“After everything you just told me, I definitely do,” I said. And I did. The way Mark talked about Damien … I know he wasn’t lying. He didn’t hate Damien, that much was obvious. I don’t think he had any reason to lie.

“I have to ask…” I started and everyone stiffened in preparation. “If Damien is really as dangerous as you guys say, why didn’t the AM just … keep him? It doesn’t seem like they have a problem with that kind of stuff.”

Mark snorted in agreement while Dr. Bright jumped in with a theory.

“I think Wadsworth is hoping that Damien’s ability will eventually come back. If she put him away or continued to experiment on him, he might not heal properly. But if he returns to his life and some semblance of normalcy…”

“He’ll bounce back,” Mark said.

“I think that’s her hope,” Dr. Bright said.

“But if his ability makes him dangerous, why would she want that?” I probed, filing away that Damien had said the same thing.

“I imagine she’d want to use it for something,” Dr. Bright said.

“Make another drug. Like the immunity,” Sam said grimly.

“Exactly,” Dr. Bright agreed.

I sat there, taking it all in, trying to separate the lies from the truth, figure out who to trust. It seemed like Damien had been lying about the AM taking away his ability, but not the fact that Atypical immunity was possible. And the big takeaway from the whole night was clear: the AM could not be trusted.

I hate when my mom is right.

The rest of the details of the night are a bit of a blur—it feels like I’ve been over here living out my own fantasy novel and, for a moment, I stepped into a companion series with its own cast of characters and plot lines. I watched the personal drama unfold in front of me, trying to pick up on as many clues as possible, and understand who—if anyone—I could trust.

I don’t really know where I’ve landed with how I feel about Dr. Bright. I don’t think anything she told me was a lie, but she’s absolutely still hiding things from me. And maybe from her friends and family too.

We did agree on one thing though: I need to find a new therapist.

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2017

I didn’t really plan on going to see Damien, at least not yet. I had planned on calling Owen or Mags or Dr. Loving, go all Nancy Drew at the AM and try to uncover a little bit more of the truth so I could line up everything that everyone had said and compare them, find the real truth amidst all the hurt feelings and different perspectives.