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by Marit Weisenberg

  Novak looked the part of the relaxed billionaire in his dark jeans, Lanvin sneakers, and cashmere hoodie. He seemed distracted, but when he took a seat across from me and looked up, it was like he had cleared a slate to focus on me completely. I felt like he’d be able to see in my eyes every incredible thing I’d done tonight.

  It made me want to crawl out of my skin. I didn’t want his attention. I felt like I didn’t know this person anymore. If I ever had. I’d learned he was the ultimate chameleon. I was aware of every second that ticked by until Novak spoke.

  “I wanted to touch base with you before we left.” Novak began swiveling in his chair, back and forth, back and forth, like he hadn’t a care in the world. I realized I was getting the Novak who played the role of charismatic leader and kind father, his eyes now light and sparkling. The only sign that he was agitated was the deep scratches he was etching into the marble tabletop with his thumbnail.

  “No need to panic, baby.” Novak laughed. “You’re here because I wanted to give you this.” He took something gold off the desk and walked over to me. Looking more closely at what was dangling from his hand, I realized it was a necklace identical to the one Liv was wearing.

  “May I?” Without waiting for an answer, Novak bent low, draped it around my neck, and deftly clasped it. Hairs raised on the back of my neck as his fingers brushed my skin.

  “What is it?” I asked, wishing I didn’t have to talk.

  “It’s our original gold from Peru. We’ve been without a home for over a century now. This is a reminder of who we are and where we came from. It’s traveled with us all these years.”

  I touched the gold chain and the pendant, the nugget of gold. “Why are you giving it to me?”

  He sat back down across from me on the other side of his desk. “I know what you overheard earlier. I brought you here to reassure you that you have a place in this family. At eighteen it’s become clear you have more of our traits than theirs. After months at that school and staying in line, you’ve proved yourself to everyone.”

  I’d been on display. I’d always felt different, but I hadn’t known I was being watched all these years while they waited to see how I would turn out.

  “I know how frustrating it must have been to have these spurts that add up to nothing without training. And I know it was hard to watch your abilities dissipate. My plan has always been to teach you, once we reach the new place, exactly what to do with the gifts you have.”

  “My remaining gifts?” I asked in a neutral voice.

  Novak didn’t like the question. “It’s a large responsibility to carry on our legacy. Not everyone will always agree with how the leader chooses what’s best for our survival.” Novak wouldn’t even make apologies for what he’d done to me and the Lost Kids. He seemed so confident I wasn’t a threat, that the school had been just the place where he could diminish my skills at the precise moment when I’d shown the most potential. He believed I worshipped him and this family so much that I hadn’t dared overreach, that I’d sat at that school and let my potential ebb away. He had no idea I’d managed to attain control over my abilities without one shred of his guidance.

  “Who was she?” I asked, surprising myself. I’d wanted to hear this from him my whole life.

  The only sign of a reaction was a slowing in his near-violent swiveling motion. He’d had time to think about his response. “I mistook her for someone she wasn’t. I also learned very quickly that life outside is nothing compared with this. This family and what it means is bigger than any individual desire I may have had. I don’t belong just to myself.”

  So that was all he would tell me about her: nothing. Lati had given me more.

  Silence hung between us. “When I was a baby, why did you take me?” I asked, not liking how small and confused my voice sounded.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Novak said bluntly, and I saw the veil slip.

  Novak stood up and looked out the window, no longer wanting to face me. Finally he said, “She fell in with the wrong people. It was dangerous for you to stay.”

  “So you never wanted me here,” I said flatly. I’d been forced not only on the entire group but on Novak as well.

  He continued to stare out the window. “It’s been a challenge. Each Relocation, the past almost vanishes. It’s like a part of us is supposed to die so we can enter the new life completely. But here you’ve been, a constant reminder for me of a youthful mistake. You look almost exactly like her.”

  “Why are you bringing me, then?” I didn’t know why I was pushing him.

  “Thankfully I was able to pass enough of our genes on to you. We’re the last Puris, Julia. It is a beautiful, sacred legacy. When we complete Relocation, things will be different for you. That’s all I will ever say about that again. Do you understand?” Novak said, indicating the conversation about my mother was closed forever.

  My whole life I’d been running alongside them, hoping they’d take me, and now I’d been officially accepted by Novak himself, not merely tolerated. My future, my life, was guaranteed. I would learn the secrets. I would have to conceal some of my abilities, but that wasn’t anything new. I should have been relieved that I’d earned my place after all these years.

  I didn’t move. “Where are we going?” I’d heard rumors for months, and bits of information from Liv, but I wanted confirmation from him.

  “For your own safety only a few people know the geographic location. You’ll go downstairs and take a sedative, and when you wake up you’ll think you’ve arrived in Eden.” I could tell from the arrogance in his voice, Novak was very, very proud of himself and what he would reveal to everyone.

  “Where we’re going—can we leave?”

