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"Everyone" I was trying not to get riled up, but if what Laylen was saying was true, how could I not get upset? "Marco, Sophia…Alex"

"Why would they do that," Laylen mumbled "Why would it make a difference whether you were one or if you were four?"

I was thinking the exact sa Why would it matter? And if I really had been four, ould I have noand everything, but still…you’d think I’d be able to re about her But nope I couldn’t re

Laylen re "I’m sorry," he finally said

"You don’t need to apologize," I reassured him "It’s not your fault all of this happened"

"It’s partly h "I knehat Stephan was planning to do to you, and I didn’t do anything to stop it"

"You were like, what, eight when all this was going on And besides," I said, trying not to let any bitterness sneak into ht? I mean, so that the world could be saved and all that"

"I don’t know" He looked lost in thought "Maybe, I guess"

I wondered what he meant Was there another reason why my emotions had been shut down? Or had it never been necessary for them to be shut down in the first place?

He tapped his fingers on the table, thinking "Gemma, what exactly have they told you about you?"

I gave hi Alex had tolds I’d pick up on myself; the list I’d found back at Marco and Sophia’s, and the bizarre vision thingy I’d been pulled into back at the fieldtrip I even told him about the prickly sensation I poured ood too, like an enorht had been lifted offI never mentioned The electricity That detail I just didn’t feel like explaining It was too complicated…and to personal

After I’d finished ya Laylen’s ear off, he stayed silent for awhile, and I started to worry that

But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he said, "I don’t even knohat to say Gemma I’m so sorry,"

That’s when I realized I hadn’t been boring hiood listener and taking in what I was telling hi, that when it ca listened to, I was cos were for you," Laylen continued "You knohat I find strange is that Stephanplan to seclude you froht the plan would actually work I mean, how can you force a person to become emotionally detached?"

"Alex told me it was because if you raised a person to never knohat things like happiness and sadness and love are, then they wouldn’t kno to feel the well too That is, until a couple of o when I suddenly snapped out of it"

"But if Alex’s little theory is true, then ould you all of a sudden start to feel?" He paused "And ould they lie to you about how old you hen you went to live with Marco and Sophia? It just doesn’t make sense"

"Maybe so I wouldn’t try to reested I h to remember her so that I wouldn’t try to Still, I wasn’t entirely convinced They’d created such a tangled maze of lies, who the heck kneas true and asn’t I did know one thing, though Getting the truth out of Alex seeuy could lie like no other

"I guess that could be why, but it still doesn’t explain why you suddenly started to feel" He brushed his blue tipped bangs off of his forehead and sighed "Geardless of what Alex tells you, Stephan can’t be trusted"

"How come?" But really, did I even have to ask Stephan was, after all, Alex’s father

"Well, there’s been a lot of things Stephan’s done that are questionable One of the worst, though, hen you’re mother disappeared"

My heart thumped loudly in ht she died?"

"Well, that’s what Stephan told everyone" He scooted his chair in closer so that ere practically huddled together "Right after she wentabout how Jocelyn had this huge fight with Stephan over you She didn’t want to give you up, and fro tofor her, but when he came back, he only had you He told everyone he couldn’t find Jocelyn anywhere The Keepers searched for her and everything, but no one ever found a single clue as to what could have happened to her After awhile, they just assumed she died"

Blood howled inside my ears "They just assumed she died? How can anyone just assume someone died?"

"Mysterious deaths are very common in the Keepers world because we are constantly encountering so s"

"But do you think she died?"

He shook his head "And neither did my parents I only heard bits and pieces of their conversations, but from what I understood, my parents didn’t believe Jocelyn just up and died And they had their suspicions that one of the Keepers ht have played a part in her disappearance"

"And you think its Stephan," I said, feeling like I ht throw up My mom hadn’t just died in a car accident My ht have made her disappear