Broken Dreams(29)

There was a quiet knock on the door. Slowly, I opened it. Henry was standing there, smiling, with a bowl of fresh fruit and a bottle of ginger ale. “Room service.” He smirked and I smiled at him. I stepped away from the door and allowed him to come in. After all, it was his room.

“Thanks. I haven’t eaten at all today.” Although, I wasn’t so sure my stomach could handle it right now.

“I figured as much. I thought you would like the ginger ale to help settle down that belly of yours.”

“Yes, thank you.” I smiled at his thoughtfulness and headed back to the bed. That was the Henry I knew and was supposed to marry earlier in the day.

He sat down beside me and let out a great sigh. “Alright. Where do I begin...?” He trailed off for a moment and rubbed his perfect, stubbled chin, lost in thought. I nibbled on a strawberry. “Uh, well. Alright. I was just talking to my former boss. Roger.” I chewed slow and listened intently.

“Wait. Who were you talking to before?”

“That was Kellan.”

“Who is he?”

“I’ll get to that eventually. Anyway, Roger recruited me for the program when I was fourteen.”

“Fourteen? Isn’t that a bit young? Weren’t you in school?” My mouth was full while I was talking. As usual, Henry looked past my lack of proper etiquette.

“Not really. I was a troublemaker in school and I lived in an orphanage. Roger would take in troubled boys and girls at around the age of fourteen.”

“And he works for the government?”

“Yes. He’s in charge of all this madness. Later, he decided his job would entail combat training us for the program, which he has used against the government, but we will get to that in a minute.”

“Did you know what was going on, or why?”

“No. He said that we no longer fit into society; that we were throwaways. He was going to turn us into the men and women that we desired to be.” I felt sad for him. A throwaway? It broke my heart to hear him say that. And knowing that he believed it made it ache even more.

“Is this what you desired to be?”

It took him a moment to answer my question. “Well, not exactly, but I liked being able to get my anger out on a punching bag. It hurt my hands a lot less than punching some foul prat in the face. We would train day and night. It was a bit like a military academy, except at a higher intensity. We had a few instructors: a weapons specialist, hand-to-hand combat specialist, explosives training. You name it, we learned it.”

“Did you learn how to crochet?” He laughed and I giggled. I just had to say it. I couldn’t help myself. As angry as I was at everything, I still felt that I needed to mask it and be the dependable Elaina that everyone knew and adored.

“Very funny. Anyway, we trained for a solid two years. No scheduled days off, no holidays. It was relentless. I know now they were trying to break us mentally and rebuild us. They wanted to shape us into fearless, emotionless machines.”

“Do you feel you reached that?”

“Yeah, for the most part. But I did question a lot of things. Roger wasn’t fond of my curiosity so I got a few beatings. Well, more than a few.”

“Wow.” I hurt for him and could feel his sadness.

He could see my sympathy so he smiled sadly at me, then continued. “When the group of us turned sixteen, we were accepted into the program.”

“So they moved you out of the orphanage?”

“Yeah, the complex was my home for many years, but it was more like a facility than a home. There were labs, scientists, guards, weapons, and a room full of caged animals. It was a cold and sterile environment.”

I sat quietly and listened to Henry pour his heart out to me. It was overwhelming. I could only imagine how all of this must have made him feel.

“We spent hours in classrooms rehearsing a new identity, learning the American accent and slang, along with more training. That went on for a few more years.”

“Wait, rehearsing a new identity? So Liam isn’t your real name, either?”

“No,” he whispered.

“You lied to me again,” I growled. I was pissed so I turned away from him, not knowing if I could handle any more of his lies.

“I know I did, but I had to get you to trust me, and the only way I could was to lie to you. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but we didn’t have enough time to dig into all of this.” He reached out to me. I pulled away. “Please, Elaina. You have to believe me.”

“How can I believe an ounce of what you are telling me?”

“I swear to you. I swear what I’m telling you is true.” I glanced back at him, and his eyes welled up with tears. I had to turn away again. I couldn’t stand to see him like that.