A Rose to Keep (The Society 1)

Six computer screens lined up one desk. I didn’t know how he could work with so much information, but he already sat at the screen, looking.

“I should have known you’d be here.”

“Yeah, well, desperate times call for desperate measures, Fred.”

Fred Arson, the son of a technology firm. It wasn’t a huge company, but it was making a lot of headway in computers. I was guessing when Fred took over, he was going to completely shock the world with his sense of direction. He understood computers more than he did people.

When we were younger, at a country club, he was considered an outcast. On the smaller side and certainly not packing, a bunch of guys decided he was the best kind of punching bag. With a last name like Arson, they wanted someone to take their aggression out on.

I was the savior in this story.

I didn’t like the weak being hurt. I didn’t know why. I came from a long line of men who enjoyed hurting those weaker, more vulnerable. It was the one part of my family’s DNA I didn’t have.

Saving Fred that day, and several other days after that, becoming like a personal bodyguard to him, had secured our friendship. Of course, we never went public with it at Fred’s request. His dad was power hungry, and he’d want any way to get a connection to us, certainly a Robinson with our media empire. We could propel him into a super company in a matter of articles.

Fred didn’t want our friendship to be used that way and I had to think he liked the secrecy of everything.

“Where are we at?”

“Hacking into Sian’s past is like attempting to get into like the best-secured prison or bank. They have so much firewall action. So many passwords. This secret society shit you told me about, you weren’t kidding.”

When I asked Fred to do this, I had to give him a warning of the kind of people he’d be dealing with. I told him for his own kind of protection. They would annihilate him if they felt he knew too much.

There were times I thought I was on the chopping block.

“I told you, it’s a tough world,” I said.

“No shit. So far, it’s like Sian Roberts didn’t exist until three years ago.”

“What?”

“We have her birth certificate, and all the necessary stuff. Hospital admission, and stuff like that. Her mother was in labor for close to two days. In fact, there was a period of time where she was in the ICU.”

“During her pregnancy?”

“After. It was a rough birth. Do you want to know what is also interesting?” Fred asked.

“Go on.”

“Her dad.”

I clicked my fingers, trying to think of his name. “Nope, sorry, I can’t think of his name.”

“Alexander Roberts.”

“Doesn’t have any significance.” I didn’t see where we were going with this. I knew Sian’s family tree. She had a mom and dad. That wasn’t what I wanted to know.

Fred held his finger up. “Wait for it.”

I looked at all six screens. “What am I looking for?”

On screen three, a picture came up.

I saw the image of the dorm we now lived in. I recognized all of our dads, but at the end, right next to Gideon’s father, was a man I didn’t recognize.

“That is Alexander Roberts.”

For some reason, my arms got chills. “So Sian’s dad had a connection to the Saintly Devils back then.”

“Yeah, but look at this.”

Fred typed again, and another picture popped up.

“That there is none other than Joan Roberts. Sian’s mother.”

Joan stood between all of our dads. Underneath the image was a single title, the selection.

I stood up. “Sian’s mother was our dads’ selected?”

“Yeah, and this is all top fucking secret, man. This took me two days to get. It’s like they try to keep the selected process a secret. Did you know none of these images can be found in a single All Saints history? I’ve checked their filed system and I even went to the library for the records. They are not there. These pictures were taken. They are stored in one of your dad’s files, and that’s not all. Within that same file are the years before and after of the selection process. All of them wrapped-up type. So, this got me curious, and I cross-referenced between the register of students within each building.” This time, Fred left the computer and went to his bed.

His room was so neat and tidy.

He pulled out an old-looking book. The spine was worn.

“I thought everything was put on computers now,” I said.

“Yeah, it usually is, but not everything.” Fred opened the book to where I saw a piece of paper sticking out of the top. He pointed to Joan’s name. “Sian’s mom is registered as living in the girls’ dorm for the entirety of her senior year.”

“But if she was a selected, her name would have had to go down as living with the Saintly Devils for safety purposes.”