I lost it. “You knew this! Didn’t you think I had a right to know?” My whole body tensed with emotions I couldn’t even begin to name. “Someone killed my father? Killed me? And none of you thought you should tell me?”

Hayden shook his head. “You already had so much pain, Iwe wanted to protect you.”

“You don’t know what’s best for me, Hayden!” I paced to the side of the bed and stopped in front of him. “I can take care of myself.”

He looked away. “What good does knowing do you, Ember? Doesn’t it make it all the more painful? Does it change anything for you?”

“It changes everything!” I shouted. I was close to tears, close to breaking down. “Do you know who did thisdid you have something to do with it?” As soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to take them back. The idea of living with my dad’s murderersmy own murdererswas too much to consider.

I kicked the edge of the bed, but that didn’t help. I threw myself at Hayden.

He must have expected it, because he caught me around the waist and flipped me onto the bed in one fluid motion. I reared up, catching him in the stomach with my elbow before he pushed my shoulders, pinning me down.

“Stop.” He made a low sound in his throat as I continued to struggle. “We had nothing to do with it, Ember. My father is not about killing innocent people or taking children away from their parents. I know you don’t trust him, but you trust me. I know you do.”

I drew in several deep breaths and stilled under him.

“Ember?” he asked softly.

“If it wasn’t your father, then who was it?”

His hands flexed on my shoulders, again and again. “We don’t know. My father even went to the Facility to see if they had any ideas, but even with all their means of finding out things, they had no answers.”

My hands curled helplessly at my sides. “Then how do you know it wasn’t an accident?”

“We didn’t. Not until we brought you guys here.” He took another deep, steadying breath and tried to smile. “Liz has a unique gift. She can sense when a gifted is borndown to the exact location and time. But my father doesn’t just swoop in and intervene. He checks it out first, and if things aren’t right, then he tries to help out.”

“I don’t get it.”

Hayden eased off me and sat. “We always knew about Olivia, because Liz sensed her. But then, two years ago, Liz felt a new gifted being born in the same location as Olivia, except she said it felt ‘off.’ She couldn’t place what it was. Of course, that made my father curious, so he wanted to check it out. Kurt and I went along.”