Deceptions & Secrets

Chapter 30: Mommy Dearest

I sit with my back against the wall, an arm curled around one of my knees and watch the city pass. I can only guess at what my mother wants this time. Past experience would lead me to guess that she, again, wants me to leave Dauntless and join her in the factionless; if so, this is a waste of my time, because there is no way I would leave Tris and Natty for the woman who abandoned me. But I have a feeling that isn't it. Her note said that it was important, and I can't imagine that she really thinks I would reconsider her request. My note was direct and firm, telling her I would never leave Dauntless.

I stand and hold one of the railings for balance when I see that the train has reached the center of the city. At the next platform, I leap from the moving train, landing easily with a few pounding steps forward to regain my balance, and quickly make my way to the intersection at which Evelyn told me to meet her. As I round the corner, her narrow figure comes into view, hunched over tying a shoelace on one of her Dauntless combat boots. Her blue Erudite cardigan has fallen open revealing a red Amity shirt, and she wraps it tightly around her.

She straightens. "Hello, Tobias," she says.

"It's Four," I remind her coldly, standing straight with my arms crossed over my chest. She motions for me to follow her, and I do, but not without a huff of annoyance.

"You're even bigger than the last time," she comments as we walk. She made it a point to comment about my healthy physique the last time I saw her, when I first learned she was alive. I believe it is her way of guilting me, or at least to make her life in Factionless deserve sympathy. I do not respond, I am not in the mood for small talk.

She reaches the door of an old warehouse that appears as though it could crumble at any moment and knocks four times, then twice, then four times again. The door swings open and we walk in past the door guard, a tall man with a tattered clothing and a scraggly beard. I follow her into a room with a wobbly table and a couple of scavenged chairs.

Evelyn motions for me to sit, but I stay standing and just stare at her.

"Here," I say, shoving the backpack of food into her arms. "Just more bland soups and vegetables. I couldn't come up with anything more on such short notice." She reluctantly accepts the backpack, skipping the comments she made the last time I gave her food about how she's 'doing just fine'. "Now, why am I here? You called this little meeting, so talk already."

Evelyn purses her lips as though she is exasperated by me already.

"I saw you out on a run in the factionless sector a few weeks ago," she says. "You were with your sister, Beatrice."

I definitely didn't expect her to bring up Beatrice, and I am unable to mask my surprise before I quickly turn my expression to a scowl. "She's not my sister," I snap. "We lived in the same house for what, three or four months? That sure as hell doesn't make us family." The idea of Tris being my sister is repulsive. Tris and I never saw one another that way. We were already much too old to develop a sibling relationship, especially in such a short time.

"You seemed drawn to her," Evelyn argues, and my scowl deepens. "I could tell just by looking at you that you cared for her. No matter what you wish to believe, Tobias, I am still your mother and I know you. So if you do not see her as family, than what?"

"What is the point of this conversation, Evelyn?" I deflect coldly, and she flinches when I call her by her first name. "You can't have seriously sent that urgent-sounding note to ask me about a run I took more than month ago. Don't waste my time."

Evelyn pinches the bridge of her nose and lets out a sigh loud enough to hear over the wind that rushes through the train car. Then she drops her hand and looks up at me. "Natalie Prior," she says.