The Program [Book Two of The Test]

Chapter Fifteen

The Program

Chapter Fifteen

"As strange as you might think it could be, Reid was once an actual good person. God, you could even consider him a human being worth keeping alive." I may have snorted when those words left Riley's mouth, waiting for her to confess that part of the story was just a joke to help lighten both our moods before getting to the serious stuff. But all she did was raise one eyebrow and place two of her fingers on the bridge of her nose, leaving myself to realize she wasn't joking.

"Sorry about that." I apologized, my front teeth clamping down on my bottom lip, forcing myself to shut up and helping relieve a small part of a nervousness I had acquired in the last few minutes. With my teeth finding a dried up piece of skin and biting it away, I mumbled, "Um, so uh, you can continue now."

Her nodding and then leaning against the tree again, she said, "Anyway, like I was saying, Reid was normal. He came from a normal family, with parents that loved him, and he was also an only child." She cleared her throat. "He met his wife, Diana, Jack's mom, when he was eighteen. Within days, he knew she was the one, her apparently feeling the same. And then after three more months, they got married."

"Huh, I never thought Reid would have the heart to be a love at first sight kind of guy." I muttered, only for it a second later to land me a glare directly from Riley. 

"Lexi, do you want to hear this or not?" She asked.

"Yes, I do. I just wish you would bypass the boring stuff. I get it, he meets the love of his life, blah blah blah, they get married, more blah." I motioned with my hands in various ways to show my point a bit. "I bet the next thing you're going to say is that they found out she was pregnant and life was super fabulous for the Harrow family." I cheered, then changing my tone to low and dramatic. "That is, until the fire."

"Would you like to tell the story? You're doing a pretty good job as far as I can see." Riley crossed her arms. "Besides the dramatic effect anyway."

I rolled my eyes and nudged her while doing a small laugh, then snapping back to reality and quickly bringing my arm back to my side. I just treated Riley like I was comfortable around her, a mistake I couldn't make again.

I coughed, pausing for a second and saying, "I'm sorry, please continue. I'll stay quiet this time."

It was her turn to roll her eyes, starting yet again. "Okay, i'll forgo the boring parts as you call them and get right down to it." And then after running her hands through her hair said, "The fire, the one Jack thought his dad died in, was planned. All of it. Much like when Reid wanted Natalie to join this whole operation, someone else wanted Reid to join, and they used the fire to do it. Of course, this person was smart, really smart. They knew how to make it look like an accident, putting blame on Jack's grandmother, making it seem like her poor defenceless self caused it. In all actuality though, this person, Reid's boss, somehow killed her by bashing her head against the table.

"Then, the fire was started and well, I think I can spare the details. Simply put, everything burned. And their objective that day was to kill the entire family, minus Reid, or Ben, whatever you want to call him." I silently decided to stick with Reid as the name. "That is, until they had a better idea, use his family against him. They captured his wife, locked her up, she's still alive as far as I know. But this organization will kill her, torture her, anything that needs to be done to get Reid to cooperate."

"So, Jack's mom is still alive? This whole time Jack's parents were alive?" I asked. Riley just nodded, seeming to be okay with me butting in this time. Then something entered my head. "Would they have done the same to Jack, imprison him?"