“No, no, I’m sure the quake wasn’t enough to interrupt the signal,” answered Brady and Layla’s mom. “The reprogramming is proceeding as normal. The recording still has nearly half an hour to go.”
And yet, no sound was coming through the headphones still pressing against my ears. I prepared to open my mouth to let them know—butwait.Notmy dad.Notmy friends’ mom.
We were trusting the proven liars to get a leg up on the “devil we know.” Good God, when had life turned to such shit?
“You’re a hundred percent sure?” Jude pressed.
Jackietsked. “Of course I am, Jude. How many times have we done this to them already? You’d think you’d trust me by now.”
“I do trust you,” he whispered. “It’s just that it really needs to take.”
She tutted. “Of course it’s going to take. Italwaystakes. They always believe everything from the procedure without a single problem. And you can talk normally, you know. They won’t absorb a thing we’re saying.”
Suddenly I was twitchy all over and eager to rip off my headphones, flip them all the finger—double-fister, for good measure—and get myself and my friends the hell out of there like rabid hounds were chomping at our heels.
Instead, I made very sure that my breathing remained deep and steady, and that I did nothing that might reveal I could indeed hear every single traitorous thing the rat-turd bastards were saying.
“You and Lynne must’ve put on quite the show to get Joss to agree so readily,” Jackie said conversationally, sounding like she was preparing to chat it up to pass the time till the recording ended. “She’s usually much more resistant.”
“Yeah, well,” Jude said, “I really hope this is the last time we ever have to do this. It’s getting harder and harder to pretend with them.”
“Really? I find that every time it gets easier. I’ve gotten to the point that it’s almost easier to believe the lie than the truth. Though it doesn’t help that Magnum keeps making us mix things up. It does get tricky to remember some of the details. Like this time, he wants to try Joss and Griff remaining just friends, and for Zoe to get closer to Hunt. They’re supposed to be dating this time. And the kids are supposed to think his nephew Rich is a nice guy.” She snorted softly but didn’t follow up, suggesting that even though she was unaware I was hanging on to her every crappy word, she didn’t believe she had the same immunity from Magnum’s pervasive observation.
“And Magnum’s going to be a long-time family friend, right? He was a TA grad student when we were all undergrads. That’s the story?”
“You did read the memo, right?”
“Of course I did,” Jude said huffily. “How else would I know the details? Come on, Jackie. Don’t treat me like I’m a novice at this. Just making sure I have it all straight. It really is a lot to keep track of when the stories keep switching.”
Holy fuckballs, how many times had they altered our understanding of our lives and our pasts? Nausea roiled deep in my gut, and I had to force myself not to grimace. Only my eyes and ears were covered.
“That’s all that’s new this time though, right?” Jude pressed. “I’ll have to read through the memo again.”
Jackie hummed as if distracted—perhaps checking her equipment. “Ah, yeah. Oh wait, no. They won’t have any memory of Kitty Blanche.”
“The reporter?”
“Yeah, she’s gone.”
Gone. Meaning six feet under, not on vacation, I was guessing.
“Good,” Jude said. “She was a pain in the ass.”
“For sure she was. I’m surprised Magnum let that go on for as long as he did before dealing with her.”
“He had his reasons, I’m sure. He always does.”
“Doesn’t he just?” Jackie said. “As usual, they won’t remember they died, and since none of their other powers revealed this time, we don’t have to deal with any of that.”
Other powers? OhmyfuckingGod, what other powers?
“So I guess that’s it. Oh, nope, never mind. Just thought of something else. Griffin’s getting a new car that’ll look like one they worked on. They couldn’t get his other one done in time. Too much damage from the crash.”
“Makes sense.”
Makes sense?Makes sense?I was ready to shank a bitch. Any one of the lying, two-faced assholes I’d believed to be our parents would do at this point. I wasn’t going to be picky.
How could they? Howfuckingcould they? This was so much deeper and worse than I’d ever imagined. This was next level shit, that’s what this was.
