Page 90 of Dissent

I nodded.

Wait…I could move my head! Not very well, but so much easier than before. I nodded again. “Yes, we can have peace.” Now the words were coming easily to me. My body was finally listening to me. “Please, Raúl.” I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking of my next words carefully, and then tried them. “Dad…please.” Raúl stiffened, his eyes glistening while the features of his face softened. The corners of his mouth tipped upward in a soft smile. He opened his lips to speak, but the voice I heard wasn’t his.

“There couldneverbe peace.” This voice, I knew. This voice sent chills down my spine as my brain kicked on my survival response. Because I knew exactly who that voice belonged to. And there was no scarier person on this earth. My eyes darted past Raúl to the dark corner of the library as I caught movement. And from the shadows, the familiar blonde locks and long elegant limbs that I recognized emerged. “Peace will come to Telvia when every last Subclass Sympathizer has been dealt with,” she said. “Starting withyou.”

At my father’s side, Belinda stood tall, beautiful, and deadly. The sight of her caused all the hairs on my arms to stand on end as a shiver traveled down my spine. Every muscle in my body wanted to run. But it was of no use. I didn’t have control of anything but my face so far.

Raúl set his gaze upon her. “Surely we can discuss this, my dear. Perhaps reeducation will help—”

Cutting his sentence short, she threw him a cool look. “I told you I didn’t want her. I told you from the very beginning, but you forced her on me. You should have finished what you started,” she hissed at him. “How you ever thought that she could replace—” Belinda stopped short, covering her lips with her hand. Closing her eyes, she steadied herself, her features hardening. Then she set her cool, calculated gaze on my father once more. “She’ll betray you in the end, just likeshedid. Do what you should have done in the beginning. Do it…or I will.”

Raúl stiffened, his face grimacing in hurt and frustration. He looked from Belinda to me, his eyes lingering on my face. “There’s got to be a way—”

“Thereisno way!” Belinda shouted at him.

Raúl snapped, turning on her like a snake getting ready to strike. “I’mthe president here!”

Oh my god…I’d never in my life seen the two of them actually argue with one another. The interaction sparked a second glimmer of hope. Belinda glared at him, rolling her shoulders back as she brought herself up to her full height, but she remained silent. Raúl turned his attention back to me.

“Mara, I’m going to give you one last chance to show your loyalty to this family.One. You think long and hard before you speak your next words. Do you hear me?” The timbre of his voice came out quick and with force, and at the end of them, lied the threat.

I nodded my head softly, keeping my eyes on him the whole time.

“You will tell me everything you know about the Dissenters. Their names, their equipment, their locations…everything.” He took a step closer to me, lowering his face to mine. “Tell me everything, and I will forgive you for all your wrongdoings.”

“Raúl,” Belinda protested.

He ignored her. “Tell meeverything, and I promise you will have your place in this family. You will be treated as your brother is treated. I will personally guarantee that no one, including Belinda, will mistreat you again.”

Adrenaline pumped through my system. This was it—what I’d been wanting for my whole life—my opportunity to be somebody. To be wanted by this family, to be…loved. Here it was, finally being offered to me by my father, and all I had to do was say a few words. All I had to do was sayyes. It was so simple. So easy. I blinked, my eyes filling with tears as I looked at my father.

“Please, Mara. You’re my daughter. I will give you the life you should have received from the beginning. Speak…tell meeverything.” His words were soft this time, almost as though he were begging me. And my heart ached for him. It ached forme.It ached because this whole damn thing was so fucked up.

I blinked again, and this time, the tears cascaded down the side of my face softly. Was it so wrong to want to be loved? Was it so wrong to want to bewanted? To want afamily?

But I have a family…

The thought crossed my mind quickly, so fast I almost missed it.

I have a family.

They may not have been my blood, but they’d treated me more like family than anyone ever had, except for my brother. Then, their faces slipped into my mind. I saw Edith’s raven black hair and her infectious laugh. I saw Chelsea’s face of concern as she dodged to take a bullet for me at the facility. Wes’s scowl came next, followed by his infuriatingly confusing moments of vulnerability that made my heart pound and my stomach twist in the wildest way. And I saw Matias’s deep brown eyes, his sweet smile, and the love he clearly felt for me.

Theywere my family. Myrealfamily…and I couldn’t betray them.

I swallowed, pushing down the knot that had formed in my throat. The choice was clear to me, but I knew once I made it, it meantgame over.Because this time…this time I was going to think of someone else over myself. This time, I was going to choose them. But this time, there would be no running away. This time, I was going to have to pay the price for loving someone else over myself.

I took a deep breath, doing my best to steady my nerves, and then I let the word fall from my lips, firm and clear, “No.”

Raúl appeared frozen, and then something within him crumpled, collapsing in on itself, causing his shoulders to slump, his eyes to close, and his head to tilt down. Another second ticked by, then another, and on the third, he breathed in deeply. He straightened himself up, rolling his shoulders back as he drew himself to his full height. A look of resolve and hate filled his expression. He looked at Belinda, his gaze locking with hers, before he turned to face me.

Bending down low until he was looking me straight in the eye, our faces were only a foot away from one another. Without a single word, his hand pulled on the collar of my t-shirt, exposing my neck. Cool air kissed my flesh for a fraction of a second before Raul’s nails scraped my skin. My father’s hand jerked, and I felt the briefest tug before I heard the snap of the chain breaking. Eyes filled with deep-seated disappointment and grief, he stood up straight, holding up my necklace. The heart swayed, glinting with the light of the fire.

Then, my father said to me the words that would break any daughter’s heart. “You arenodaughter of mine.” He flung my heart into the flames, and I watched it melt into nothingness.

47: The Basement

Thebasement…Ifoundmyselfback in the one place I had been running from my whole life. The one place I did anything to avoid, would say anything—doanything—to keep myself from being locked in the dark again. My own personal hell. Here I was, hidden from the world—trapped. And I knew, I knew without a doubt, that I was doomed to die. Belinda would make sure of that. But it didn’t matter, anyway. I felt dead inside already.

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