Take Me Tomorrow

Chapter 15: If You Can Risk Me

My father didn't work for the Traveler's Bureau out of respect for the State. Instead, he used his position to protect himself while he worked for his real job. His cause, he called it. 

Dwayne Gray helped citizens cross regional borders in secret, and I was the first one he did it for.

"We crossed illegally?" I croaked out the information.

My father's brow laid heavy over his eyes. "We had to. If we didn't—" He shook his head. "I made the decision to flee Albany when you were seven. Your mother was supposed to follow us, but—"

"She gave me her ticket," Lyn added. She explained how my mother wanted Lyn, who had been pregnant with Falo at the time, to be safe instead of her. That was the only reason Lyn had come to live with us. To prove her identity to my father, my mother had given Lyn my mom's necklace, the one I wore around my neck now.

I touched the silver chain, then stared at the sleeping Falo. I was happy he was safe, that Lyn was safe, but what about my mother? Was she safe? Was she trying to get here this whole time? Was she even still alive? Did anyone care?

As if sensing my thoughts, my father cleared his throat, his eyes suddenly glassy. "Your mother has her faults, but she's a good woman."

That only made it worse. Her faults? Her good traits? I couldn't remember those either. I barely remembered her face, let alone her personality or voice. Still, I wanted her to sit next to me, explain everything that had happened, promise that our family was okay. But she was in the Albany Region and I was in the Topeka Region. My mother might as well have been a stranger.

"Couldn't you get her across?" I asked.

My father shook his head. "Phelps caught us," he said, then fiddled with his glasses as if to fiddle with his thoughts. "He was impressed I could travel with a child and barely get detected, so instead of arresting me, he offered me a job on the spot."

My blood began to boil. "How could Phelps trust you after that?"

"I had a child with me." And that child was me. "In his opinion, it takes a criminal to catch a criminal. The risk was lower than the gain." And my life was the blackmail Phelps could use to control my dad. All the memories of how close Phelps had acted toward me when I was a kid seemed vicious instead of sincere.

"I only got across because of the Phelps Massacre," Lyn added, while threading stitches through Noah's injury. He hadn't made a sound. "There was enough chaos to protect me."

My father frowned, grim. "After that, we lost all communications with your mother."

I swallowed my nerves. "Is—is she dead?"

His eyes flicked to Noah. "Apparently not."

My head whipped to the side to stare at Noah. "You know her?" I asked.

He averted his eyes away from me. "I met her. Two years ago." He didn't elaborate after that.

I turned back to my dad. "We could've stayed there with her—"

"No, you couldn't," Noah snapped. Everyone leapt at his tone, and his cheeks reddened at the reaction. He scratched the back of his head, cringing when his forehead wrinkled and stretched his latest stitches. "What I meant to say is, you don't want to live in the Albany Region. It's—"

Lyn nudged his shoulder and he silenced. She was finishing the stitches on his brow, threading the needle through his hairline, and she did not need him to speak while she did it.