Page 48

“Will you take a bite of that damn ice cream already?” Edith scolded, knocking me out of my head and back into the room.

I watched as the melted pool in my spoon dripped off, back into my cup. “It’s good, right?”

“Just shove it in there already!”

I snorted. “That’s what she said,” I got out with a wink before stuffing the spoon in my mouth.

An explosion of amazing flavor hit my palate. It was sweet, creamy, smooth, rich, and the blackish stuff was meltedchocolate!

“Oh my god!” I mumbled, stuffing more of the creamy goodness in my mouth. “Why didn’t you tell me it was so good?”

“I told you you would like it.”

“Yeah, but seriously…” I licked my spoon, trying to get the chocolate off. “It’s chocolate, right? I thought chocolate was rare or something?”

Edith chuckled as she took another bite of her own. “It’s imitation, actually. But it tastes almost as good as the real thing.”

“Wowies…” I took another bite, feeling the biting cold of the firmer ice cream encasing my tongue. “This is so much better than nourishment pills.”

Edith snorted. “Yeah, no shit.”

I laughed, turning my head to look out the window, and marveled at how the world went by without a care. No armed Enforcement officers marched the streets, no cameras positioned at every lamppost, no security checkpoints, or retinal scans every few miles. All I saw out the window was people living their lives freely. No fear.

“Telvia’s nothing like this.” The words slipped out, my thoughts being vocalized without me realizing it.

“Yeah…that’s why we’ve got to win.”

I said nothing. My vision blurred as I became lost in thought. The Dissenters had to win. I knew my reasons why Raúl needed to be stopped, and I also knew why I wasn’t going to stick around to see it done. And I knew Sasha’s reasons—she fought for power. I understood Matias’s loyalty to the cause and Chelsea’s. As orphans, they were children of this rebellion, raised by the Dissenters, making the rebels their only chance of survival. And I understood the Calvernons and their decision too. Wealth and power propelled them. But…I never understood Edith. Edith had both her parents, a billion siblings, and a quaint little farm away from the city. Why did Edith join the cause? What was her reason?

“Hey, Edith? Can I ask you something?” I turned to face her.

“What’s up?”

“Why did you become a Dissenter?” I didn’t expect the laughter to leave her face, or the somber look of grief to fill her eyes. She grew silent, eyes flickering as emotion passed through her. Did I say something wrong? “Edith?”

She put her spoon down and she sat up straighter in her chair, her gaze drifting off me as her hands settled in her lap. For thefirst time ever, I saw the glint of tears in her eyes. “I have my own reasons, okay?”

I swallowed. There was more here,a lotmore. And the fact that Edith didn’t want to talk to me about it had me worried. “Edith, come on. I’m your friend, remember? What aren’t you telling me?”

A grimace took over her face as the glimmer of a single tear streaked down her cheek. She stayed quiet, though, giving me the impression that she was calculating, weighing it out, deciding whether she wanted to divulge her secrets.

“Please,” I whispered. The irony that I was pushing her to tell me her secret when I had no intention of telling her mine was not lost on me. And I felt a little guilty about it.

She looked at me, the corners of her lips slipping into a frown before she cleared her throat. “A while ago, I lost my sister. She—” her voice cracked. She cleared her throat once more and tried again. “She was older than me, and our family didn’t have a lot of money. So she enlisted in the army to help support us. I wanted to join with her, but I was too young.” A weak smile came across her lips. “I always looked up to her, you know?”

A sinking filling slowly filled my belly. She took a deep breath as the smile faded from her face and the seriousness returned.

“Giza came to our home personally to tell us the news. He said that she had been on assignment, and her team was discovered by the REG. They were caught, and”—the furrow in Edith’s brows deepened, looking almost as though she was in pain—“and she disappeared.” She pressed her lips together as she turned to look out the window.

Oh no.

After a minute, Edith blew out a breath, still staring out the window. “My parents begged me not to enroll. But I was determined to find her. I enlisted, thinking maybe she was trapped somewhere, maybe I could find her, but…it was stupid.Stupid hope that she would still be alive.” She faced me then, gaze growing fierce and hard. “So now I’m in it to find the asshole that killed her. And I’ll stay until that person gets what they deserve.”

My heart ached for her, for what she lost. I knew how much I would give up, how much I had already sacrificed for Jacob. “I’m so sorry, Edith.”

She sniffed, quickly wiping away the moisture from her cheek. “Yeah, me too. Liddy was an amazing sister.”

I gave her a somber smile, which she returned before looking out the window. So, even Edith was driven by one of the four motivators Sasha told me about. Edith was in it for revenge.