Chapter 7
Ember
The house appears empty when Luke and I step inside, but it’s easy to feel all alone in a place this size, even when others are nearby.
Dad’s car wasn’t out front, which means he’s either visiting Kenzi or still at work.
I wish he’d take me, but he insists on going alone.
He thinks he’s protecting me, like I’m a little girl.
Sometimes I feel like I have to give him that illusion since he missed all of my younger years.
Luke and I make our way upstairs to my room. He releases a long, slow breath. “You’ve really gotten serious about this.”
“Didn’t I tell you about the third computer?”
A smile tugs at his lips. “I’ve seen it. Multiple times. But all these notes and codes…” He looks around, and I realize what a mess I’ve created. It was easy to ignore before bringing him back up. “Well, I’ve been busy with my research. Cleaning can wait for another day.”
He pulls the chair from my vanity over to the computer desk and plops down. “Where should we start?”
I fill him in on what I’ve learned today—websites that people tried to delete from the internet but didn’t fully get rid of, strange cases of missing children with connections to Radley, and even a decade where the mysterious doctor has no mention at all. Like he disappeared and reappeared.
Luke pulls his laptop and snacks from his bag. “Let’s dig in.”
An icy wave runs through me. He doesn’t realize how deep this is. How dangerous it’s getting. It might not be a good idea to get him involved. More than he already is, anyway.
He looks at me expectantly. “Where do we start?”
“Are you sure you want to get involved?”
Hurt fills his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re involved, and I’ve already seen what that place can do to people. How many times do I have to tell you I’m not letting you do this alone?”
Guilt stings. “Just know you can walk away at any time. I don’t want you getting hurt too.”
“I’m more worried about you. Besides, I’ve been doing some digging on my own.”
“You have?” I sit in my computer chair and roll over to him. “Have you found anything?”
“I’m not sure, but it could be promising.” He taps on his keyboard before turning the screen toward me. “See this girl?”
It’s an old picture of a little girl. She looks strikingly like my mom when she was around that age. The similarities are so stark, I gasp. It has to be her.
Luke turns to me. “What’s the matter?”
“W-who is that?”
“Let me check.” He turns the computer back to him and taps around. “Claire Brannon. You know her?”
I can’t even blink.
Luke glances back at me. “Ember?”
“You… Claire? You’re sure? That’s… it’s not possible. She didn’t go there. To Radley.”
Everything swirls around me. This can’t be happening. She was involved too?
“Wait.” Luke’s eyes widen. “Your mom?”
It takes me a moment to recover from the gut punch. I can’t find words, so I nod.
His mouth falls open.
I study the photo on the screen before answering. “Yeah. Send me everything you have about her.” My mind swirls as I try to make sense of everything. My grandparents not only sent Kenzi and Billa to the mental facility, but my mom too? She was fifteen years older than they were.
How far back does this go? And what did my grandma and grandpa benefit from all of this? Did they fund the place? Or have a vested interest in the experiments?
Why did they have to take those secrets to the grave?
Secrets hidden in the Brannon house can remain hidden for a hundred years or longer. It took that long for us to learn about Millie Brannon and her sleepwalking, and even longer for my namesake’s truth to be discovered.
“It should all be in your inbox.” Luke’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I stare at a blank spot on the wall. “My mom went to Radley.”
He wraps an arm around me. “I wish I could say I’m surprised, but given everything I know about your family, it makes sense. Didn’t you say she left and refused to contact her parents?”
“Yeah.” My mind swirls. “Kenzi was a lot younger and felt like Mom abandoned her.”
Luke pulls back and looks into my eyes. “Were you ever there? At Radley?”
“As a patient? No.”
“You’re sure?”
I nod. “My mom was super protective of me when it came to my grandparents. Now I get it.” My heart aches as a fresh wave of grief washes through me.
I have so many questions for her, but once again, I’ll never be able to ask her.
I hate that she was stolen from me, and now Kenzi has been too.
At least we have a chance of getting her back.
And that’s what I need to focus on—freeing her from the hypnosis then getting to the bottom of these experiments and secret programs with kids at the Radley facility that, for all we know, are still going on.
Luke pulls me onto his lap and holds me close. “What do you need from me?”
Sighing, I sink into his embrace. A single tear trails down my face. I don’t bother wiping it away. “I need answers. My mom is gone, and she was part of this whole twisted web. Now it’s taken Kenzi from me too. I’m sick and tired of people ripping my moms from me!”
“Then we’ll untwist everything until we have every scrap of information there is. We won’t stop until we’ve found every answer and brought her home, sane and happy.”
I turn to meet his gaze, his eyes so close our noses nearly bump. “It could be dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt. Your dad is focused on Kenzi and Fenna, Billa’s focused on her own mystery, and the others all have their own stuff they’re dealing with. You need someone taking care of you, and I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to stop me from being that person.”
My heart swells with love. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.” He kisses me deeply, threading his fingers through mine, and a warm wave of hope swirls through me.
Maybe we really can figure this all out together.