A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (2 page)

I could hear the hurt in his voice. It was starting to show in his face. I couldn’t stand to see him that way, especially knowing that I was the cause of it.
 

A tear ran down my cheek. “I’m sorry, Colin. But you don’t understand! I didn’t mean to! I swear—”

Colin interrupted me. “When did this happen, Sam?”

I glanced at Erik to answer. “Last Saturday. A week ago. After some big party at GlobalLife.”

“A week ago?” Jack asked. “That can’t be right, Erik. They wouldn’t know that soon.”

“They have tests that can detect a pregnancy within days.”

“That still seems very early to know,” Dave said.

“Because it wasn’t last Saturday was it, Erik?” Colin launched himself at Erik again, his fist aimed and ready. Jack and Dave could barely hold him back.
 

“He can hit me again,” Erik said to his dad. “Go ahead. Let him. I’d want to hit him, too, if it were the other way around.”

“That’s not going to help, son.”

Colin pushed Jack and Dave away and put his focus back on me. “How long has this really been going on, Sam?”
 

The pain in his eyes was killing me. I tried to turn away but he wouldn’t let me. He came up right in front of me and waited for me to look at him. His voice was calmer now but filled with disappointment. “Sam. Tell me. How long? Right after you met him?”

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how.

“Sam, I spent day and night looking for you after you went missing. Was all this going on back then? Was this what you were doing while I was being captured and drugged and beaten by GlobalLife?”

“No! That’s not what happened!” Tears poured from my eyes.

“Enough of this!” Dave stood in front of Colin, blocking him from me. “Neither one of you is in a condition to talk right now.”

Colin ignored him. “Were you two together all that time we were on the road? Were you lying to me that whole time? You said you loved me, Sam. You JUST said it. Just this morning. Was that all a lie?”

“No! Of course not. I do love you, Colin. I would never lie about that.”
 

“Colin, let’s go back to your room.” Dave put his hand firmly on Colin’s shoulder, turning him away from me. Colin didn’t protest. I watched the two of them walk back down the hall.

“Dad, can we have a minute?” Erik asked.

Jack reluctantly agreed. “But you and I are going to have a chat as soon as you’re done here.”
 

I sat down next to Erik in total disbelief over what had just happened.
 

“I’m sorry he had to find out that way, Sam. I didn’t see him coming down the hall. If I had, I would’ve—”

“He hates me, Erik. Colin hates me.” I wiped the tears off my face. “I told you he’d never forgive me.”

“Well, you were right when you said he’d try to kill me.” Erik’s attempt at humor wasn’t helping. He got serious again. “Let him cool off, Sam. He doesn’t even know the whole story yet.”

“He doesn’t need to! He’ll never believe it. And besides, even if I don’t remember us having sex, we did plenty of other stuff I’m not proud of.”

Erik didn’t respond. My comment made it sound like every intimate moment we had shared was bad or wrong. And I knew he didn’t agree.

“I’m just saying that I shouldn’t have let our relationship get as far as it did. I should have put a stop to things before we ended up here.”

“A stop to what, Sam? The physical stuff? Or everything? Are you saying you regret how close we’ve become? Because I don’t regret anything we’ve done. And it sucks to hear that you do.”

“Of course I have regrets. Colin would never have done something like this to me. And I didn’t think I was capable of doing something like this to him. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. In a million years I never wanted to do this to Colin. I never wanted him to feel this way. And did you see how he looked at me? With so much anger and disappointment?”

“Yeah, I got the same look from my dad,” Erik muttered.

“Colin’s been mad at me before, but this is so much different. He won’t forgive me like he’s done in the past.”

“You’ve been friends since you were kids, right? He’s not going to throw that all away.”

“Why would he stay friends with me? I lied to him. I cheated on him. I betrayed his trust.”

“Just explain to him that the whole thing between us was engineered by GlobalLife.”

“He’s not going to believe that, Erik.
You
don’t even believe that. I’m the only one who seems to think that it’s true.”

“So where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know,” I said, wishing I had never gotten out of bed that morning.

“Samantha, I need to talk to you.” Dave had returned from taking Colin away. “And Erik? Your father would like to have a word with you.”

