Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

Phoenix

He pulls up next to me and I reluctantly get into the car. In New York without Nate, I had no way of getting home, so I have had no choice but to call Wade.

“Hey, Jen!” He is way too cheerful, though I suppose he has no reason not to be. “How was your day?”

“I went to see my Grandparents.” I don’t look him in the eyes; I can’t bring myself to do it.

“Your real Grandparents?” His hands grip the steering wheel a little tighter and he starts to shake his leg, the way he always does when he gets nervous.

“Yeah. It was a real shock to them, because they were told seventeen years ago that I had died.” I try to keep the poison from my tone, and it’s taking a whole lot of work.

“Who told them that?” Wade asks with a confused expression that tips me over the edge.

“I know what you did, Wade! I know that you were the one that kidnapped me and gave me to the Grayes! You kept quiet all these years and you pretended like you were my friend! How could you?” I have completely turned so that I can yell at him head on and there are tears streaming relentlessly down my face.

“I’m sorry, Jenny.” That’s all I get? One pathetic ‘Sorry’ and no explanation?

“I want you to tell me why you did it.” I demand.

“You know that I had no choice, Jennifer.” He keeps his eyes firmly on the road and his voice low.

“Well then, why didn’t you tell me? Don’t I deserve that much at least?” I wipe the tears from my eyes. Usually I’m good at keeping my emotions in check, but Wade betraying me hurts more than anything I have ever experienced before. He’s always been the only one that never lied to me.

“It was my first assignment. They told me that you were important for the future of the company. They said that they needed you for ransom, but they lied to me. We took you to this room full of medical equipment and they hooked you up to all these machines gave you all kinds of stuff through an IV.” He pulls the car into the side of the road and cuts off the engine. “You were so little; I had to make sure you were safe. So I requested a place on the assignment to move you to a new family in a different city. You ended up with Jack and Amelia Graye. They were the people that Skyline thought could best… Take care of you.”

“How did Michael not find out about this?” I don’t understand how something like that could have been kept from him.

“He was working for a separate unit at the time; he never heard anything about this. We had to choose the child of a Skyline agent for that assignment. Someone that couldn’t open up too much to the cops and he fit the bill perfectly.” Wade is saying it like it means nothing. Like his reasons for kidnapping me come down to simple logic. “I’ll take you home.” He starts the car up again and begins to drive. I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. The ride home is a blur, but when we arrive, I know what I have to do. I have to find out what they did to me when they hooked me up to the machines and pumped me full of all kinds of shit.

Wade gets out of the car and comes around to open my door. I make it convincing when I throw my arms around his waist so he doesn’t realise what I’m doing. I slide my hand into his pocket and my fingers find what I was looking for. When he pulls away from me he looks down at me with glistening eyes.

“I really am sorry, Jenny.” And he gets back in the car.

“Me, too.” I mutter once he pulls away. I open my hand to reveal the object that I stole: Wade’s flash drive. All the Unit Leaders have a flash drive that contains information about every Skyline assignment ever planned, and I’m going to use this one to find out what really happened to me.