  “No,” he said, simply, then immediately sensed my fear. “Don’t worry. Once you’re there, you won’t want anything else again. It will be back to how it was before our people were discovered—no conflict, no suffering. We can focus on our gifts. That shared enlightenment is so beautiful, Julia. The energy radiating from the group—it can light an entire room. Even if it’s not exactly the same for you, you’ll be living in a better place.”

  There was a knock. “Novak!” someone barked from outside the door, clearly anxious at Novak’s leisurely pace. It was like he was continuing to resist the timetable Angus had put him on.

  “Excuse me one moment,” Novak said, formally. He walked out swiftly, leaving me alone. I sagged back into the chair.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of myself in a large mirror hanging behind Novak’s desk. I turned my head to see myself. I did look exactly like the woman in the picture, only my features fit this family’s now. Aquiline, symmetrical. My eyes were unreadable. Like Novak said, I had enough of them in me.

  I remembered the moment in the bathroom at John’s house when I’d stared at myself in the mirror. I’d looked so different then, like a girl I didn’t know. My features had been softer, my cheeks flushed. Mostly I remembered how my eyes had looked. Alive.

  I still had my phone. An oversight.

  Any second someone would walk in. It would be my last rebellion. Quickly I stood and turned my back to the door, scrolling through the phone, hoping I could find the one picture I wanted to see.

  I’d taken it through the picture window of the library, capturing John outside in the gold light of a fall afternoon. He was sitting on a bench, head barely turned, just the hint of his profile showing. I’d caught him in this fleeting moment—young and beautiful, waiting for me. One minute later I’d gone out, we’d had a brief conversation, and then we’d said good-bye. This was how he would always be in my mind, frozen in time.

  I panicked, and my eyes flitted back to the mirror. This time they landed on the necklace. I touched it gently, wanting to feel the connection to my family and confirm my role in this line, hoping it would tell me that all the possibilities that lay outside the walls of this house paled in comparison with what this move represented.

  And then I had the s
ensation of bright, enveloping energy Novak had just described, that same feeling I had the first day I read John’s mind.

  It flowed through my entire body, and I just knew. It was more than the bliss I was capable of feeling when I was with the group. In that moment it was like I knew the answer to every question I’d ever asked. It was a glimpse of enlightenment.

  I understood the pain of defecting, the reality of never seeing the group, my people, again. I also knew I couldn’t look in the mirror again and be half myself. I couldn’t pretend that there wasn’t a whole other world besides ours and that I was only as powerful as Novak allowed me to be.

  It had built to this over time. It had happened little by little. In the end it took just one second, and I was no longer the same person who had entered this room.

  I love you, I texted. I needed him to know right then. Just in case.

  Before I could turn off the phone, it vibrated in my hand.

  I stared at the words on the screen.

  I’m here. Outside the gate.

  I heard a stirring in the hall and whisked my phone into my back pocket. Novak walked back into the room.

  “Apparently everyone downstairs is growing impatient.” He perched on the edge of his desk and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, painfully unhurried.

  I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything, praying he would ask me to leave his office. But Novak was acting like he had more business with me. My mind was outside, on the person who was far too close. I noted uneasily that all four orchids in the room were dead, the formerly white petals now brown.

  “Sit back down for one more moment, Julia.” Novak gestured for me to sit. Dying from fear and anxiety, I carefully sat down on the very edge of the hard chair.

  Novak continued, “Needless to say, my timeline has been rudely altered. Now it’s extra important that you be an example. After we arrive, I want everyone to see what a close approximation you are to us.” He paused. “You have a distinct role to play, but you need to be sure you can do this. You need to let Angus go.”

  Novak looked deep in my eyes, “If you think you’re capable of doing this for me, everyone will be less resistant to my vision for our future. Everything will go smoother the next time the opportunity presents itself. I’ll be going in and out for a time, since I’m the one who seems to draw them.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re eighteen now and you’re my daughter, so I’m going to trust you. You know I’ve had visions of outsiders joining us, but one in particular has come into focus. He was the whole reason we’ve been waiting. And then that little shit Angus…I was so close. I could feel it the same way I predict everything else. It was supposed to take place soon. We were going to hear him here.” Novak touched his forehead.

  “Liv or I—one of us was going to hear this person’s thoughts and know he had the potential to become one of us completely. Everyone would finally understand how we might survive. But now we have to leave.” Novak stood up from the desk in disgust.

  It took me a beat to fully realize what he was saying. What that said about me. And what that said about John. We had been waiting for him. The key player Novak needed for the final Relocation was the person waiting for me just outside the property. I was the one who had brought him to us. I was the one who had carried out Novak’s prediction—the least likely person in Novak’s mind. Liv had been right. She was the only one who’d seen it.

  Novak suddenly looked at me. “Did you hear anyone’s thoughts? Before you went to that school?”

  Truly my father’s daughter after all, I felt a mask descend over my entire body, shielding my emotions completely. “No.” I shook my head. I felt very scared and kept still, watching to see if I could untangle our fates.

  Novak shook his head like it had been a crazy idea that I could do something so incredible. “It was Angus. By breaking the rules he interfered with my vision and he altered the course. We need other people to continue our species, but this person was special. He was key to the growth of my direct line. He was meant for Liv.”

