Redeemer Read Online Free

the couch, but I reach out a hand to stop her.
    “Can I see him? Can I see your baby?”
    Her hardened face softens and she nods. “Sure. He’s in the bedroom.”
    Jamie’s apartment is set up like mine, with a main room and a bedroom off to the side. Beside her bed is an old, tattered crib. Inside lies a small bundle of pink skin and brown clothing. He lies on his back, his arms spread out wide. Black hair tufts off his head.
    The tears are back. “What’s his name?”
    “Easton,” she says.
    I chuckle. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.” Turning to her, I try to smile. “He’s so beautiful. Did it hurt?”
    She chokes on something between a laugh and a sob then nods. “Yeah. A lot.”
    We make our way to the living room and plop onto the couch. I’m not sure where to start, but before I can say anything I notice the way Jamie rings her hands together and the lines on her forehead draw together.
    I take her hand. “What is it, Jamie?”
    She glances at me and swallows hard. “Can you tell me about Easton?”
    Questions swirl through my head. What did they tell her when they sent her away? They obviously lied to her, just like they lied to Easton. They told him she’d opted to abort the baby and stay in Middle City, but none of us ever saw her again.
    Now here she was.
    “He disappeared for a few days,” I say. “I assumed you’d both been demoted, but then I saw him in the market with his dad. I confronted him, but he was a pitiful mess. Cuts and bruises, but also a totally defeated spirit.”
    Jamie’s frown deepens.
    “He asked to meet me, and when we were alone he said you wanted to abort the baby and stay in Middle City 3. I knew you wouldn’t do that, but he wouldn’t listen. After several days, when he hadn’t seen you, he didn’t know what to think. He was pretty heartbroken.”
    Tears pool at the corners of her eyes and fall down her cheeks, but she doesn’t make a sound. I stare in awe at her silent tears. This isn’t the way she used to cry, but then I remember baby Easton. She’s probably learned to be a little quieter in everything she does.
    “Jamie, what did happen? How did you end up here?”
    She takes a shuddering breath. “Well, I refused to abort the baby. They said I had to, I wasn’t allowed to choose, but I told them I knew better. When they figured out I wasn’t going to give in, they told me I would be demoted and Easton said he wasn’t coming with me. I wasn’t sure it was true, but I didn’t care. I had already felt the baby move, and I couldn’t change my mind.”
    I nod, encouraging her to go on. She tries to smile, but it’s more like a grimace. “They sent me to Lesser City 3 first, but I guess I kind of lost my mind. I kept telling people I knew the truth, that the Greaters were liars. They didn’t like that, so they sent me here.”
    I gasp. “Jamie, why would you say those things?”
    “I know I acted like I didn’t care about the things you said,” she says, stopping to frown. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. But I really was listening. I spent a little time with Ava before I was sent away, and I went to her house. I was telling her parents about your mom, and Ava’s dad got all upset when I mentioned it was too bad we didn’t have chemo anymore.”
    The mention of Ava makes my heart shatter in my chest. Poor Ava. Did she ever wake up after I smacked her in the head with a rock outside the prison? Brought there to be shipped out to war, she was in such a bad state I’m not sure she could have lasted long, regardless.
    But I force my mind back to the conversation at hand. Ava’s dad used to be Greater, but he tested as Middle when he was a teenager. He must have known the Greaters have chemotherapy available.
    “I knew the truth, then,” Jamie says. “The Greaters weren’t allowing your mom to get better. So then I began questioning other things you’d said, like how you wondered about God. I asked around about that in