by Andrea Ring
I take her hand in mine. “I know that and I respect it,” I say. “I will do whatever it takes to be the guy you need. I’ll do anything. I love you, Tessa. And…I promised I’d always be honest with you. So I have something to tell you.”
Tessa raises an eyebrow.
“Olivia kissed me tonight.”
Tessa doesn’t move.
“And it startled me, and I wasn’t prepared for it, but I did kiss her back for like thirty seconds, and then I ended it, because all I could think about was you, that Olivia wasn’t you, and you are the only one I want.”
Tessa’s chest heaves, and a small cry splits her lips.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “So sorry. I have no excuse.”
A tear slides down the edge of her nose, and she swipes at it. “Don’t apologize,” she says. “The same thing happened to me tonight.”
“It did?”
“Except I was the one who started it.”
I stare at her, and she looks away.
“And I realized the same thing,” she says. “This guy wasn’t you. He didn’t have your nose, and he smelled funny, and he lapped at my mouth like he was licking an ice cream cone.”
I cringe. “Spare me the details, please.”
“Sorry.”
We finally look up at the same moment and lock gazes.
“God, I want to kiss you right now,” I whisper.
“Not with them,” she whispers back. “Not with their tastes in our mouths.”
“I don’t care,” I say. I lean forward and grab her shoulders and crush my chest to hers. “You are mine.” I tilt her head back and kiss her neck. Tessa shudders.
I strip her shirt over her head in one smooth motion and bite the swell of her breast. She gasps. I lick my way up to her ear.
“I still have to insist we get married first, because that is who I am and that is the guy you picked. But,” and I swirl my tongue along the rim of her ear, “on our wedding night, I am going to make you scream.”
Tessa moans. Then she grabs my head in her hands and kisses the life out of me.
“You do always keep your promises,” she says when we come up for air.
“I love you,” I say. “I love your smooshed-up mouth, and your up-turned nose, and your independent streak, and your sassiness, and your giggles, and your generous heart. I just love you.”
She puts her forehead to my chest. “You’re my hero, you know that? I feel like I won the cosmic lottery. All the girls have crushes on the mysterious, brooding Thomas Van Zandt.”
“I brood?”
She lifts her head. “You did at school,” she says with a smile. “And I look at you, and my whole body clenches. I could look at you for hours and never get tired of that face.”
“Don’t forget this body.”
“And you make me a better person. I want to be good for you, too. I want to be smarter and faster and stronger. I want you to be able to keep your head up high when you’re with me.”
“Don’t,” I say. “Don’t say that. I’m proud every moment I’m with you. I’m the lucky one, Tessa.”
“Really?” she whispers.
I smile. “So this means we’re back?”
She nods shyly. “But there’s something else I want to talk about.”
I lean back on my hands, an uneasy ache building in my chest. “Okay.”
“I talked to Sam today. He…he’s not coming back.”
I gape at her. “You’re not serious.”
“He’s pursuing adoption. He doesn’t want to raise Em.”
I sit up and clench my fists. “That cowardly little mother…how can he do this?”
“I don’t know. It’s horrible.”
“So our parents are going to have to pick up the slack,” I say, shaking my head. “They’re pushing fifty and have to be parents again. How’s your mom handling it?”
Tessa searches my face. “I haven’t told Mom yet, and I don’t think Sam’s told her, either, but Thomas, I was thinking…maybe we could adopt her.”
I almost say, You’re still in high school. I almost say, We’re not even married yet. I almost say, How will you finish school?
But I stare into Tessa’s Easter grass eyes, and I see her lip tremble ever so slightly, and I say the only thing there is to say: “Yes.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tessa and I wake early with Em. Tessa goes to make a bottle, and I head for the crib. When I pick the baby up, something inside me shifts. I am no longer just an uncle. Em isn’t just my niece. Now, she might be my daughter.
I could be a dad. Her dad.
I feel a piece of my heart open up and swell.
I have another person I need to be good for.
Daddy’s not coming back.
I twist around, searching for the voice that just spoke. It’s like a ghost just whispered in my ear.
No one’s there.
Daddy’s never coming back.
I turn again. What the hell is going on?
I look down at Em, nestled in my arms. She meets my eye. Daddy’s gone.
I blink.
“Em, are you talking to me?”
She nods.
Can you hear me? I think to her.
She nods again.
Holy crap, this baby’s talking to me in my head!
“What a cool trick,” I say to her. “Can you hear all my thoughts?”
No, she thinks. Only if you want me to.
Good, I think to myself.
“You’re right, Em,” I say. “I don’t think Daddy’s coming back. I’m so sorry.”
She doesn’t think anything else, at least not that I can hear.
“But I’m here, and Tessa’s here, and Grandma and Grandpa will be here for you. We love you very much.”
And I can meet Jack, she thinks.
“You know about Jack?” I ask.
She’s your sister and everyone was worried about her. She’s coming back.
“She is,” I say. “I don’t know when, but she’ll definitely come to meet you soon.”
Now, Em thinks.
“Not now,” I laugh. “I’ll ask her to come by this weekend.”
No, she’s here now, and we both turn our heads to the sound of a knock on the door.
