Chapter 84

The senator and his men raced away. Have fun with your freedom, I thought. It won’t last long.I sat back. I looked at my friends. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Todd sat down next to me, his arm around my shoulder. “You’re kind of hot when you’re like that.” He grinned. “Scary, but hot.”

Doug grimaced. “Yuck.”

Craig nodded. “Yeah, what he said.”

To which Simon added, “I vote for the scary thing.”

I sighed. I sighed again. “I think I always knew they were dead,” I said. “I didn’t feel them…” I touched my chest. “In here.” I looked up at Simon. “You were trying to protect me.” He nodded. I looked over at Craig. He nodded as well. “Tell me,” I said. “Tell me what you were protecting me from.”

Simon sat across from me, Doug next to him, Craig next to him. We were in a circle. I felt the love again, felt it in my chest, the place where I couldn’t feel my birth parents. It was as if my newfound family was filling the void.

Simon nodded. “Your parents were scientists in Georgia.”