Page 132 of Trigger Happy Ending

The heart monitor machine begins to go crazy again.

“W-what are you t-talking about?” I struggle to speak, to sit up.

“You’re just like her.”

Bile rises up my throat as he lets the silence stretch. He enjoys this. Taunting me. Hurting me in the worst possible ways.

“Want a farewell present? How about this: Your mother wasn’t killed because of a revenge hit,” he says, as he leans down to my ear. “She was executed for what she built and stole.”

The words sound muffled, foreign. Built and stole?

“PARM-17 wasn’t the government’s project.”

I know what’s coming, but I’m still shocked as O confirms it.

“It was hers.”

Have you ever watched someone relish in others’ misery? O swims in mine like it’s a pool, and right now he’s doing synchronized swimming in it.

“Vivienne was a hell of a woman. An incredible operative—and our lead geneticist. Bet you didn’t know that, did you? She was a genius, an absolute whizz.”

Why didn’t I know this? I feel as if I’m underwater, drowning in slow motion. I’m being dragged into an opiate sleep, but I force myself to stay awake. I must stay awake.

“She designed it from scratch, had a vision. She threw herself into studying cell mutation and regeneration. Brilliant work, really. Pulitzer Prize type stuff except the general population can’t really know about this, can they? Would cause panic if it became common knowledge we could transform our bodies into the optimal killing machines … Can you imagine the power?”

My body shakes as I struggle to remain conscious, the drug coursing its way through my body, wave after wave.

“But, it turns out her vision and our vision weren’t the same. She wanted to heal; we wanted to enhance.”

I feel nauseous, groggy, but determined not to fall asleep.

“She was smart, your mother. Realized our aim was to use it to enhance our field operatives with PARM-17—she wasn’t thrilled about that,” he adds. “She threatened to pull her research and delete every file related to it if we didn’t agree to her terms. But I don’t take lightly to threats.”

Air evaporates from the room.

“We refused, and to her credit, she made good on her threat. She deleted everything relating to the formula. Then she stole the only ten vials in existence, selling them off to a contact who paid her a large sum of money for it. I’d heard she planned on using the money to disappear and start again. Create a new life for you. Did you know that was what she always wanted? To get you away.”

My heart ruptures. All of this is new information to me, and I’m struggling to process the enormity of the conspiracy. Nothing has ever been what it seems. Nothing. All these years, I’d never known she was a scientist. Why? Why did I not know?

“But it’s not what we wanted for you. Or her. Once she made it clear she was against us, she became a sanctioned hit.”

Everything inside me flakes into little pieces. Like old paint peeling off a wall.

O gets off on watching me break, the look on his face one of glee as the news carves a hole in me so deep I fear there’s no coming back from this pit of despair.

They killed her. He killed her.

O turns toward the door, but not before his eyes flick back to mine one last time.

“If I ever see you—” I begin to threaten, words heavy and dragging.

“You won’t.”

The door closes just as the darkness pulls me under.

Chapter 55

Soren