The year is 2375 and the world has become over populated. With one trillion people now living on earth, and with the average life expectancy reaching as old as two-hundred-five, there was not much they could do. ‘They’, as in the government, banned all couples from having children. This law went into effect on March 23rd, 2361, and since then there has been no babies born; except one: Laelia Clavell.
Laelia Clavell (Lay-luh) (Clu-vell), that’s me. I was born on May 26th, 2361. I was the last baby born in the entire world. There is a strict rule in the world, that once a teenage girl reaches the age of thirteen, they are forced to get a hysterectomy, making it impossible for them to have or carry any babies. There’s only one problem: I did not get the required surgery. Making it very possible for me to get pregnant and give birth to an illegal child.
In fact, that is exactly what I am doing now. I am carrying the baby that will get torn out of me if anyone but my family hears about it. I am carrying the baby of Xavier Monty. I am carrying the baby that is against the law to have. And there is nothing I will do about it.
Memories are dangerous. Memories are weapons.
Seventeen-year-old Stella Parlett has believed that for her entire life. In the Federation of Equal Opportunity, formerly known as the United States, the freedom to remember is a small price to pay for the safety that lies in forgetting. When Stella turns eighteen, she'll enter a new life free of fear and free of memories. Everyone has the right to forget their wrongdoings, to have a second chance. And Stella can't wait to do it herself.
But everything changes the day Stella adopts a child into her home. All of a sudden, she has something to lose. And when the Federation itself starts to threaten the ones she loves most, Stella is forced to make a difficult choice: what is she willing to fight for?