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“I… No?”
“There’s more, baby,” Riot whispers, this time he looks at the ground between us and refuses to meet my gaze.
“More? H-how… more?” I gulp.
“Ellie was there. Is there.”
“What?!” I leap from the small couch nearly knocking Riot over as I tower over him, confused at the words coming from his mouth. All these secrets just keep spilling out, bleeding all over me, and mentally I can’t handle them because I’m still locked in that goddamn cell with Cole.
The circuits are all overloaded. Fried. I can’t process any of this. It’s too fucking much, and it hurts. Why does this all hurt so much?
“We just… she was… We left her there?! Are you kidding me? We gotta… we gotta go back. We have t-”
“Zeke,” Hannah’s calm, soothing voice interjects, but I’m still reeling. “We can’t bring Ellie back, she has to stay.”
“What the fuck does that mean?!”
“If you’ll just sit down, I’ll explain. Please. Two minutes, Zeke.”
Glaring at her, I cautiously sit back down, waiting for some type of explanation that makes any bit of sense.
“I was once part of this society called the Fallen. It’s where we are now. Working for my aunt Amelia. About 8 years ago I was tasked to extract someone from the Syndicate. A girl. I never asked why, but Amelia wanted her, so I brought her here. The girl, she never spoke. In fact she was basically fucking mute. She trained with us though. She got so fucking badass, she even nearly bested me a few times. One day though, she went back in. She became inside eyes for the Fallen. The hacker, your dad, he actually works for the Fallen now and keeps an eye on her for us along with some others. I only just recently found out that girl was Ellie King. I - I didn’t know Zeke, I’m sorry. I had no way of knowing. To me, she was always just Q.”
I’m not sure if I believe anything I’m hearing right now. My dad is an undercover hacker for the Syndicate? My foster sister is undercover for whatever this is? There’s no fucking way any of this is real. It’s so far out there even I can’t believe it. I damn sure can’t process it. My lungs are seizing up in my chest and I’m desperately in need of air. It feels like I can’t breathe.
Jumping to my feet, I quickly make my way to the door, ignoring Riot and Hannah calling out to me. Ignoring their pleas. I just need to get back to Cole. He needs me right now. Just as I fling the door open and step outside, I run into a man I’ve never seen.
“Zeke?”
I look into the familiar set of deep, dark blue eyes, and instantly I know who I’m looking at, but I don’t want to believe it.
“How could you!?” I scream, shoving him into the wall. “How could you do this?! Do you have any fucking idea what I had to live with growing up? And you were just out there, what? Existing? Ignoring the fact that you had a whole child that needed you?!”
“Zeke, I - I’m sorry. You must understand…”
“Understand what?!” I yell, dipping in close to his face, pressing my hands to the wall on either side of his head. Caging him in. “And you knew this whole time that I was out there? What about Ellie? Did you know who she was to me?!”
“I… I did. I’ve always kept tabs on you Zeke, and I -”
“No!” I snap. I’m seeing red, and I don’t want to hear another word that this man has to say. Not another fucking syllable.
Everything I thought I knew was a lie. My world flipped upside down, shifted on its axis. I don’t want to hear anything else tonight. I don’t want the lies.
“Fuck you!” I scream, slamming one fist through the drywall.
Pulling away from him, I turn on one foot and storm away, ducking back into the room where Cole is being treated.
“Ah yes, good timing, I just finished bandaging his wounds, I -”
“Then get the fuck out,” I interrupt.
“Excuse me?”
“I said get the fuck OUT!”
“I will… well I will give my report to Hannah,” the doctor says as he runs from the room with his tail between his legs, and I slam the door behind him.
Yeah you fucking do that.