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“It was all a lie.”
“I don’t understand.”
“A-and Grant…he’s not my dad.”
“Spencer, what are you saying?” his eyes darken and I can see the wheels turning. The confusion settling in as he absorbs my words.
I pause, not knowing how to proceed from here, it all sounds so damn crazy, I worry he will think I’ve lost my mind.
Gone mad.
“You ever heard of something called the Syndicate?” I ask.
“Vaguely, I know they control all of Silversun Valley. I don’t really know much about them though.”
“Yeah…” I trail.
“Spencer you’re not making sense.”
“Da- Grant, is a high ranking member of the Syndicate. So is Evan. E-Evan, he wasn’t my mom’s brother, he owned her. They owned her. Grant and Evan both. She fucked up and got pregnant when the Syndicate was preparing her for some sort of auction. My real dad, they killed him. The Syndicate was going to sell her, but in some sick twist of fate, Grant and Evan decided to keep her for themselves, and she played along to protect me. Apparently there was some deal, she only got to live a semi-normal life until I was an adult. But then she died…”
“Spe-“
“So the thing is Travis, with her gone… Evan owned me in her place. That’s why Grant never came to help. He didn’t care, he agreed to raise me like I was his, but I wasn't anything to him. I was… a transaction. Ultimately if I didn’t go to Evan, it would have been someone else.”
His eyes widen and he’s too stunned to speak. My stomach churns and I begin to worry that I’ve said all the wrong things. That I’ve opened up a can of worms and I can’t undo it.
“T-Travis please say something,” I whisper.
“It all makes sense now,” he murmurs.
“What does?”
“Everything. Spence the guy who was asking about you… he was hired by Grant Maddox.”
Jumping up, I fall from the bed and nearly leap out of my skin. “N-no.” I stammer. “H-he wants me back. I-I’m not. I have to…”
Travis jumps from the bed and wraps his arms around me. My heart is racing and a cold sweat pours down my face. “Stop. Stop you’re not going anywhere.”
“Th-that means he knows I’m here. He-he knows. I have to go. I have to hide,” I tremble and shake, trying to pull from Travis’s arms.
“Spencer, no. Stop. I can handle this. I can keep you safe.”
“No Travis! You don’t understand! If he finds me, they take me. You deal in drugs and guns and clubs… the Syndicate, they deal in people. Buying and selling bodies like property. I’m fucking property Travis. I c-can’t.”
My breathing speeds up and the room gets blurry. It feels like I’m being suffocated. Like there’s a pillow over my face. I’ve never felt this before, and I don’t know what it is, but it feels like I’m dying. A heart attack? It hurts, my fucking chest hurts.
My face is wet, but I’m not crying. Am I crying? My limbs are numb, and everything’s spinning.
“Spencer, Spencer.” I hear him but it’s like he’s at the other end of a long tunnel, and the tunnel is getting longer, we are drifting further apart.
I blink my eyes a few times and I can hear him again.
“Spencer breathe, breathe with me. Come on, slow. Inhale. Exhale. Come on.”
I try to follow his directions, feeling around me for something to hold on to. Fumbling until it registers that I’m holding onto him.
Slowly the room comes back into focus as I listen to his voice.