Not even the sight of Ravi in a smart navy pinstripe suit could put a dent in Lucy’s fury. She could excuse him a lot, but not wiping her best friend’s memory.
“How could you?” she demanded, stabbing him with an angry finger as he exited the physics lab.
“I’m afraid you have me at a loss.”
Ravi’s reply was glacier cold. Although the ridges forming between his brows told a different story.
“Oh, do I?” She jabbed him again. “Well, Claudia seems to have lost her memories. She thinks Jess dumped her at prom!”
Disbelief flattened his scowl. If Lucy didn’t know better, she’d say he was genuinely shocked. But Ravi was a master at self-control and deception.
“It wasn’t us,” he said.
“Oh no?”
Hurt and irritation sparked in Ravi’s eyes. “The Archimedeans aren’t the only ones who possess the necessary technology to alter your friend’s memory.” He let the statement hang in the air for a moment. Then, in one continuous motion, he opened the door to the classroom, pressed his hand to Lucy’s lower back, and shoved her inside.
The glass shook as it slammed closed behind them. Her messenger bag slipped from her shoulder, thumping on the ground. She spun around to face him.
“You have to reverse it,” Lucy pleaded. “It’s not right. I’ve caused her enough misery.”
Ravi peered down at her, the muscles in his neck tight as cords.
“I respected your wishes, Lucy. Even if it made Claudia a liability—a danger to you, I did as you asked.” Tension threaded through his words, and Lucy could tell Ravi still thought it was the wrong call.
“Then just change it back,” she challenged. “If you really didn’t do it, change it back.”
“That isn’t advisable.”
Lucy latched onto his lapels. Ravi stumbled forward until their lips were nearly touching. “I don’t care what’s advisable. You robbed her of the truth. Claudia should hate me.”
“You don’t deserve to be hated, Lucinda.” His voice grew softer. “But if Claudia’s memory has been altered, it wouldn’t be safe to attempt another procedure so soon.”
“Why not?”
“I never said the procedure was without risk.”
Lucy twisted his lapel. “You two-faced—”
“The Initiates have been keeping a close eye on your friend, as I promised,” he interrupted. “The only suspicious visitor Claudia has received was your father.”
“You’re lying.”
She shoved him viciously backward and edged out of his grasp. Fear and loathing curdled in her veins.
“You’re lying,” she repeated.
Regaining his balance, Ravi brushed off his lapels.
“Did you perform the DNA test?”
“And if I did? How do I know you didn’t manufacture the results?”
He scoffed. “We’re not Skynet. There’s a limit to what the Order of Archimedes can do.”
Under normal circumstances, Lucy would find his nerdy sci-fi reference charming. But normal circumstances didn’t apply to her anymore.
Her gaze fell to the messenger bag that lay at her feet. Ravi’s followed.
“You have the results,” he said.
She didn’t answer.
He scooped the bag from the floor. “You haven’t looked,” Ravi deduced, offering it to her. “Let’s open them together. I’ll be here for you. Whatever the results may be.”
“I know what they’ll be,” she told him. The heat faded quickly from her retort.
“I hope you’re right.”
Lucy’s hand trembled as she flipped open the canvas flap and dug into the bottom for her phone. Sweat stippled her brow and her fingers slid around the touch-screen. It took three tries to enter the code she knew by heart: Claudia’s birthday.
Dropping the bag carelessly to the floor, Lucy gripped the phone with both hands. Such a small piece of circuitry shouldn’t hold so much power over her fate.
Her finger hovered over the email app.
“I can look for you,” Ravi said.
“They’re my parents.” Lucy turned away, showing him her back.
This was Lucy’s future and she had to be the first to know.
“Okay,” he said. Sympathy shaded his tone but Lucy didn’t want his sympathy. She was going to prove him wrong once and for all, and then her parents would be safe from the Initiates.
Moment-of-truth time.
She planted her feet, breathed deeply, and pulled on her big-girl pants. Tap.
Subject: Your Confidential Results from DNA-4-U.com
Another tap. Her breath steamed up the screen.
Lucy wiped away the fog and the clarity she received made her head go fuzzy. The spreadsheet dissolved before her eyes. Numbers and percentage points ceased to make sense.
Alleles, chromosomes, kinship index. The terms might as well be gibberish. She wanted them to be gibberish.
Lucy the scientist wished she didn’t understand precisely what they meant.
Probability of Paternity: 0%
Probability of Maternity: 0%
Lucy was alone, and she always had been.