Drowning in Deception (30 page)

“It’s all true, Mella. The people of
Eadin have been lied to for a long time, about a lot of things.”

The front door swung open. The two girls
turned to see Luas standing there. “Sorry to interrupt…” His eyes flicked to Mella’s
and seemed to get stuck there. His mouth took on a strange, twisted grin.

Mella quickly wiped at her make-up
stained cheeks and smiled shyly back.

“Oh, Luas. This is my friend, Mella.”

“Hello, Mella.” He looked at Clover with
both hope and question.

Clover nodded. “She’s good. Drug free.”

His grin broadened as he asked Mella, “Will
you join us inside? I’ll fill you in on what’s going on.”

Mella nodded, so he took her by the hand
and led her into the house.

The second she closed the door behind
them, Zander was in front of her. “I forgot to tell you, your dad stopped by
today.”

“And?”

“And he’s not a happy man. I’ve never
seen him look that way before. He’s furious about the newspaper article and
demanded to see you. I told him you weren’t home. He also asked if I’d seen
Luas, Joseph, or Darna.”

“Oh, no.”

“It’s okay. They were well hidden. But
he said he’s going to come see you tonight before he goes to work.”

“Okay. Thanks for the heads up.”

“And Clove…”

“Yes?”

He cleared his throat and looked around
to see if anyone was listening to them. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?”

“Sure.”

They walked to the master bedroom at the
back of the house. He sat on the edge of the bed and motioned for her join him.

He sighed deeply and turned to look
carefully at her. “First of all, I want to apologize. I never said I was sorry
for hurting you the way I did. Sera and I, we just seemed to fit, and…”

“It’s okay, Zander. You don’t need to
explain. I’ve gotten over it.”

He continued to stare at her. “I know
you have. And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You’ve gotten over it
with that…that mons…guy. I love you, Clove. We’ve been friends forever and I’m afraid
for your life. I don’t like the way he looks at you. I don’t trust him. You
need to stop seeing him before it’s too late.”

Clover stood up and looked down at him.
She couldn’t remember what she ever saw in him, other than the fact that he was
a nice guy. While part of her wanted to lash out and tell him to mind his own
business, she managed to calm herself. He cared, and that was worth something.

“Zander. I appreciate your concern.
You’re a good friend, but… I’m perfectly safe with Rye. I promise. He’s not
going to hurt me.”

“No, he can’t hurt you. At least not in
the way that Zander’s afraid of.” It was Sera who had spoken, entering the room
and giving Clover a knowing look.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked
Zander.

“It means that you’re afraid he’s going
to hurt her by eating her heart, not breaking it.”

Zander nodded. “Yes, I am.”

“Well, I can assure you that won’t
happen.”

Oh, no, thought Clover. She’s put the
pieces together and has figured it out. She’s going to tell everyone.

“And how do you know?” asked Zander as
he got to his feet.

Clover looked to Sera with wide,
panicked eyes. Sera had initially hated her, but over time it had started to
seem as if they were becoming friends. But now Clover thought she was wrong.
Sera still hated her and was about to ruin her by revealing her secret.

Sera sauntered over to Zander, grabbed
his hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then very slowly she looked to
Clover with narrowed eyes and a giant smirk. “You said you didn’t like the way
he looks at her? Zander, that’s the look of love. It’s love. I could tell. He
won’t harm her.” She winked at Clover.

Clover exhaled and gave Sera an
appreciative smile and nod. Her secret was safe for now.

***

The house cleared out shortly after
supper and the appropriate people had hidden themselves for Bromer Swelton’s
arrival.

Clover paced back and forth between the
kitchen and living room. What was her dad going to say? What was he going to
do? And how was she going to answer? She was so tired of lying about
everything. She supposed that in a way Rye was right. She was just like her dad
- a liar.

When the knock came at the door, her
heart skipped a beat. Part of her envisioned him standing there with his big
knife, ready to kill her because she was a Carnae.

“Clover,” he said sternly when she swung
the door open. Not even a trace of a smile was anywhere on the man’s face.

“Come in, Dad.”

He kicked his damp boots off and strode
to take a seat on the couch, mumbling as he went, “That’s the first time you’ve
ever called me anything but Daddy.”

She took a place on the loveseat and waited
for whatever was to come.

“First off, I need to know where the Landsdown
family is. I don’t know who wrote that article in the paper, but I am holding
them responsible for printing it. You will tell me where to find them.”

Clover shrugged her shoulders.

“This is serious, young lady.”

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “They left
Eadin. They were heading west.” Let the Watch Tower people go off and look for
them over the boundary line. She thought it was a very good lie.

He studied her for a moment before
continuing. “Good girl. Next question. And this one is very important. Was Gart
aware of these articles?”

Her father no longer believed she was
being just a silly girl with a big imagination. He was suspicious, so she would
have to be very careful not to implicate any of her friends.

Her reaction was quick. She even
impressed herself. “Gart! You mean that no good ex-friend of Zander’s? He
thinks he’s so special now that he’s at the top floor of the Watch Tower. He
doesn’t want anything to do with us anymore, and the feeling’s mutual.” Another
very good lie, she thought.

“Excellent.” His lips twitched slightly.
“Now, your mother and I are very worried about you. You are acting strange. I
don’t know if you wrote that second article, but I’m confident that you had a
part in it. I don’t know where you’re getting these fictitious ideas from, but
they are causing problems with many of our people. This has all happened since
you moved in here with Zander. Now I mean no disrespect to your young man, but
I think it’s time you left this house and came home.”

