“So,” he began, his eyebrows raised. “Have you begun the paperwork?”
“Was just getting to it,” Theo replied easily, strolling behind his desk to open a filing cabinet. He pulled out a folder and placed it on the desk in front of me. It was a branded folder with the church’s logo.
Elder Mark took the chair beside me. I smiled in greeting and flicked my eyes back up to find Theo watching us intently. Iedged a little away from Elder Mark, feeling uncomfortable with how close he was to me and noticed Theo flexing his hands on top of his desk.
“The program will cover the cost of room and board through whoever decides to sponsor you.”
“Me,” Theo said with finality. “I’m sponsoring her.”
“Right,” Elder Mark nodded, flicking his eyes only momentarily up to Theo before returning to the folder where he pulled out a pamphlet. “This explains everything that you will receive and everything you are required to bring with you before you start the program. If you have any issues obtaining any of the documents listed, let us know and we can point you in the right direction. I know it might take some time to get things squared away, so we operate on a rolling start basis. Whenever you’ve sorted out leaving your current life, housing, work, etcetera, we—”
Theo cut him off before he could continue. “She is ready to start immediately. We’ve already discussed what she needed to do.”
“Oh, of course. Then, we can admit you tomorrow morning for orientation.”
Fuck this is really happening.
I nodded and he continued going through each document in the folder. I tried to stay alert as he rambled on and fucking on, watching me fill in every box on the in-take forms. It was slow going, even without his commentary, because I had to remember all the details of my false identity.
Social security. Date of birth. Family history. Permission for them to hold all my personal identifying documents. Permission to give them access to any health records from previous healthcare providers in the event that I need medical attention. History of any surgeries or medical conditions. History ofany contraceptive use. History of any STIs or STDs. Previous membership to any other religious organizations or institutions.
On and fucking on.
It felt like I was literally signing my entire life away to this organization and I wondered how the fuck anyone else had gone through this without freaking the fuck out about identity theft or worse. By the end of the meeting, Reformation knew every damn detail of my fake identity and then some. The amount of bullshit I had to spew on there made my hand cramp from writing.
I sat back in my chair with a deep breath once the folder was closed. Theo had been texting on his phone for the past several minutes of the document signing.
“Thank you, Elder Mark. She’ll be seeing you tomorrow at eight in reception.”
Once Elder Mark had left, Theodore smiled and stared at me for a few uncomfortable moments.
“I’ll send a car to pick you up tomorrow morning at 7:30. I’ll need an address.”
“Um, right. Can I text it to you?”
“Yeah—” he cut himself off, distracted by his phone vibrating loudly on his desk and picked it up. I could see the caller ID was ‘Father’ and I wondered if he would answer it with me present.
“I’ve got to get back to my duties. Will you be alright, love?”
I nodded softly.
“You’re going to do wonderfully, Olivia. RLS will help you grow into the person you’re meant to be, and I look forward to attending your graduation day in six weeks.”
With a parting smile, Theo stood and walked around me before opening the door and motioning for me to leave. I didn’t look back over my shoulder as I crept back to the church entrance, eager to get the fuck out of there.
I tried to give polite smiles to anyone that gave me eye contact, waving off the door greeters who tried to start a conversation as I was leaving, and hurried to put as much distance between the church and me.
The church was located in the north central suburb of San Antonio, Alamo Heights—about twelve blocks from the Alamo Quarry Market where I was to be meeting my ride home. Fortunately, I didn’t seem to stand out in the area, seeing as there was a church at every other intersection and their congregations were also being released.
It wasn’t until I was halfway to the Quarry that I finally felt like I could breathe a little, but then my mind rounded back to the fact that I would be leaving indefinitely in less than twenty-four hours. The lack of food in my system was making me shaky and sick to my stomach so I headed into the Walgreens to grab a snack.Might as well spend the fifty dollars Adrian had padded my wallet with for this excursion.
I roamed the aisles for longer than necessary, my mind still refusing to fixate on anything other than the fact that this was my last evening of freedom, and I didn’t want to spend it debriefing with Carlos. Didn’t want to have to accept what was going to be my new reality. A part of me had been holding out hope that I was somehow going to get out of this. That he didn’t actually think I would be useful in this mission and would assign me to do something else.
But, fuck. Between Carlos’s threat to force another in my place, and Adrian’s threat to hurt my friends, I had no fucking choice.
Finally settling on a bottle of water and a bag of Chex Mix, I headed to get in line.
“Shit,” I mumbled, looking down at my coffee-soaked front, the spilled drink at the feet of me, and then the stranger who I’d collided with.