***
How the hell did Em know that? Raising Em is definitely going to be a trick—she’s so psychically enhanced that no one will be able to get anything past her.
I hear Tessa’s steps on the wood floor as she goes to the door.
“Let’s get you changed so you can meet Aunt Jack,” I say. Em squirms with a smile, and I quickly change her diaper and put her in a fresh onesie.
I can hear them talking.
“Jack!” Tessa says. “It’s so good to see you. We were so worried! Oh. Tyrion.”
Oh, boy. Tyrion’s here, too. Tessa won’t be too thrilled about that.
“Tessa, please let Tyrion explain. He’d like to talk to both of you,” Jack says.
“It’s not a good time,” Tessa says. “We’re babysitting for my brother, and we really should get going—”
“We can arrange a more convenient time,” I hear Tyrion say, “but this is important to Jack. If there is any way you can make room in your schedule for us now, it would be greatly appreciated.”
Tessa sighs. “Okay, come in. Let me get Thomas.”
More hurried footsteps, then Tessa pokes her head in. “Jack’s here. And Tyrion.”
I fasten the last button and pick Em up. “You okay with that?”
Tessa shrugs. “Do I have a choice?”
“Yes, actually.”
She sighs again. “Let’s hear what he has to say, but I’m not holding my tongue. I’m gonna tell him exactly what I think of his experiments.”
I kiss her cheek. “I’d expect nothing less.”
Tessa holds her arms out and takes Em from me. She plugs the bottle in Em’s mouth and says, “Let’s go.”
We find Jack and Tyrion standing awk
wardly in the living room.
“You really need some fireplace tongs,” Jack says to me. “I know you’re going for the minimalist look, but the fireplace is completely bare.”
I grin. “I guess I could use a couch, too.” Then I launch myself at her and hug tight. “You’re a jerk, you know that?” I whisper into her hair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers back, pulling away gently. “But I have to admit, it’s nice to know someone worried about me.”
I punch her playfully on the arm.
Jack looks over at Tessa. “So this is Sam’s baby?” Tessa nods. “She’s beautiful.”
“Would you like to hold her?”
Jack hesitates. “I’ve never held a baby before.”
“It’s easy,” Tessa says, moving to Jack. “Just be sure to support her head. Like this.” She hands Em over, and Jack cradles Em to her chest, trying to keep the bottle in her mouth without dropping her. Tessa assists until Jack gets situated.
“Wow,” Jack breathes. “Look at her little tiny nails, and her little tiny eyelashes, and…look, Tyrion.”
Tyrion looks. “May I?” he asks Tessa. Tessa stiffens. “I am quite good with babies.”
Tessa looks appalled. “No, you won’t touch her. Why don’t you say what you have to say so you can leave?”
“Emmaleth would like me to hold her,” he says.
“What the hell makes you think that?” Tessa asks.
“She told me.”
Tessa looks at me. “Is he crazy?”
“Uh, Tessa,” I fumble, “I haven’t had the chance to tell you this, but it seems Em can think to you in your head and hear what you think back to her.”
“Huh?”
“Jack, give Em back to Tessa.”
Tessa takes Em and looks at me. “Think to her,” I say. “Think a question and wait for the answer.”
Tessa focuses on Em, and they have a silent conversation.
“How is this happening?” Tessa finally whispers. “How?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “but I’ll take her to the lab this week and we’ll run some tests.”
“No!” she says sharply. “No way. I don’t want anyone to experiment on her!”
“We would never experiment on her,” I say, glaring at Tyrion, who stares right back. “It will just be like a check-up, to make sure everything’s growing normally.”
Tessa turns her head suddenly back to Em. Then, a deep frown on her face, she walks over to Tyrion. “She would like to speak to you,” Tessa says.
Tyrion nods once and takes Em in his arms. They pace around the room, communicating. At some point, Em puts her hand on Tyrion’s cheek.
“Sam’s in for it,” Jack says, watching Tyrion. “That one’s gonna wrap him right around her little finger.”
Tessa sighs loudly and sits on the floor. I plop down next to her. “So what did you want to talk to us about, Jack?”
Jack lowers herself to the floor in front of us. “A few things. First, I have to apologize for worrying all of you. I didn’t know you’d make the connection, Thomas. I never meant for it to turn out that way.”
I frown. “Wait. You knew that guy might be the murderer?”
“That’s why I befriended him,” she says. “I shouldn’t have told you so much. You’re more smarter than I thought.” She grins at me.
I don’t grin back. “How could you put yourself in that position?” I bellow. “You could have been killed!”
“Nah,” she says, waving a dismissive hand. “I was pretty sure he only killed with a purpose. And I knew Tyrion was monitoring me.”
“You knew he could sense your mood?”
“Of course,” she says. “He told me all about his abilities. And when he told me what went down at Morula, I knew I had to get him out of the Attic. I couldn’t let Dad and Dacey imprison him.”
I leap to my feet. “What? You’re telling me you orchestrated this whole crisis so that Tyrion could escape?”
Jack looks up at me. “Not the whole crisis. My car really did break down, and my phone really died. I could have gotten in touch sooner, but I knew I needed an excuse for Tyrion to come get me.”
