see your father in the two of you. You are his mirror images, but only Gray has his stubborn nature, so remember that even in keeping this secret, as painful as it may be, Gray is your brother, your twin, and will forgive you in time.
There is no signature, only a splotch of ink at the bottom of the parchment.
This is the information that Frank wants, right here in this letter. This could be what he needs, proof that a concealed birthday made all the difference in my escaping the Heist.
“Can I keep this?” I ask, not looking up.
“Sure.”
I fold the parchment in on itself, matching premade creases. Blaine passes the first page back to me, and I return the complete letter to my pocket. It’s odd finally having Ma’s letter in its entirety. For so long, I thought that reading the message would make sense of things, but even now, I’m still perplexed. And plagued by questions.
“What was Carter’s plan? What did I mess up by leaving?”
“After Ma died, Carter filled me in,” Blaine says. “She said if we were not Heisted together, her plan was to simply wait. After your Heist, if it came on your nineteenth birthday, she’d have proof that the Heist was somehow based on public records and not actual birth dates. She was going to talk to Maude then, start devising a way to hide other boys’ birth dates on a more grand scale, buy them more time. Test out the theory. After that, I don’t know.”
I snort. I don’t think telling Maude would have been much help, not after what I saw the night I climbed. I start to tell Blaine this, but he speaks over me.
“I thought she was crazy, too. I thought they’d both lost their minds and I only stayed quiet because I’d made a promise to Ma.” Blaine looks at the ground and then back to me. “She said you’d forgive me. For keeping secrets.”
Ma was right about me being his brother, about the fact that I’ll forgive him. I’m just not ready. Not yet. You can’t read that your whole life is a lie, that you were a test, and then carry on like everything’s normal. Nothing about me is normal. Nothing about where I am now is normal. I am completely and utterly lost.
“Gray.” It’s another I’m sorry without saying the actual words.
“It’s done, Blaine.” There’s an awkward pause. I try to remember if one existed between us before, and come up with nothing. “So you know everything?” I continue, desperate to break the silence. “About Claysoot? And Harvey?”
He nods. “You?”
“Yeah, Frank told me.”
“You met him? In person?”
“How else would he have told me?”
“I watched it all on a video.” He must read the confusion on my face, because he continues. “They have these things called cameras here. It’s like a set of eyes that can watch things at all times. It can even save some of what it sees and trap it permanently, so you can watch it later, anytime you want. I think they did that with Frank—had him talk about Claysoot, saved his speech, and then showed it to me when I was Heisted. Septum and Craw saw the same thing. Frank’s so busy, he doesn’t have time to meet each boy after every single Heist. I’m amazed he had time to meet you.” He pauses for a second and then adds, “What’s he like?”
“He’s really nice.”
Blaine sticks his hands in his pockets. “I hope he figures things out soon. I think about Kale every day. I need to get her out of there.”
The mention of Kale makes me think of everyone else still trapped behind the Wall. Of Carter and Sasha and Maude. “Do you think they’ll all climb now?” I ask, panicked. “If Emma and I were the first the Order picked up, that means there won’t be bodies. If there aren’t bodies, everyone might—”
“They won’t,” Blaine says.
“You don’t know that.”
“The video . . . it mentioned that if the Order saves a climber, they will use someone from the prisons as a replacement. Leaving a criminal of similar build in the Outer Ring ensures that a body goes back to Claysoot.”
I think of the second car waiting on the hill when Emma and I were found by Marco. It had driven off, but not in the direction we did. Its driver had more business to attend to. “I guess it makes sense,” I say. “If Emma and I are the first