In a world where people killed each other over half a can of food, I had four dads who spoiled me like a princess. After Mom died, her four closest comrades found me still alive inside her womb. So I ended up with four dads. First Dad, Ethan, was the Commander of Fortress Eden. Second Dad, Nathan, was the Warden — the most vicious criminals turned obedient in front of him. Third Dad, Callum, was a brilliant scientist, leading the hunt for a vaccine. Fourth Dad, Xander, was the strongest fighter the base had ever seen. I grew up wrapped in their love. Every woman in the safe zone envied me. Until the year I turned sixteen, when they found Jade, the daughter of the woman they had all once loved. From that day on, my four dads became strangers. Jade said I insulted her. Ethan Dad had my mouth wired shut and starved me for three days and nights. She said I poisoned her. Callum Dad strapped me down and injected me with a vaccine still in testing. The serum ravaged me from the inside out, destroying one of my eyes. When Jade claimed I’d hired men to assault her, Xander Dad grabbed me by the collar and threw me into the refugee slum outside the inner walls. Three years passed. I went from fury to submission. Until tonight, my tent flap opened again, I began undressing out of habit. Then I heard a voice say, “Lily, do you want to come back to your mother?” I snapped my head up. But the room was empty. At the same moment, a voice echoed through my mind. It said it was a faint trace of my mother’s consciousness. My mother was from future. After completing her mission, she’d left in a hurry, never expecting that she would have a daughter. Now she knew. She wanted to take me home. All I had to do was let this body die. It spoke again. “Lily, your mother has been desperate since she found out about you. Will you—” It hadn’t even finished when I was already on my feet. Without hesitation, I grabbed a blade and pressed it against my throat. This was wonderful. Mom was alive. And I was about to see her. A joy so massive it drowned out every fear of death. But just as I pressed the blade harder, a tremendous force struck my hand. Pain shot through my fingers. I let go. The blade hit the floor. A boot came down on top of it. “Lily. You want to die?” I knew that voice. My head lifted on instinct. When I saw who it was, I called out without thinking. “Xander Dad.” The moment it left my mouth, I already regretted it. Sure enough, the man’s brow furrowed. “Don’t call me that. I cut ties with you a long time ago.”
The man standing before me was Xander, the strongest fighter in the base. When I was small, a rival faction inside the base had kidnaped me. To make them let me go, Xander stood in front of their leader and took three bullets without flinching — just to bring me back without a scratch. After I was rescued, I cried looking at his wounds. He just stroked my head and told me those cuts felt like nothing to him. But watching me cry, he said, nearly killed him. Among my four dads, Xander Dad loved me the most. It was a shame that love vanished four years ago, the day Nathan Dad brought a wounded Jade back from a supply search. I had always known my four dads had all loved the same woman once. What I never knew was that she wasn’t my mother. She was Jade’s mother. They say my four dads were the son of a legendary warrior named Marcus. The former base commander, General Victor, had feared Marcus’s growing influence and purged his entire faction on fabricated charges. It was my young mother who hid them, smuggling each boy to a different base. When they grew strong enough, she helped them rise up and take back the base. Ethan Dad became the new Commander. Justice was finally done. They say my mother and Ethan Dad were deeply in love. But just before their wedding, a woman named Serena appeared. One look at her, and all four men forgot themselves. My mother kept trying to fight for what was hers. In the end, jealousy consumed her, and she took her own life. After she died, Serena disappeared too. Only when Jade came back did they learn the truth. Serena left because she felt guilty for my mother’s death. Honestly, I never believed any of that. My instincts told me my mother was not the villain. Serena was. But my dads didn’t trust my instincts. They decided I was just like her. Jealous. Petty. Causing trouble. So every time I clashed with Jade, they took her side. It wasn’t long before I went from their beloved little princess to a ghost in the base. Xander picked up the blade and glanced at the wound on my throat. Then his wrist turned. The blade came straight for me. I stumbled back two steps on reflex. The flash of steel passed. A new cut appeared on my neck. Xander gave a cold laugh. “If you want to die that badly, why did you dodge?” “Lily. You’re just like that mother of yours. Pathetic. Always hurting yourself to get someone’s attention.” “She was smarter than you, at least. She always did it in front of all four of us. You pick this kind of miserable place. You’ve really lost your mind.”
