“Everyone.” I was trying not to get riled up, but if what Laylen was saying was true, how could I not get upset? “Marco, Sophia…Alex.”
“Why would they do that,” Laylen mumbled. “Why would it make a difference whether you were one or if you were four?”
I was thinking the exact same thing. Why would it matter? And if I really had been four, why would I have no memories of my mom at all? Yeah, I know four is a little young and everything, but still…you’d think I’d be able to remember something about her. But nope. I couldn’t remember a single thing.
Laylen remained quiet, fiddling with his lip ring. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“You don’t need to apologize,” I reassured him. “It’s not your fault all of this happened.”
“It’s partly my fault.” He rubbed his forehead and let out a stressed sigh. “I knew what Stephan was planning to do to you, and I didn’t do anything to stop it.”
“You were like, what, eight when all this was going on. And besides,” I said, trying not to let any bitterness sneak into my voice, “it had to be done to me, right? I mean, so that the world could be saved and all that.”
“I don’t know.” He looked lost in thought. “Maybe, I guess.”
I wondered what he meant. Was there another reason why my emotions had been shut down? Or had it never been necessary for them to be shut down in the first place?
He tapped his fingers on the table, thinking. “Gemma, what exactly have they told you about you?”
I gave him a quick recap of everything Alex had told me while he’d been stitching me up. I also told him about the things I’d pick up on myself; the list I’d found back at Marco and Sophia’s, and the bizarre vision thingy I’d been pulled into back at the fieldtrip. I even told him about the prickly sensation. I poured my heart and soul out. It felt really good too, like an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders. However, there was one thing I never mentioned. The electricity. That detail I just didn’t feel like explaining. It was too complicated…and to personal.
After I’d finished yammering Laylen’s ear off, he stayed silent for awhile, and I started to worry that maybe I’d bored him to death or something.
But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he said, “I don’t even know what to say Gemma. I’m so sorry,”
That’s when I realized I hadn’t been boring him to death at all. He’d just been being a good listener and taking in what I was telling him. I was so use to being the quiet one and never talking, that when it came to being the one getting listened to, I was completely clueless.
“I didn’t realize how bad things were for you,” Laylen continued. “You know what I find strange is that Stephan made this big plan to seclude you from everyone to keep you from feeling, but I never thought the plan would actually work. I mean, how can you force a person to become emotionally detached?”
“Alex told me it was because if you raised a person to never know what things like happiness and sadness and love are, then they wouldn’t know how to feel them. And it was working well too. That is, until a couple of months ago when I suddenly snapped out of it.”
“But if Alex’s little theory is true, then why would you all of a sudden start to feel?” He paused. “And why would they lie to you about how old you were when you went to live with Marco and Sophia? It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe so I wouldn’t try to remember my mother.” I suggested. I mean, it made sense; them telling me I hadn’t been old enough to remember her so that I wouldn’t try to. Still, I wasn’t entirely convinced. They’d created such a tangled maze of lies, who the heck knew what was true and what wasn’t. I did know one thing, though. Getting the truth out of Alex seemed impossible. The guy could lie like no other.
“I guess that could be why, but it still doesn’t explain why you suddenly started to feel.” He brushed his blue tipped bangs off of his forehead and sighed. “Gemma, regardless of what Alex tells you, Stephan can’t be trusted.”
“How come?” But really, did I even have to ask. Stephan was, after all, Alex’s father.
“Well, there’s been a lot of things Stephan’s done that are questionable. One of the worst, though, was when you’re mother disappeared.”
My heart thumped loudly in my chest. “What do you mean, she disappeared. I-I thought she died?”
“Well, that’s what Stephan told everyone.” He scooted his chair in closer so that we were practically huddled together. “Right after she went missing, I overheard my parents talking about how Jocelyn had this huge fight with Stephan over you. She didn’t want to give you up, and from what I understand, she was going to make a run for it. When she did, Stephan went looking for her, but when he came back, he only had you. He told everyone he couldn’t find Jocelyn anywhere. The Keepers searched for her and everything, but no one ever found a single clue as to what could have happened to her. After awhile, they just assumed she died.”
Blood howled inside my ears. “They just assumed she died? How can anyone just assume someone died?”
“Mysterious deaths are very common in the Keepers world because we are constantly encountering so many dangerous things.”
“But do you think she died?”
He shook his head. “And neither did my parents. I only heard bits and pieces of their conversations, but from what I understood, my parents didn’t believe Jocelyn just up and died. And they had their suspicions that one of the Keepers might have played a part in her disappearance.”
“And you think its Stephan,” I said, feeling like I might throw up. My mom hadn’t just died in a car accident. My mom had disappeared. And someone might have made her disappear.
“I can’t say for sure because I don’t have any proof but….” He twisted his lip ring back and forth. “Okay, this is what I know about Stephan. First, he is very power hungry, and he likes to be in control of things all times. If anyone gets in the path of what he wants, he’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of them. And because he’s the leader of the Keepers, no one questions the decisions he makes.”
“So you think that he might have gotten rid of my mom so he could have control over me and the star’s power.” My voice sounded strangely off pitch.