Origins (A Black Novel, #1) Read Free Page A

defensive.
    “Adelin,” Dad says more forcefully, his face grave. “If not for Marissa, then things with your mother- and you- would’ve been a lot worse. I would have lost you both.”
    I turn to face Dr. Thorne harshly. “Thanks for killing my mother so I could live.”

    “Adelin!” Dad chokes, appalled.
    “Well…..” I trail off.
    “Adelin,” he repeats, softer. “There’s something else you need to know.”
    “What, that I only have twenty-four hours to live? Why don’t you just let her kill me now to save me the suffering?” I spit out sarcastically.
    Dad sighs deeply, taking a moment to close his eyes and steel himself before continuing. “Your mother’s alive.”
    “Bull—”
    “I know this is hard to believe, but it’s true. Your mother is alive.”
    “What about the disease? I thought you said it killed her?” I demand, angry.
    “It’s….complicated,” Dad mumbles, looking to Dr. Thorne for help.
    “How complicated, like the disease didn’t kill her but she didn’t want me around so she left?”
    “No, Adelin, your mother loved you- loves you- more than life.”
    “Then what, where is she now? Why isn’t she here, with us?” I choke out, tears beginning to sting my eyes.
    “We, all of us, Marissa, your mother, and I, decided it would be better this way. There were….side-effects from the disease…..” Dad trails off, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
    “So, you decided it would be better for me to grow up thinking my mother was dead?!” I spit harshly. How could he have kept this from me?! Didn’t I deserve to know my mother was alive? My whole life I had thought she was dead, now I know she just left me.
    “It was dangerous for you to know.”
    “Yeah, how so?” I scoff.
    “Adelin, it’s not your Dad’s fault,” Dr. Thorne cuts in. “If you want to be angry at someone then be angry with me. I’m the one who did this.”
    “Marissa….” Dad warns.
    “Paul, she needs to know,” Dr. Thorne says, waving her hands dismissively at my dad. “Would you rather she found out on her own? No, I didn’t think so. Adelin, the side-effects your dad was talking about, they’re not normal. That’s why it was dangerous for you to know until now.”
    Bewildered, I sit silently before calmly asking the question they are both waiting for. “What side-effects?”
    Dr. Thorne levels her gaze at me before speaking. “Your mother is not ‘normal’ anymore. She is what we call ‘Immortal’, like me.” My gaze flicks back and forth between the two of them, trying to gauge if they’re serious or not. Dad sits silently in the high-backed armchair on my right, his face impassive while Dr. Thorne continues looking at me placidly. “Immortal? You can’t be serious?!” I burst.
    “Honey, we’re not joking. Marissa is telling the truth,” Dad replies, unaffected by my outburst.
    “Is this some sort of joke? Wait….have you two been drinking?” I ask, eyeing them both suspiciously, suddenly reminded of our last New Year’s party.

    “I thought this is how you’d react, so, I’m prepared to prove it,” Dr.
    Thorne says, standing. I sit quietly, confused, while she walks out of the room. My confusion only deepens when she returns a few moments later holding a large, shiny kitchen knife in one hand. The light in the room bounces off the blade eerily as she raises it and brings it down, hard and fast, across her open palm.
    What the fuck?! I watch in horror as a smooth gash appears, instantly swelling and overflowing with blood. She raises her mutilated hand in front of her chest to give me a better view, which causes several crimson drops to splatter down on the thick beige carpet at her feet. My eyes are transfixed, frantic, as the blood flow seems to ebb and then stop completely as the tear in her flesh heals itself shut. I blink several times, unsure of what I had witnessed.
    When I look again, the only evidence of the cut is the drops of blood staining the carpet.
    My