Discoveries ✔ (Divergent Fourtris Fanfiction)

Chapter 69

Tobias

Evelyn!

Damn, I should have guessed that she heard about this meeting. Of course, she wants to have a say in this. How could I not have anticipated this?

"It's so nice to hear you all read out those manifestos, but they don't represent the whole population of Chicago. Factionless is the biggest 'faction' in our city, did you know that?" Evelyn states as she stands in the middle of our circle and takes a look around.

Her eyes pause as they meet mine. I hurry to look away. I don't want my identity to be made public in this setting. Basically, I still don't want it to be made public at all. I want nothing to do with neither Marcus nor Evelyn, and I don't want to carry their name.

In the corner of my eyes, I see Evelyn gaze at Tris sitting beside me, and I'm sure she has drawn her own conclusions about us. That's something I don't worry about, though, since I was planning to take her with me to the lunch I have to have with Evelyn tomorrow anyway.

"Evelyn! How are you alive?" I hear Andrew say into the stunned silence that has taken over the room, a silence that will soon be filled with mumbles and stolen glances.

"Andrew, nice to see you again. I see you've taken Marcus' place as a leader after he decided to run off into the outskirts of Chicago or the woods or wherever it is he thinks he can find shelter. Yes, I'm alive, as I've been the whole time. I left Abnegation. I wanted a divorce, but it wasn't possible, so I faked my death."

"But how? How could you do that without Marcus noticing? He was your husband," Andrew asks, his confusion apparent.

A murmur goes through the crowd, like a wind growing into a storm.

"Wait, you're Marcus Eaton's wife?" Johanna asks, perplexed. "Is that why your face seems familiar?"

"I'd rather say I was his wife, past tense. According to the law held up by Candor, we're still married, but I prefer to consider us divorced. I haven't been in contact with this man since I left him. And to answer your question, Andrew: He knew about the plan. He preferred it this way. He supported the idea, can you imagine that? He's not, and never has been, the selfless leader he all wanted you to see in him."

I tense as Andrew starts another question.

"But didn't you have..."

He's stopped mid-way by Natalie, who puts a hand on his forearm, a gesture not usually seen in public by an Abnegation couple. She whispers something to him, and he looks confused for a moment, but then he takes a breath and apparently listens to his wife. I wonder what she told him. Does she know about me? Does she recognize me?

The conversation goes on and Evelyn stresses the role Factionless played in taking down Jeanine, Max and Eric, basically summing up what everybody already knows from listening to the interrogations. I'm alarmed, fearing she could still shout out my identity. I calm down a little when I realize she probably won't do that, because she would have to justify herself for leaving her child behind, which would cast a poor light on her and, that way, would stain her political ambitions. She remains the calculating person she is, that much I can rely on.

I feel someone's eyes on me, and I meet Natalie's gaze as she carefully looks over to me and Tris. She gives me a small emphatic smile that nobody takes care of. Everyone's attention is on Evelyn and the discussion she's started.

In the end, she talks them into giving her a seat and at least let her join the meeting. They squeeze in a table between Amity and Erudite where she can sit down. She's here on her own, so she looks a little lost sitting all alone while all the other factions have sent delegations.