  By chance or fate, I was the daughter who had found John. It was in my hands. I wouldn’t hand over his life to Novak. He’d been wrong about my mother, and people would think he’d been wrong again. Novak would never know. He underestimated me too completely.

  Novak seemed to grow calm. “It will happen.” Then he gave me a quick kiss on the top of my head. “Apparently I’ve got to go. And so do you. I’ll see you there?” He didn’t wait for my answer. I watched Novak’s lanky body stride to the door and exit into the hallway, leaving me alone in his office.

  I waited for a moment. I knew exactly what to do. Very slowly and methodically, I unclasped the necklace and placed it on the tabletop. Walking behind Novak’s desk, I automatically unlocked the tall window to the left and exited onto the fire escape that lay in wait, as if this moment had already been written.

  Once I was outside I started moving quickly, knowing every second mattered. I flew down the metal staircase, trying to keep a light step. I got to ground level, now almost entirely illuminated in the pinkish light of morning. Head down, my heart beating out of my chest, I needed to make it to John on the other side of the gate. I rapidly walked through damp grass to the side gate. When I crossed back into the safety of the shadows, I looked up at the house in spite of myself.

  Through the glass wall the living room faintly glowed and I saw the entire family together, on display. Some adults were milling around, some draped across furniture. I saw my friends gathered in a corner, heads together—the kids I’d been with my whole life. I was breaking my promise to Angus. The Lost Kids were now on their own.

  I felt someone watching me and looked up, my breath catching. Liv stood at the office window.

  Our eyes met. Liv turned her head—as if about to call out to someone—but then she stopped herself. Frozen, I couldn’t break her gaze, not knowing what she was going to do.

  Then, very slowly, Liv lifted her hand and gave me the smallest wave good-bye. She would let me go. I stood there memorizing her, the other love of my life, for just one more moment, knowing I was breaking a promise to her most of all.

  It was hard to believe this was the last time I would ever see her. I gave a small wave back, willing Liv to know how much I loved her. I broke eye contact first and walked away.

  I had to let her go. If I didn’t put this vanishing world behind me, I wouldn’t be able to save myself and another person I loved.

  I grew more nervous the closer we got. I knew John could feel my fear when I gave him the code to the gate. I wasn’t sure if it would work, or if I should even have been coming back to this house.

  John’s parents, thinking my family had fled the country before the SEC formally charged Novak, had gone into protective-teacher mode, wanting to help me as if I were one of their at-risk students. They tried to tell me I should go to Chicago with them for Christmas, or at least stay at their house. I told them first I had to see if I still had a home. Rationally I knew that my family was long gone, but of course a tiny part of me wondered if anything was waiting for me here.

  The glass house was absolutely silent. For a moment I wanted not to go in, just to turn around and drive away. I used another passcode to open the front door and didn’t turn to look at John when that code worked as well. I couldn’t look at him. I was too scared.

  I felt John watch me for a moment. Then he walked through the doorway first, reaching his hand out for mine. I took it and entered, quickly turning off the alarm.

  Absolutely everything was gone. No furniture. No pictures. No carpets. Completely empty and professionally cleaned. They’d had it swept of any trace of them. John and I stood in the entrance and stared.

  “It’s true,” I said. “They made it like it never, ever happened.”

  “How did they do this so quickly?” John asked.

  I didn’t answer; I just started walking upstairs. All the family photos were gone from the hallw
ay.

  When we got to the door of my bedroom, I paused before opening it. All I had now were the clothes I was wearing. I expected nothing to be there. No trace left of my childhood. The last time I’d been in there, I’d been with Liv. That already felt like it belonged to a different lifetime.

  I opened the door, and we were both taken aback to see furniture in this room. The only room in the house. They had wanted their DNA removed from the house, but I was on my own. The room was untouched since the last time I’d been in here, the white throw pillows from the window seat on the floor where Liv had tossed them.

  John walked over to the bed and stood staring at it.

  He was looking at the gold necklace, deliberately laid out on my pillow. Someone—Liv, Novak—had put it there for me. I had needed to leave it. It didn’t feel like my birthright. Why didn’t they take it?

  “What are they trying to tell you?”

  “I’m not sure.” I didn’t like it and I didn’t want it, but I assumed it was a parting gift. I was banking on Novak being relieved I’d left, that I’d shown my true colors and, heartbroken, had gone after Angus. I was also counting on him fulfilling his goals far from John and me. I didn’t want my family to die away, but John wasn’t the answer. Liv hadn’t read his mind; I had. And if he was meant for me instead of Liv—well, we could see how that played out in John’s world, not in Novak’s.

  I didn’t want to touch the necklace, but I quickly picked it up and put it in my pocket, then turned to face John. I took a huge breath and exhaled.

  “You okay?” he asked, concerned but not overbearing. He always seemed to respond to me just the right way, like he could read me.

  “I’m really good.” I still couldn’t believe he’d come for me. I smiled thinking about the moment we finally gave in to this connection between us.