Okay. So her mother hadn’t told him
about their conversation. He didn’t know that Clover knew the truth about what
they were. But she could at least clean up one of the messy lies. She
desperately wanted to blurt everything out. Holding it all in was tiring. But
she couldn’t risk saying anything that might cause him to seal up the door in
the Wall. If that were to happen she would never see Rye again.

But she could start with one little
truth. “Dad. Zander and I broke up.”

“What? Then why are you still here?”

This was her chance. She had to stand up
to her dad. It was time. “Because I don’t want to live in a house where drugged
milk is shoved down my throat day and night.”

His eyes bulged and his lips turned down
in a vicious scowl. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I do. I know exactly what I’m saying.
Yes, I wrote that article about the milk. Why? Because I believe that people
have the right to decide for themselves whether or not they want the drugs. And
yes, I also wrote the second article about the poor treatment of the people of
Quell.”

He was on his feet now. “And just where
are you getting all this crazy information from? I’ve been to the other side,
Clover. I can tell you first hand they are not people. They are vile, murdering
monsters.”

Clover got up and walked to the door, biting
back the urge to ask him if that’s what he thought his brother, Turk, had been…a
vile monster, if that’s what he thought his own daughter was. He was without a
doubt the world’s biggest hypocrite. But she pressed her lips together hard.

He followed her to the door and
demanded, “Who else is involved with this article nonsense?”

“No one. It was all my own doing.”

His stare was hard, making her fight
back the urge to cower.

“I think you should go now. Please tell
Mom that I’m content and there’s no need to worry. Tell her that I’ve never
felt better.”

He put his boots on and stepped outside,
then turned back to her. “You’re young. You don’t understand. I only hope that
one day you will, and you’ll see that everything is the way it is for good
reason. And you had better not be causing any more trouble for me or for this
city!”

She slammed the door in his face and ran
back to the loveseat, where she buried her face and bawled.

Everyone in the house left her alone for
a long time. How she wished Rye could be there to hold her. It was Sera who
eventually came to her, bringing her a small glass of milk and wrapping a
blanket around her.

“You should have a little bit of
milk…just to help keep you from changing,” she whispered in Clover’s ear.

“How do you know? How did you figure it
out? And how do you know that the milk helps supress the transition?” she
whispered back.

“That man, Turk, the other night. I
believed what he said. Your dad is one of them, which means you could be too. And
then you spent an entire night over there, a night when they were all very
angry, and you made it back alive. I just put two and two together. And the
milk…well how else would your dad have supressed it all these years? The drugs
calm the emotions. It makes sense…”

“Have you told anyone?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s not my
place to. But, be careful.” She motioned to the glass of milk. Clover sat up,
quickly drank it and lay down again with a sigh.

Sera tucked the blanket around her. “You’re
the bravest person I’ve ever known,” she whispered in Clover’s ear. “Whatever
you decide to do, I’m behind you one hundred percent.”

Smith snored on the couch all night and
there were too many mixed emotions flitting through her head for her to have a
good sleep.  So much had happened in such a short time and she hadn't taken the
time to sort through it all yet. 

For starters there was Rye. She knew she
loved him and she knew she wanted to be with him. But he lived on the other
side of the Wall. But, being a Carnae, wasn’t that where she should be living
now, too? It was hard to accept that she no longer belonged in the only world
she had ever known. Her friends were here, and her family was here: Sprigg, her
mom and her dad. She had mixed emotions about her parents. They had lied to
her, and she now knew another side to her father. He was a bully, a thief, and
a murderer. She hated him for it. And she hated her mother for keeping so many
things from her. And yet, she still loved them. They had always been so close
and so happy before... Yes, that was before, and now there was no going back.
And even if she could go back, she wasn't sure she wanted to. She knew that Rye
was right. She had a decision to make. And once the choice was made, whether
she would be a citizen of Eadin or of Quell, she would have to stick with it.
There would be no more going back and forth from one side to the other.

“Clove. Wake up. It's meeting day.” Sera
was shaking her shoulder. “We have an hour.”

The entire household bustled about
nervously, wondering if anyone would show up at the Watch Tower. And if they
did, what would happen? Could this be the beginning of what they had been
working toward? Or had they all just sentenced themselves to death? 

When they finally headed out the door
and began making their way toward the city center, the group was astonished by
the amount of people in the streets, all merging as one unit in the direction
of the Watch Tower. Many faces were smiling, happily going along with the
majority. But most were serious or angry. They were the faces of the people whose
heads were clear and were not pleased at having important things kept from
them. It was a beginning, and it gave the group a sense of optimism. 

They arrived near the Watch Tower to
find that thousands of people had come out. Clover didn't realize there were
that many people in Eadin, but then again she'd never thought about it before.
Crammed together at the front of the Watch Tower, filling up the side streets, the
people were swarming slowly around, talking in heated discussions while they
waited to see what would happen.

Someone had built a make-shift stage just
outside the front doors of the building. Clover shuddered, suddenly afraid for
her father. This had the potential to turn into a lynch mob. But then she
watched as Bromer took to the stage followed by Gart and thirteen other men in
suits, each one carrying a large gun. And then she realized this had the
potential to turn into something much worse.