“You’re…you’re…aiding the enemy!” I shout.
“Thomas, Tyrion is not the enemy. That’s what we want to explain to you.”
“Then explain it,” I say. “Explain it now before I throw you both out.”
Jack twists her head to look over at Tyrion. “Babe? You almost done?”
Babe?
Tyrion smiles down at Em and looks over at us. “Yes.” He kisses Em’s forehead and gives her back to Tessa, who holds her tight and with complete awe.
“It is an odd tale, and a long one, so I will try to sum it up.” He sits gracefully on the floor beside Jack and stretches his legs out in front of him. “I told you, Thomas, that I wished to have a companion. My abilities were growing by leaps and bounds, and though I am a true Dweller and can grow cells in the central nervous system as you do, I could not grow anything extraneous. My body rejected those cells. So I turned outward, to try to grow a companion in a dish. My efforts proved quite fruitless.”
He leans back, propping himself on his arms.
“My laboratory partner, he discovered the germs of my experiments one day, and he asked me about them. I demurred, made excuses, disposed of the cells he brought to me for explanation. I decided that my experiments were too risky to conduct at Morula, and resolved to continue them at the Attic, if Dacey ever recovered. I decided to dispose of all of my false starts.
“But when I went to dispose of them, several were missing. I questioned my partner. He claimed to know nothing about the samples I spoke of. So I moved on to other things.
“Four months later, I discovered several babies in that laboratory, the one you found, Thomas. I was appalled, and also, I admit, in awe of the science. My partner simply said the babies were the result of cloning experiments, and after stem cells were harvested, they would be adopted out to deserving families. I was not allowed to work with the babies, and I took his words at face value.
“I was working on longevity and life span, hoping to find a way to save Dacey and your father, and eventually us. I requested stem cells, and I received them. After running tests…I found the stem cell donors were genetically related to me. I had been experimenting on myself, and needed cells compatible in certain ways with my own tissue…well, the truth came out. In essence, I am the father of every single one of those babies.
“How I came to work in the lab with them…it is a sordid tale, and one I am not proud of. I had to blackmail Morula and several people working there. I had been doing everything I could to keep the children from further harm and to eventually find them homes. But the babies are Dwellers, and I knew they could not be placed with average people. I knew that secrecy was vital. I did not want my origins and the secrets of the Attic to come out.
“When you altered your DNA, Thomas, I knew I had an opportunity. I wanted to show the positive things that had come from Morula’s research, and to also find a way to free the babies. I was going to show you the lab and ask that we consult with your father together. Unfortunately, I never got that chance.”
I glare at him. “So why did you defend yourself so adamantly at the Attic?” I ask. “If you knew the research was ethically wrong, why defend it?”
“I do not believe the research is ethically wrong,” he says. “I believe we should know how to clone a human being. We should be using stem cells to thwart disease and decay.”
“But should you be cloning human babies for lab specimens?” Tessa asks Tyrion.
He bows his head. “No.”
“But you did it! You participated!” she says. “Why didn’t you blow the whistle the minute you found out?”
“Because the babies were not the only people who needed protection,” Tyrion says. “If I had called the authorities, it would have come out that that the babies are Dwellers. It would have come out that I am genetical
ly similar to them, and then my background would have been pursued, which would have led right back to the Attic and the rest of the Dwellers. Many people could have been harmed. I believe I made the right choice.”
Tessa puts on her stubborn face. “Then why didn’t you go to Michael and ask him for help?”
“As I said, I planned to do just that. But I wanted a bit of time with the babies.”
“You could have a lifetime with the babies,” Tessa says, and Tyrion shakes his head.
“No. In the lab.”
Tessa clenches her jaw and looks at me.
I give her a small, pleading smile, but Tessa looks away.
“Imagine this,” Tyrion says. “You still have your disease, and time is running short. You discover a baby lab at work and immediately call Michael to tell him to rescue the babies. You quit work and give the boss a piece of your mind. Great.
“You clear out your desk and cannot find a book you own. One of your colleagues borrows the book on occasion, so you go to his work space to retrieve the book, and on his desk you see it: The Huntington’s Cure. You know the cure was developed using those babies, but it is right THERE, so you grab it on your way out. Are you a horrible person?”
“Yes,” Tessa says emphatically.
“What if it was not the Huntington’s Cure, but the Cure for Any Disease Ever Developed? Do you take it then? You know your lab is about to be shut down forever. Do you take it?”
Tessa smooshes her mouth. “I don’t know.”
Tyrion sits up. “I do. I do know, because this was the position I was in. I knew the research was not going to see the light of day, and yet it could help millions of people. How could I turn my back on that?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers.
“I am a good person,” he whispers back. “But I admit that I was made differently. I do not have patience for the rule of law and the legal system as most do. If someone hurts me or the people I love, I will take them out, and I will not lose a moment’s sleep over it.”
Tessa frowns. “What do you mean?”
“My lab partner will pay for what he has done. Yes, I value the research, but his methods are inexcusable. The whole thing could have been done much more delicately, but no matter. He will not be doing it again.”