But even though I choose to stay and reside outside of the privileged class, I’m still subjected to the expectations of high society. I belong to them in their eyes and they won’t let me go. There’s no escaping into the night. They’d hunt me down.
I’m expected to marry an elite, and of course it would be an elite of their choosing. Someone who matches my background and who can give them more elite children. My plan, when I accepted the scholarship, was to infiltrate and change the system from the inside out. With nonviolence measures. I wanted to learn how to heal people and take my skills to my side as well.
But that plan isn’t working. I’m a highly respected nurse at the main for-profit hospital. And now I’m about to be fully immersed in elite society with a husband, permanent residency and a baby that they’ll pretend is my new husband’s progeny. The thought steals the breath right out of my lungs.
The Regime and its followers are good at denying the truth, so as long as babies are born after a wedding, the groom is the father. And thousands if not millions of biological fathers go on with their lives in ignorance.
I will never want anyone but Owen. He’s my soulmate.
But I can’t dare return not knowing what might follow me to his doorstep.
Chapter Fourteen
Owen
Something’s wrong. I can feel it all the way down to my bones. I’m pacing like a caged animal, and I can’t wait any longer. I have to get my own eyes on her and make sure she’s okay. Otherwise I’ll end up ripping that fucking wall down with my bare hands.
I head to the basement and pull back the false stack of kegs hiding the door to the tunnel. I push it open and enter into the darkness. Nothing could stop me from getting to her. Minnie belongs to me now. The Regime can’t have her.
I haven’t seen her in days, and she didn’t return to me on Sunday night like she was supposed to.
It’s Monday morning and a lot has happened. Word spread that a government agent is in the hospital in a suspicious coma. More alarmingly, Brad Chalmers has been shot and killed by someone they call Insurgent No. 1. Except I know the truth behind the story. Brad faked his death so he and Sylvia could be together. They came to me to help them disappear, and I didn’t refuse.
I’ve kept the lamp lit in the window, but it isn’t enough. She’s signaling every night that she’s okay, but otherwise not responding. Why is she still there? She should have come home to me by now. I shouldn’t have ever let her go to the other side, but I know how badly she wants to help. I couldn’t tell her no, but this has to end. I can’t keep sending her to the other side. It’s slowly eating me alive. I don’t get anything done when she’s gone. Then when I get her back, I pull her into bed and don’t let her leave for days.
I have to get to Minnie.
When I reach the other side of the tunnel, I tap out a signal code and a door opens.
This is the first time the Librarian and I have ever laid eyes on each other, but we exchange no pleasantries. I simply ask for building plans to the hospital dormitory and she gets them for me.
Later that night, the Librarian is shutting me in the trunk of her car and driving me to the service entrance of the nursing dorm. She tells everyone she’s got a book delivery to make there and no one questions her.
When we arrive at the location she said would be safest to let me out, she pops the trunk and I slip out.
I’m dressed in all black so I can blend into the shadows. I scale the drainpipe until I reach the roof. Scanning the heating vents, I pray that I know what I’m doing. This is out of control, but I don’t care. I’m not stopping until I have her in my arms again.
I’m normally a man in control of myself, but not when it comes to my little sparrow. I’m in control of the Insurgence and I have masses of people carrying out very precise orders all by my command. Every minute of my day is normally calculated for the sake of the cause and is devoted to fighting the Regime and not getting caught. And now my Minnie has sent me into chaos in what I can only describe as a beautiful way. I’m going to the other side of the wall, a dangerous place for the leader of the Insurgence. But she’s worth the risk. If I didn’t have her by my side I’d be useless. I need her to ground me once again.