The Divided

Chapter Twenty-Two

I laid in the dark, staring at the dark ceiling for hours. After a while, I heard my parents go to bed. I laid there for another hour and a half, to make sure they were asleep before I got up. I wanted answers and I was going to get them. Tonight.

I snuck out of the house, which was surprisingly easy. From there, I walked to the leadership building which was just at the end of the street. It was easy to stay out of sight by lurking in the shadows. Fortunately, the leadership building was basically empty. I only past a few people as I crept through the halls, all of which had their backs turned to me. Sooner than later, I made it into my father's office, which he had left unlocked. Rooky mistake.

I closed the door behind me and locked it before I made a beeline for his desktop computer. Shaking the mouse, the screen lit up before, but it was locked with a passcode. Taking a minute to scour through my thoughts, I typed in many passcodes that I thought he would use, but none of them worked. I turned to another direction in my tactics and starting digging through his desk for a notebook or something that would give me the passcode. Every notebook that I came across, I skimmed through but found nothing. I looked through every drawer and shelf, but found hardly anything. I was getting frustrated. Everything that I did find that could possibly be passwords or answers to my many questions, I couldn't read the handwriting. My father had the worst penmanship I had ever seen. Maybe it was on purpose.

After many minutes of searching, I heard voices outside my father's office door. I easily recognized my Xavier's voice. He had been asleep when I left the house—I had been sure of it. When I heard keys jingling, that's when I finally got myself moving again. With wide eyes, I quietly shoved all the drawers and cabinets closed and looked around the room, frantically searching for a place to hide.

I spotted the office closet, where he kept all his extra supplies. Opening the door, I jumped inside and closed the door behind me, sealing me in the small, dark space. He hardly ever went in there—I could tell by all the dust and cobwebs. Just a second after I closed myself in there, the office door opened and two men stepped inside. I could slightly see through the closet doors—they were shuttered. I couldn't make out their faces, or anything—I could only see their silhouettes in the lowlighted room, but I could recognize Vincent's voice along with my father's. It was them—that much I knew.

I watched my father sit down at his desk and I assume he logged onto his computer. "Did Roman send you the files?" Vincent asked him.

"Yeah, I have them right here."

"When are you going to let Melody read through them?"

Xavier sighed. "As of right now, I have no idea," he responded. "I was going to have her read them on her eighteenth birthday, but I knew she wasn't ready. And lately, she has been out of line...I don't know what is wrong with her."

Vincent was quiet for a long moment and for a second I feared he was going to let Xavier in on his suspicions about me. Maybe if you let her in on what actually goes on around here, then she could straighten out."

Xavier sighed loudly. "She just isn't like Cassidy and I. she doesn't think like us. Maybe what we did years ago was a mistake." I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering what mistake he was talking about.

"You didn't make any mistakes," Vincent assured him. "But she's getting older now and if she and Mason are going to take your and Cassidy's place, then she needs to know everything."

"If she knew that we regularly kill people, she wouldn't want to lead the Ameliorates," Xavier said sternly.

I gasped so loud that I was scared they had heard me. My palm was thrown over my mouth as I comprehended the words he said. They were killers. Murderers. My dad killed people and only God knew who else followed his actions.