“And the beauty is,” he goes on, “no one will be able to stop me. Because no one will remember what really happened here. But I will. And I’ll cherish this memory forever.”

He steps away from my dad and moves toward Falon. “You’re going to remember nothing of this day. You’re going to forget that you ever had any affiliation with SCARS, with the Scotts. You haven’t seen them since they left Lengard fifteen years ago, but you know they have a daughter, Alyssa, who has a powerful ability. And when you discover her already delivered to you, you will claim she was found in a mental facility that she checked herself into. You will do what you must to protect her from herself and others, but you will also give your evaluators free rein with their experiments.”

The two lights that are frozen midair both pulse, like a throbbing heart. Falon’s furious eyes turn glazed as the Spoken power from both of them take effect. But the lights remain, since the man isn’t finished yet.

He moves to Riley, glancing between him and my mother as he says, “It’s tragic, to lose both Christopher and Alyssa in one day. You will both believe it to have been a random act of violence, a house invasion gone wrong. The culprits took the bodies with them to hide their tracks. You two are the only witnesses, the only survivors. The police have no leads, and you won’t argue when they close the case. You will move on with your lives.” He cocks his head to the side as he focuses on my mum. “I won’t take SCARS away from you, Melody. I’m not that heartless—and too many people will ask questions if you suddenly resign. So instead, you will live every day knowing the ache of having lost your husband and your daughter. Nothing will ever fill that emptiness, no matter how hard you work, no matter how many Speakers you help. Deep down, you will know you’re fighting a losing battle; you’ll know that something is coming, and one day, everything you’ve worked for will be taken from you. But until then, you won’t remember anything else about today, nor will you— either of you—have any recollection of Maverick Falon’s prior allegiance with SCARS.”

Just like with the director, the two lights pulse, the power of Riley’s memory-erasing command coupled with my mum’s suggestion ability somehow being controlled by the man before me. I have no idea how he is doing it, how he is using our own Spoken words against us. But more tears spill down my cheeks when I see both Riley’s and my mother’s eyes glaze as his orders take effect.

Riley’s scream replays in my mind:

I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!

This is what happened. This is why he believed that.