Page 149 of Stolen Omega

A crime the people I thought were my parents must have committed.

“I don’t think we should keep talking about this,” he admits. “Not right now.”

I frown at him. “I’m okay. I can handle it.”

“I’m not so sure,” he murmurs.

“Why me?” I ask him. “If it was about replacing someone else’s kid, why did they take me?”

He sighs. “I think it’s because you were an easy target. You lived in a high crime area, and you were born to parents who wouldn’t have the money to try and find you. I’m guessing the fact that you’re an Omega was what sealed your fate. They knew they’d legally be seen as your guardians, once you were brainwashed into forgetting your past and accepting them as your parents.”

My parents aren’t my parents. It’s getting easier to think that way.

No wonder they were so cold and distant. I was never really their child.

I existed to make sure they’d never be found guilty of whatever they did to the real Zelena.

They didn’t see me as a real person, never mind a daughter who deserved to be loved and protected.

“How did they do it?” I ask. “How did they make me forget?”

“They didn’t. This is where it gets a little more twisted. Someone else had you kidnapped to replace their daughter. It put the Ortegas in his debt, and that’s exactly what he was looking for. You know him. His name is Warren Corvina.”

“Brooke’s father?” I blurt.

I always knew he was an asshole, but this? This makes him a criminal.

Ripping a young girl away from her family the way he did? That makes him evil.

Zane nods. “He needed someone he could trust to launder dirty money. He loaned the Ortegas money through a bank he owns, and they set up a network of legitimate business. Those businesses use his existing businesses as suppliers. It’s all built to make it look like Warren’s money is coming from legit sources.”

“Where is it actually coming from?”

Do I really want to know?

“As far as I can tell, whenever an Omega with no ties comes to one of his treatment clinics, they seem to go missing. I think he’s been selling those Omegas to high paying clients. I have a list of names. People who went to a clinic and never came home. They aren’t still in the clinics. I checked that, too. Everything points toward trafficking. I think, going by his body of work, that he’s probably brainwashing the Omegas he’s selling, too.”

I can’t help the swell of panic that surges over me. My thoughts immediately go to my best friend.

“He’s been trafficking Omegas? What about Brooke? Is she safe?”

“She was still at Goldcrest Academy the last time I checked,” he assures me.

“Which was when?”

“A few days ago.”

“I should call her.” I take my phone out of my pocket, before I remember the battery is dead.

“You can’t.”

“I have to,” I tell him. “If her father stole me and gave me to the Ortegas, and he’s been selling Omegas …”

I trail off, remembering how pissed she said he’d been getting at her. She wouldn’t choose an Alpha to marry and mate with. He was never very warm toward her, but he only reminded me of my parents, so at the time it didn’t seem strange.

Now? Now, I’m seriously worried about my best friend.

“I’ll check it out. Okay?” Zane asks. “We need to avoid alerting anyone who might tell the cops where you are until we’ve decided how we’re going to handle everything.”

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