Daughter of Zeus ✔

17.2

Kressick pushed him. Hard.

His son tripped backward, falling on his ass. The look he gave spoke volumes. Moretz had asked his question, and his expression was one of utter innocence. It had been very convincing, but not convincing enough for Kressick to throw away his theories about his son. The look had been another lie.

"Safe from you." Kressick looked down at him. "You called in the State authorities, told them about Ada's abilities. You sent them after her."

The innocence held. Moretz must have been used to wearing the mask. "No, I didn't. She's been on the State's radar for years, ever since her abortion."

Kressick's anger stalled out. "What? When?"

"She did it when she was eighteen, right before Roe was overturned. When she left Colorado, the State couldn't ignore her anymore. I only helped them track her." He averted Kressick's eyes.

Ada's past life choices were inconsequential to Kressick. However, Moretz's past decisions were mucking up everything. Through a careful network of lies, pseudonyms, and even a retinal replacement, Kressick had evaded State attention. Two decades back, he was almost caught, but he re-wired the agent in pursuit. Afterward, he put forth even greater effort to shield himself. His years of work, work he put forth to protect his family, had come unraveled.

"Do you know what you've done? I've had encounters with Sammies. I know what they can do and what sort of power they hope to gain by using people like us. You've signed your daughter's life over."

Moretz managed to look ashamed. "Everything I did, I did to protect my family. And she's the one that tried killing me, twice!"

"Are you mad? Ada's in danger because of you!"

"Not Ada," he sneered. "Darcy. The Sammies already knew about my powers. They've been tracking me for years, probably trying to find you. The called me a Special, wanting to study me. When I became a Congressman, the dissection option died. But Darcy...they threatened to take her instead. So I-" He took in a deep breath. "I offered them a trade."

"Brilliant. You traded one daughter for the other."

Moretz bit his lip, eyes spilling over with tears. "Ada— I never wanted to hurt her. But when I look at her, all I see is Adina. She's dangerous, and you know it."

What he left unsaid was that he wanted to control her. More so than Kressick had done.

There was a reason Moretz was explaining away his betrayal.

While re-wiring Ada, Kressick had connected with her memories. When this occurred with anyone, it was always a blur of mismatched images that could spark confusion. Yet with Ada's memories, he had seen things he couldn't explain.

Like Moretz, a much younger Moretz, putting his arms around an even younger Ada. He placed a finger on her mouth, and told her to keep a secret, no one would understand their special secret. His arms wrapped around her again, and the images had gone black. The memories had been hazy.

Kressick didn't know what to make of them. He had doubts, but they were the sort of doubts a parent never wanted to admit of their child. Moretz was beyond saving. Underneath his son's statements, Kressick heard a silent confession. Moretz was rationalizing his treatment of Ada as a coping mechanism.

How could a sexual deviant ever live with themselves, Kressick had always wondered. Now he knew—they made excuses.

Ada had been right. Moretz needed to be put down. A great pain veered across Kressick's chest, and he thought his heart might break. Before it did, he had to fix things.

"I'm sorry I couldn't raise you to be a better person," he choked out. "It all went wrong somehow. The way you treat your family, women...other people. And you dared to touch your own--"

He couldn't finish the thought aloud. In Moretz's shame-filled eyes, Kressick saw the admission of guilt for unimaginable crimes.

"No, I--I missed Adina. So, maybe, yeah, I got too close to Ada." Moretz grimaced, talking fast, while Kressick overviewed him with a morbid shock. "Then, I thought she would leave me, like Adina, and I wanted to show her how much I loved her. To make her stay. I didn't mean to hurt her."

Momentarily, Kressick stared at the floor, shaking his head. There was nothing to say in response to the babble that had left Moretz's mouth. The logic he believed in was broken, twisted, sick. There was no reasoning with him.

He took a hold of his son and did to him what he promised himself he would never do to his own flesh and blood.

A full re-wiring.