“Yeah, okay.” Erik got up and went down the hall to see Jack.

Dave took his place next to me. “So, it sounds like you left out a few things when we talked last night. Do you want to tell me about it?”

“No, not really.” I kept my eyes on the floor, not wanting to see Dave’s expression.
 

“Samantha, look at me.” Dave waited for me to lift my eyes back to his. “You know I won’t judge you. Or scold you. Or whatever you think I might do. I just want to know what’s been going on with you.”

“
I
don’t even know what’s been going on with me, Uncle Dave. I’m confused. I don’t know how I ended up here. It’s not like me. You know that. I’ve always been Miss Perfect. Never does anything wrong. And now my life is a complete mess.”

“Let’s just step back a minute here. Obviously you’ve developed a close relationship with Erik, so let’s—”

“Yes. But I love Colin. I really do. I don’t even know what it is that Erik and I have together. I care about him. And we were attracted to each other the second we met. But we’re programmed to be that way.”

“Wait a minute. Who told you that?”

“The researchers in the lab at GlobalLife. They said the software in Erik and me makes us attracted to anyone who has these alien base pairs in them. That way, people with the enhanced genes don’t end up with normal people. They don’t want to dilute their superior gene pool with inferior genes. Their words, not mine.”

I could see the software developer side of Dave imagining how that might work. “Hmm, that’s interesting. But I’m not sure if that’s possible.”

“At first, Erik and I thought they were making it up. But it made sense. Because before I even met Erik, I was drawn to him. I was standing at the bus station in San Antonio and I just knew that I had to go to that town. I’d never even heard of Comfort, Texas. But it’s almost like Erik was calling me there. And then when I saw him, we had this instant connection. We both did. I felt like I couldn’t leave him. Like I had to be with him. And I had no idea why.”

“So you got involved with him then?”

“No. I mean, kind of. We talked a lot and became friends. And, well, we kissed. Once.”

“And then Colin was back?”

“Yes. Colin came back and I told Erik that whatever we’d started back in Texas was over.”

“Then you’re saying that you and Erik developed this relationship during your time at GlobalLife these past few weeks.”

“Yes. But it’s not like I planned that. You don’t understand. They made Erik and me stay in the same room. The same bed even. It was like one big setup to get us to . . . you know.”

“Um, okay.” Dave wasn’t convinced.

“Uncle Dave, I’m telling you. It’s true. It was a setup. And when we didn’t cooperate, they told us we had to. And they said that if we didn’t, they would take more drastic measures, whatever that means. They said they needed a baby. They needed to see what happens when our enhanced genes are combined.”

“Well, I guess that would make sense. So you and Erik . . . did what you needed to do in order to avoid having GlobalLife intervene?”

“Well, not exactly. We didn’t know about their plan when this happened. But the night of the gala, neither one of us remembers doing anything.”

He looked at me skeptically.

“Okay, we did
some
things. But not the thing that’s needed to make a baby! We had champagne that night. And things went farther than they should have, but we didn’t—you know.” I felt my face blushing trying to explain this to Dave.
 

“Then why would you think that you’re pregnant?”
 

“Because I can’t remember what happened after I went to sleep. Neither can Erik. But in the morning, it kind of looked like we might have done something.”

“What do you mean?”

I felt my cheeks getting even redder. “Well, we kind of woke up without—without our clothes.”

Dave looked embarrassed. “I see.”

“So then a few days later, Mrs. Taylor comes in and tells me I’m pregnant.”

“Mrs. Taylor?”

“Yes. Allie’s mom. Didn’t Owens tell you anything?”

“Owens hasn’t been here much. He’s either been at GlobalLife or at his private residence in Reykjavik.”

I took a few minutes to fill Dave in on Eve Taylor, the mom of my close friend, Allie. While at GlobalLife, I learned that Allie’s mom had been in on the genetic enhancement project since before I was born. She told me that my friendship with her daughter was never real. That it was just a way for her to spy on me for GlobalLife.

“So now I don’t have Allie or Colin. I lost my two closest friends. One was probably never my friend and now the other one hates me.”

