Redeemed by Bridget E. Baker

Author:Bridget E. Baker [Baker, Bridget E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781949655049
Publisher: Purple Puppy Publishing

Chapter 12

“This paper is a lie. The suppressant wasn’t changed for sugar pills, for one thing. I demand to see her.” I slam my hand down on the paper. “Aunt Anne would never write that. If she caused the suppressant failure like this says, why would she freak out when she found out about it? And why come rushing back to try and save them? It’s clearly fabricated and it makes no sense.”

“Guilt does strange things to people,” Mr. Fairchild says. “She told me she exchanged the suppressant because the Marked kids were slowly starving. That's exactly the reason my Wesley got Marked, you know. His big heart saw a starving girl and tried to help. But when your aunt saw those starving children, and realized some were having babies, babies that would perpetuate this horrifying cycle, she felt guilty. Or she fled because she was overcome with shame and used that fictitious purpose as a pretense.”

I shake my head. “She wouldn't have changed the suppressant without telling anyone. She's not devious. She would have explained her reasons to the Council.”

“Not devious? She held on to her brother’s journals all these years without sharing that she even had them,” John Roth says. “She never told you the truth about your father or your mother.”

I frown. He's right. Uncle Dan pulls out a chair and sits down, his face downcast. Something doesn’t add up, but I can’t think what.

John Roth pats my shoulder. “Sometimes we least understand the people we love the most.” He glances at his son.

I shy away from his hand because he's wrong. I know my aunt, and she didn’t do this.

“I'm not trying to hurt you,” John Roth says. “I love your aunt too. She's a good person. These are terrible times we live in. I heard from your uncle that you survived quite an ordeal down in Galveston, and then to be captured by the Marked and locked up again? You must be exhausted.”

I pull out a chair and plonk down in it, my eyes still transfixed by the alleged confession. He's right though, I am exhausted. Maybe I'm not as rational as I should be.

“You should be back there now,” John Roth says. “In Galveston, where you can actually do some good. My son can go with you and keep you safe as I hear he's done several times in the past few weeks.”

“You want me to take Sam and go back to WPN? Actually go back down to rule as their queen?”

John Roth shrugs. “They have resources, tools, and advanced tech that we've lost the capability to reproduce and maintain. It could be quite the positive partnership, to work with them instead of against them. Cooperation between us could change an awful lot of lives among the Unmarked for the better.”

A month ago I had no idea what Path to choose. I was literally collecting garbage and cleaning toilets in Sanitation. Now it's like I'm a prize mare, or even worse, a character from an insipid Jane Austen novel.

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