A tense silence hangs, the only sound the delicate beeping of my mama’s heart monitor. If my heart had a monitor, it’d be beeping out of control. I watch Clay in his dirty jeans and cotton t-shirt torn at the shoulder. His boots are grimy, his chin dark with stubble. He came after me today, risked angering his pa. Now he stands between his mother and I and doesn’t look at either of us. His blue eyes, his mother’s eyes, are locked to the polished tile floor. His hands twitch at his sides, but other than that, there are no signs of a war raging inside him. I want to close the gap between us, throw my arms around his neck and lean my head to his chest. Instead I stand stock-still and await his judgment.

He looks up at his mother. “What’ll happen to them?” He points at Ethan and me.

“That’s the best part,” she says, smiling too wide. “They can stay here at the hospital. Your father has already agreed to move the two of you to town so we can all be together. You can visit Riley as often as you like. She’ll be safe here, free from disease, war, enslavement. She’ll have the best food and medicine. And you two can still be together. It’s perfect.”

She makes it sound too good to be true. But as I look into her eyes, I don’t see a future free from pain and torment. I see imprisonment, plain and simple. Yet, it’s not my decision to make.

“What about her ma? And Ethan?” he says, shooting him a glance. “What’ll happen to them?”

“We’ll use every technology available to save Janine Meemick’s life. Out there, she might survive, but …” She looks at my mother. “It won’t be pretty. Ethan can stay with you and your father and visit his family on weekends. When he’s old enough, we can get him a job. There are perks to knowing someone in the upper offices.” She smiles slyly, raising her perfectly rounded eyebrows.

Clay frowns. “And what if I say no?”

Dr. Vandewater stiffens. “Why would you?”

He locks his jaw and stares at her. “What if I say no?”

Dr. Nessa Vandewater lifts a slightly trembling hand to smooth her hair. “Well, things could go rather badly.” She enunciates each word as she shoots eye daggers at me. She softens as she turns back at Clay. “I don’t want it to come to that, Clay. Please.”