Dave sighed. “Come here, honey. You need a big Uncle Dave hug.” He held me tight, making me feel a tiny bit better. Uncle Dave could always make me feel better. His hugs were the best. And as promised, he didn’t judge me. Even after all that I’d told him.

“Colin and I are over, Uncle Dave. Back in Minnesota, I told Colin that I loved him. It was the first time I’d said it to him. It was that night of the winter formal.”

“So that’s why you were so giddy when you came home?”

I smiled, remembering it. “Yeah. It was a great night. Perfect. I knew then that Colin was the one. I was sure of it.”

“Even with your rule of no serious relationships before age 30?”

I rolled my eyes, thinking how silly that sounded now. “I was going to break that rule. But now, I’ve screwed everything up.”

“Colin just needs time. He’s just feeling hurt right now.”

“This won’t get any better, Uncle Dave. It’s bad enough that he knows about Erik and me, but now with the baby—”

“I’m not so sure about this baby, Sam. I want one of the doctors here to verify this pregnancy. The way you described it, I just can’t imagine how—”

I interrupted, not wanting Dave to imagine anything about how it might have happened. “Did you talk to Colin at all when you took him away?”

“Yes. I had a brief talk with him in his room.”

“And? What did he say?”

“Well, he doesn’t feel he can trust you anymore.”

I sighed. “That’s proof that our relationship is over. You can’t have a relationship without trust. What else did he say?”

“Sam, I don’t think he means anything he’s saying right now.”

“Just tell me what he said. I can handle it.”

“No. I’m not going to be the messenger here, Sam. You two need to work this out between yourselves. I need to focus on getting this timer stopped in you and Erik. Speaking of that, Jack and I have our meeting with the medical team soon, so I need to get going. But I’ll catch up with you later this afternoon.” He gave me a peck on the forehead. “And don’t worry, honey. This will all work out.”

I nodded as he got up and left. Erik came back looking like he’d just been yelled at.
 

“How was it?” I asked as he sat down.

“Pretty bad. I got the whole lecture about not being responsible, not thinking, not treating you with respect.”

“Not treating me with respect?”

“He said I should’ve been a gentleman. Slept on the floor all those nights. Not made you feel uncomfortable.”

“I didn’t feel uncomfortable.”

“Well, he thinks you did. He said I’m older and I’m the man and I should have known better.”

“I find that insulting! And sexist. Does he think I didn’t have a say in any of this?”

“He’s old-fashioned, Sam. You know that. He still uses pay phones for crying out loud. He’s not saying that I forced you into anything. He’s just saying that I shouldn’t have tried stuff. That I should have respected the fact that you have a boyfriend.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I didn’t tell him anything. He knows me. Even if he’d given me that same lecture back in Texas, he knows that it wouldn’t have changed things. I am who I am. I take risks. I go for what I want. And I wanted—well, you. So I went for it. I figured you’d probably go back to Colin, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying. It’s not like you’ve got a ring on your finger.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Erik had basically admitted that he was competing with Colin all along. And that he hoped he’d win. Yet he acted like he was friends with Colin. He’d even given me advice to get Colin back, many times. I couldn’t figure him out.
 

“Did you explain to your dad how the GlobalLife software makes us attracted to each other?”
 

“Yeah. But I’m not sure he believes it.”

“Ms. Andrews?” The voice came from the hallway as a man in a lab coat approached us. “You have an appointment with our physician in a few minutes.”

“Is this for the procedure tomorrow?”
 

“No. This is to confirm your pregnancy. Shouldn’t take long. The tests for the procedure will be run on both of you later this morning.”

“Yeah, all right.” I nudged Erik. “Can you come with me? You don’t have to go in the room, but maybe just wait outside?”

Erik got up. “Sure. Let’s go.”

“He can come with me, right?” I asked the man.

“Yes, of course. Do you mind escorting yourselves to the medical office? Just go to the very end of the hall, turn left, and keep going until you see the sign.”

We headed down the hall. On the way there, I stopped at Colin’s room. “Colin?” I said it loud enough to be heard through the door, but there was no response.