. I couldn't believe it. Am I dreaming? No, I was still in my cage. But, oh god, I blinked to make sure that I was seeing clearly.

"Mom? Dad?"

The dark haired woman squatted down on her knees, smiling gently at me like she always did. She folded her hands in her lap as Dad sat down next to her. There they were, the same old parents, just like I remembered them. Mom's hair was combed straight, and her eyes matched mine, pale blue but filled with love. Dad's hair was sparse, but I could see the red around the edges.

He smiled at me, "Hey there sweetheart."

I blinked. Is this real? I narrowed my eyes, remembering what Jacob told me weeks ago. "They may be your parents, but not biological," he said. The chill of that statement ran through me, and I didn't look at them. Was he right? No, he couldn't be. But why else would they be here?

"W-Why are you here?" I choked on my words.

Mom's face dropped and turned to the side, like something was up. Dad ran a hand down his face, the usual thing he did when thinking hard.

I gulped, "Please... please don't tell me it's true."

They said nothing.

My heart raced and I felt even more tears coming. Like I hadn't been crying for the past five hours, god. I gripped the bars of the cage and stared at them, "Jacob told me. He told me who you were. That you weren't my parents."

I heard Mom hiccup but I kept going, "He told me I was adopted. He told me I was just part of your job. He told me you guys didn't care. You kept me because you knew what was going to happen to me. Why? Why did you do that to me?" My voice rose greatly at the end, causing my supposed "mom" to cry.

"Dad" spoke up, "We didn't want that for you, sweet heart."

"I'm not your sweet-anything," I barked back, mad as hell. "You 'didn't want that for me'? Then why did you keep me? Why was I even an option in your crappy lives?"

"You-" Mom started before I butted in again.

"-Were part of your job, I know, Jacob told me. Are you guys that sick to raise a kid to just give them away to psychotic, inhuman freaks who want to torture them, break them, and throw them away once they're used up?"

"We never wanted that for you! We loved you, sweetie, and we'll always love you!" Mom cried out. I froze. That struck a chord in me, but I quickly brushed that away.

"If you never wanted that for me, then why did you adopt me?" my voice was fierce, but cracked around the edges. I wanted to know; I wanted to know the truth.

I stared at them as "Dad" rubbed "Mom's" back gently. They said nothing for a few moments as I sat there on the balls of my feet. Maybe, just maybe, if they let me out of the cage I could get out of here and kick their sorry butts.

"Sweetie..." he started.

I opened my mouth to retort but he held up a hand, "Please, just hear us out for a moment."

His pleading eyes got me. I kept my mouth closed.

He sighed deeply and looked around the place before his talk, "You were part of our job. We both work for ITex, a company that manufactures everything from planes to diapers. I met your mom at a collective meeting, and eventually we decided to get married."

I didn't know I let out a growl, because he looked taken back. Whoops.

"Sorry, I'm... I'm getting off track," he shook his head and squeezed his wife's hand. "Well, at first I thought that ITex as just a large company, until your mother told me her field of expertise."

I stared at the woman. So she was one of the psychos. Great, my own mother!

"She's a bright woman, very bright, and her intentions were just to conduct research. It was a few years after we married that we were given a project." I stiffened. Oh, so I was a project now?

"A man from ITex granted us our own wish, to raise a child of our own. But the catch was that we had to give them up once they turned ten. They said, because of our status together, we'd be the first people to set up this foster-like-system for kids. Your mother was ecstatic, as was I.

Once you were brought into our lives, everything changed. We were told to just raise you as a normal kid in a normal world. We did, and it was easy. We were so happy to have you. We took you everywhere: Disney World, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon... everywhere."

He looked at me in hopes that I might remember. Nope, nada.

"Well, you were pretty young," he muttered.

"You were an adorable, sweet-loving child," my "mom" finally spoke up. They both exchanged side glances as she continued, "We loved you ever since they brought you to us. I, I mean we, forgot everything of what they told us. You were our little girl, and you still are."

I glanced away from her, not caring if that offended her.

She sniffed and continued, "We- when we got the call a couple days before your tenth birthday, I was confused. I completely forgot the job. I felt stupid, I felt like they would fire me..." She paused as my stomach twisted. "But I couldn't give you up. I couldn't. You were my baby, and still my baby. I couldn't do it. I slammed down the receiver and ran to your father, crying, and he tried to calm me-"

She choked on her words as he pulled her into a hug. He continued for her, "We moved. We couldn't let them get to you. We couldn't let them have you."

"But you did," I choked as well, surprised that I was also crying.

"We didn't know they would track us," she hiccupped out.

"We thought that moving would solve that problem, but they had other means..." his voice trailed off and I knew what he meant. When I met Jacob. I could vaguely remember the move, but it was around the time I was starting high school. I did remember joining the freshman class at a school meeting, and I locked eyes with the hottest senior sitting two rows from the back. I still couldn't believe that he, Jacob, was a wolf guy who was only there to kidnap me and throw me into this wretched place.

"Jacob was a sweet boy, but your mother was wary of him, and I couldn't put my finger on why," he said, sighing. "I wasn't a proper dad, protecting my daughter from harm..."

"I'm not your daughter," I growled at him, causing tears in his eyes. "I'm not your daughter. I'm not your sweetheart. I'm not your jelly bean. I'm not yours, for crying out loud!" I gripped the bars of the cage in rage.

"Swe-" he stopped and tried the best way to address me. "We love you, and will always love you, no matter what."

I didn't want to listen. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw. How could they? "Did you know... did you know that they were going to do this to me?" I felt my throat tighten.

"We did, but what we didn't know..." crying mom started before dad jumped in.

"We didn't know that you weren't a test tube baby."

Whaaaat?