"You knew my mother?" I ask Echo. She nods sadly and tears spring from her eyes.
"She was about my age, and she was scared and lost too, but she took it upon herself to make sure that we were both going to make it. We talked a lot, those few weeks. Until these ladies rescued me, she was my last friend." Echo takes a deep breath. "Her name was Willow, and she was from Michigan. She had just been accepted to Yale, and she wanted to become an archeologist. She felt certain that her parents would find us, and she begged me not to give up on hope. She told me to observe everything, but talk like gutter trash so that they wouldn't know how intelligent we were. At night, she would whisper to me that we had to be ready for what was coming. That it was likely that they were going to use us for our bodies. She told me everything she could think of that we should do to keep it from breaking us." She looks at me square in the eye. "Those lessons are what got me this far. I was held prisoner by that man for half of my life, and it was her advice that kept me from crazy-town."
Rosie breaks in. "While you were in the hospital, Sang, your Luke broke back into that damn house and found some things in a safe that corroborate Echo's memories." A look of disgust crosses her face. "There was a bill of sale, and pictures of her showing the stages of her pregnancy with you." She grows quiet, and I have to strain my ears to hear her. "There was a diary too, one that Owen thinks is from your mother."
A mixture of feelings flow through me. I'm hardly aware of the people around me. Hope blossoms. Could my mother still be alive somewhere? Did she escape? Anger beats through my veins. Owen knew all of this and kept it from me? What gave him the right?
Rosie reads me like an open book. "Oh, Sang, I wish that I could tell you otherwise, but sweetie, your mother is dead. You really need to talk to your team and have them fill you in on the details." Everything goes blurry as tears pool in my eyes.
Kayli shoots up and shouts, "Fuck this! You both were sex slaves? I can't handle this shit! I just have a crappy dad. I don't belong here." She turns to me and says, "I think that we could be friends in some other setting, Sang, but this, no, I've got to get out of here." She barrels out of the room, slamming the door open so hard that it rebounds off of the wall and closes completely.
Officer Shannon goes to check that it's locked and sends a message to someone on her phone.
"Maybe we should take a small break?" Nicia asks as she walks over to a table covered in snacks. Everyone gets up except me. I'm not sure I could eat after everything I've just learned. For a brief moment, I thought that there might be someone out there who wanted me, but now, I feel like I'm grieving for someone I've never known.
***
Fucking hell! Part of the reason that Luke's the most stealthy of us all is that he knows how to lay low. Everyone always takes it for granted, and they forget that he's fucking brilliant too. He's so good at recon because he's damn observant. He covers it well with his god damned jokes and daydreaming, but when he turns it on, shit. I look over at my best friend and see what I'm not sure the others do. He is fucking pissed off, and is about a hair's bredth from beating Mr. B's ass to a bloody pulp.
I stand and walk over beside him. "I'm willing and will fucking obey, so long as you do what this fucker's asking, Mr. B." He looks like he wants to say something, but bites his tongue instead. Smart man. Luke's not the only one who's angry.
North sighs and fiddles with his earring. "I'm not willing, but I will obey." He always has to be different.
"Duly noted, Mr. Taylor," Mr. B answers dryly.
Silas and Victor both agree at the same time, and Mr. B nods to them both. When Kota says, "I am willing and will obey," Nathan jumps up and punches the wall, leaving a gaping hole.
