05 Desperate Match by Lynne Silver

room.
    “All right. The beginning it is. I was born here in 1986. Here being The Program compound. But something happened between my mom and dad—you haven’t met him yet, but he lives here still—and my mom ran away taking me and Adam with her.”
    “What happened?” She leaned on her elbow to get closer.
    “Me. I’m what happened.” He gave a bitter laugh. “When I was born minus an arm, my mom got wind that The Program was going to make her put me up for adoption and that my dad was okay with that.”
    She sucked back a gasp. “That’s horrible.”
    “Hang on, let me finish talking before you decide everyone here is evil.”
    It was as if he were reading her mind, since that was exactly what she’d been thinking.
    “Turns out, only one person wanted me outta here. Bad guy named Keel. He’s gone now. Dead. Anyway, this Keel guy sent my dad on an overseas mission right after I was born and played a head game with my mom. He was good at his lies, and she believed him. I was only a few weeks old when she disappeared into DC with me and Adam. He was two.”
    “What happened? Did your dad come looking for you?”
    “Sort of. See, Keel played a head game with him, too. Made up all sorts of bullshit that my dad believed, and remember, things were different. It was easier to hide. My mom never got a credit card, never bought a house. We lived paycheck to paycheck in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Dad never found her, and he was convinced she didn’t want to be found.”
    She identified with that sentiment all too well. “Did you know?”
    “Know what? That I was a genetically enhanced human?”
    “Know about your family,” she said, clarifying.
    “I knew nothing. Mom always said our dad had died. When Adam was fifteen she told him the truth and he ran from home to live here at The Program.”
    “And then your mom told you when you were a teenager,” she guessed.
    She saw Rowan sit up and lean back against the wall. “No. It’s an even longer story,” he said. “I knew nothing about my family or The Program until a few months ago.”
    “What?”
    “You heard me. I was totally ignorant about everything until this summer when Adam brought Loren to meet me and the whole truth came out.”
    “Oh my God. You must have been…shocked. And angry. Have you forgiven Adam for keeping it a secret?”
    He turned his gaze to her. “Most days.”
    “And your mom? You said she died?”
    “Mom died when I was sixteen. She died not knowing Dad still loved her and that he’d never wanted to send us away.”
    They both fell silent thinking about the sad story that was Rowan’s life. If she had to estimate, she’d say he’d had it worse than her. She couldn’t imagine living her whole life thinking her father were dead only to discover he was alive. It was so sad. She climbed off the air mattress and stepped to Rowan’s bed. “Rowan?”
    He looked up at her. “What’re you doing out of bed?”
    “You need a hug. Heck, I need a hug.”
    “Happy to oblige. C’mere.” He lifted his arm, welcoming her into his embrace. It felt like coming home. Even though he only had one arm wrapped around her body, the hug felt complete, whole. They clung to each other, and she buried her face in his shirt, wetting it with her sympathetic tears.
    He pushed her off him and brushed at her cheeks. “Hey, no tears. It’s all a happy ending now.”
    “Is it?” she said with a sniffle. “Maybe it could’ve been, but I’ve come barging in possibly messing it all up.”
    “What are you talking about?” He shifted, scooting his body down the bed making their hug more into a lying down embrace. She froze against his body for a minute then relaxed.
    “Rowan did you have a choice about matching?”
    His hand rubbed a pattern over her back. “Yeah, soldiers here are given a choice.” The comforter was too thick a barrier between them. She wanted to feel his body against hers.
    “So you chose to be matched?”