Levi sighs. “Because you know what I’m about to say. Our guardian’s nothing if not predictable, right?”

“Sorry, but I’m not following,” says Pru.

“Our tasks,” Ansel says, in his quiet, reserved way. “I bet we each have one.”

“Twenty points to Ansel,” Levi jokes, but his voice sounds far off and devoid of emotion. “He’s not calling them tasks anymore. It’s our ‘Legacy Project.’ And we all have the same one. Getting close—closer—to our DNA families.”

I notice Theodora physically cringe at the news. The others don’t look much better.

“I knew this was coming,” Ansel says. “I tried to tell myself maybe he’d given up, but…”

“Gravelle, give up?” Levi answers, raising his voice for the first time since he got back here. “Gravelle, let go of his plan to ruin our DNA families once and for all?”

“So that’s what he wants?” I ask. “To ruin them.”

“He doesn’t phrase it that way,” Levi explains. “No, he says he’s standing up for us. He claims that the Legacy Project is a way for us to demand our birthrights. Because we are the true legacies who should be walking these halls, not our originals. And we must ensure that our DNA families pay us the attention we were robbed of all those years—”

“That he robbed you of,” Ollie interjects.

“Yes,” Levi agrees. “He wants to make the families stand up and take notice. He says we did a decent job last year, putting Damian Leroy behind bars and transferring all that Ward, Inc. stock to me…”

“You mean, to him,” I say.

Levi sighs. “Right.”

“Sending Tessa’s dad to prison was the worst thing I’ve ever done,” Theodora says, her eyes growing wet with tears. “Maybe what I did was technically the right thing, but…”

“It was more than that, Thea,” Pippa says, walking over to sit next to her. “You had an obligation, didn’t you? Damian Leroy was committing fraud.”

“Then why couldn’t Gravelle have exposed him? I’m a teenager. It’s not my job to turn in criminals.”

“He couldn’t do it because he’s a coward.” Levi shrugs. “I know he’s hurt, and messed up, and a part of his soul is missing, and maybe that’s not entirely his fault. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s done unconscionable things. Or that he’s using us to do his dirty work. He spins this as us claiming what’s rightfully ours, but let’s face it. He wants us to screw over our DNA families, once and for all.”