He paused and then said, “That’s classified.”
A bitter laugh punched out of me. “So now my brain is classified?”
“Max, yousigned?—”
“I didn’t sign anything.” My heart pounded so loud it hurt. I dropped my voice just one octave before saying, “And I don’t appreciate you taking my wife away and becoming a CIA lab rat.”
“That’s not what this is,” he said quickly.
“Then what is it? “I asked. “Because from where I’m standing, this is all a bunch of bullshit. You took my FUCKING WIFE away from me.”
On the line, the air thinned. I heard my mom’s voice in the background, and his tone changed.
He laughed easily, calmly into the receiver.
“Listen—don’t take too long. We’ve got your gear ready. Mom needs you to check your boxes to make sure she got all your stuff packed.”
It was scary how fast he had switched personalities. Like flipping a channel.
“Dad,” I said quietly. “Don’t do that. Don’t pretend this is normal. You knew, didn’t you? When you sent me to camp. You knew there was more going on.”
“Max, not now…”
“Is it your people running this?” I pressed. “CIA? You knew this was happening to kids, and you still let me go.”
Static picked up on his end, like he’d covered the phone for a second. When he came back, his voice was low.
“Max, you can’t follow her. You cannot hack in and try to find her. They are watching you closely now, and you need to do whatever you can to not draw attention to yourself.”
“Who is watching me?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Your game started last night. Don’t ask me about it again.”
He hung up.
I stared at the dead screen as if it might split open and give me answers.
Your game started last night.
My hands went numb.
I had been an idiot to think that my father would protect us. Something was seriously fucking wrong.
I waited two more hours,calling her over and over, until finally I decided enough was enough. The knots in my stomach morphed into one giant ball of panic.
Shit.
Heather had blown up my socials all night. I blocked her from everything. Fuck her. But I knew it didn’t matter. What had been done was done, and now I was going to have to do whatever I could to persuade Mackenzie to take me back.
I checked Mackenzie’s Instagram. The last picture was three days ago, our hands together in front of the lake.
I missed her so much I could barely breathe.
The next morning, I came up with some bullshit excuse about needing to go back early for baseball. My mom was disappointed but let me go, reminding me to bring Mackenzie by when I could.
I had told them last night that we were married. My mom noticed my ring right away. She was thrilled because she had always loved Mackenzie, but furious that we had done it without them knowing, and reminded me how young we were. My dad pretended to be shocked, and it took everything in me not to pin him to the wall and demand answers about Mackenzie.
He knew something. He was hiding. It drove me insane to know that I couldn’t interrogate him.
