Page 128 of Bound By Stars
“My mom’s from Mars?” The words feel wrong. She hates Mars. Never wanted to go. Or go back? The memory of her and my dad in the kitchen. What did she say?Did you think of what happens…if they find me?
Curran’s ranting echoes in my mind.You have a lot of fight in you. That’s one thing we both got from our dad.
I study the man at the end of my bed more closely. His hair, dark and curly, is like Curran’s. Like mine. And there’s something familiar in the shape of his mouth.
“I didn’t even know you existed until I was contacted as a DNA match to one of the unidentified survivors. I take it from your expression you didn’t know I existed, either.” He stands and paces around the side of the bed.
“You’re…you’re my father.” My biological father. Dad in DNA only.
He nods and holds out a hand. “Declan Nole.”
I turn back to the window, hiding my face as tears blur my vision. I don’t want to be here. I want to go home. To talk to my mom.
“Take some time to collect yourself. I realize this is a lot to process. When you’re ready, I’ll be back to take you home.”
“I don’t have a home here.”
“You’re a Nole, Weslie. Of course you do.” It sounds like he means to be comforting, but his stoic tone has the opposite effect.
The door clicks shut.
I squeeze my eyes closed. How could my mom keep this from me? How could she lie to me all this time? When I was a kid, sure, but now? Didn’t I have a right to know?
I slide out of bed. A floating sensation floods my body with my first step. I must have stood up too fast.
Wait, no. I’m on Mars. Gravity isn’t what I’m used to on Earth.
Careful and slow, I cross the room to the window and pull back the curtain.
Orange dirt swirls in the wind around the network of domed passageways and glass cubes. The Elysian habitat. All this time they called us dust mites, but all this planet has is dust. Beyond the tall structures, jagged red mountains glow in the sunlight. I trace the ridgeline on the glass. Just like the drawing in Jupiter’s sketchbook.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Jupiter
Seventeen sols on Mars
In the middle of the central hub, the evening rush moves too quickly to notice me. It’s the one place I can feel anonymous. Not the same peace as the arboretum on the ship. The trees here are spaced out among the levels, surrounded by other air-purifying plants. I’m hidden in plain sight. There’s nowhere to get lost or pretend I’m somewhere different. But for a moment, if I sit still in the center of the flow of people, I’m invisible.
“Your mom is looking for you again.” Skye slides onto the bench next to me, nudging my shoulder and shattering my illusion.
“What’s new?” She hasn’t let up even after the ship blew up. After I barely made it out alive, and Weslie…didn’t.
“Did you ask her for more time?”
“She prefers to pretend like nothing happened. Says staying busy will be good for me.” I turn away, facing the outer wall. Outside, the pinkish sky turns blue as the sun sets.
“Did you see this?” She holds up her comm screen. The title of the article is in bold across the top.White Star Line’s Rushed Work onBoundlessLeads to Greatest Space Travel Disaster in History.
“Yeah, faulty wiring.” I shake my head.
“Any word on…” She bites her lips.
“The directory of survivors will only release information to ‘immediate family.’” I rub the back of my neck. Every day since we got to Mars, I’ve tried, but they keep turning me away. I know what I saw. I know what happened. I just can’t accept it until they confirm it. “Curran volunteered to give it a try.”
“Did he ever figure out why Reve tried to keep him on the ship?”
“He swears he has no idea.” I tilt my head back and rest back on my palms. Ten stories above, a misshapen moon passes the clear, round ceiling. Another day and its second pass brings Phobos an incalculably tiny fraction nearer to the planet, closer to destruction.