I was about to explain I wasn’t performing. Then I remembered. Every explanation I had ever given, they ignored. I lowered my head. “You’re right, Xander. And may I ask why you’ve come all the way here? Was it specifically to watch me perform?” Xander paused. “Don’t flatter yourself. Today is Jade’s birthday. She said recently that she’s willing to forgive you and be friends again. I came to bring you to her.” Three days ago, word had spread that the Commander intended to name Jade his successor. He had arranged a ceremony at the base on her birthday to make it official. I was one year older than her. That was a promise Ethan Dad had made to me when I was ten — that one day, I would lead after him. In the past, if anyone tried to take something of mine, I would have burned the whole place down before letting them have it. Now I simply looked at Xander without expression. “I don’t want to go.” Xander paused. Then he said, “That’s not your choice to make.” He grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out. He shoved me into the SUV and drove toward the command hall. Sitting in the SUV, Xander talked into my ear the entire time. I needed to kneel when I saw Jade. I needed to stop angering her. My chest ached quietly. I watched the road blur faster and faster outside. The thought of seeing my mother grew louder and louder in my mind. I stood up, shoved the door open, and jumped. Before I hit the ground, I heard a shout. I thought, at this speed, I would finally manage it. Instead of the impact I expected, I fell into something warm. Xander had caught me. We rolled across the ground twice together. His furious voice broke over my head. “Lily. Are you insane?” I looked at him. Blood from a cut on his forehead ran down his face. I reached up to wipe it away. His expression turned vicious. “Can you stop this? You just want to see if I still care about you. I’m telling you right now, rescuing you means nothing. I would have done the same for any stranger. If I’d known what you were thinking, I never would have jumped.” “From now on, if you want to die, go ahead. I’m not stopping you.” My hand froze in the air. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the lake just off the road. I smiled faintly. “Okay, Xander. Remember what you said.” Before he could react, I was on my feet. I turned and threw myself into the water. Xander had nearly drowned as a child. Water was his one fear. And he had just said those words. He was not coming in after me. So when the freezing water rushed into my lungs, I felt nothing but relief. Finally. I was going to see Mom.
After some time, the darkness cleared. I sat up eagerly, ready to find mom. Then someone slapped me hard onto the floor. “You worthless girl. All we did was send you to the slum to reflect. And you pull this stunt the moment you see Xander. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? He almost drowned trying to pull you out.” Callum Dad’s voice came from above me. His face was dark with fury. Of my four dads, I had been closest to Callum. The others were constantly occupied. So the task of raising me had fallen on him. He taught me to read. He taught me biology and medicine. He was always gentle. No matter how badly I misbehaved, he guided me with patience and never once punished me. But the Callum who never raised his voice at me struck me on Jade’s very first day back. That time, Jade had contaminated Callum’s pathogen samples herself. Then she told him I did it. Callum took a belt to me. “Lily, this is my failure. I raised you to be reckless and careless. Do you have any idea how many lives depend on those samples?” Later, when Jade claimed I’d injected her with an untested serum, Callum did the same to me — strapped me down, pumped his experimental serum into my body, and locked me in the ward as a test subject. The serum burned through me like acid — every nerve screaming, my skin splitting open, my body convulsing until I nearly stopped breathing. Though Callum treated me afterward, I still lost an eye. Now he stood over me, silent fury building. He raised his hand to strike again. At the last moment, Xander caught his wrist. “Eli, calm down. Today is Jade’s ceremony. She apparently can’t handle it. She’s already tried to kill herself three times in front of me.” I glanced at Xander. He had changed clothes. His wounds were bandaged. But his face was pale. I remembered what Callum had said. Xander couldn’t swim. Whatever it had cost him to pull me out of that lake, it wasn’t nothing. Callum scoffed. “Xander, you’ve been fooled. Four years ago you were away on a mission. She pulled these tricks constantly in front of all of us. She just wants our attention.” Xander relaxed slightly, as if something inside him unclenched. “So that’s what it was.” Callum looked back at me. “Lily, today is Jade’s birthday. If you need to act out, do it in front of us. Don’t take it to Ethan Dad or Nathan Dad. You know how those two are…” He didn’t finish. I was already lunging toward his medicine cabinet. I had lived with Callum long enough to know where he kept his most lethal drugs. I found the worst one and swallowed it before anyone could stop me. Callum went white.
The drug was bitter. But I felt light. Callum had once told me there was no antidote for this one. If I swallowed it, it was over. Callum only froze for a moment. Then he was in front of me, forcing his fingers into my mouth. “Do you know what you just took?” He wrenched my jaw open and shoved his fingers down my throat. His large hand patted my back forcefully. Black blood trickled out of my mouth. Only when the blood turned red did he breathe again. “Lily. It’s just a position. Was dying really worth it?” Xander was still shaking. He had finally accepted I was serious, and his voice trembled. “Lily, don’t do this again. Actually, yesterday all four of us spoke with Jade. She said she’s ready to forgive you. After today, you can come back to live with us. We’ll treat you the way we used to. Okay?” Hearing that, tears fell from my eyes. Both men assumed it was relief. The next second I dropped to my knees before them. “Callum Dad. Xander Dad. Please. Just let me go.” Callum’s face reddened. “Lily, do you understand what we just said…” “I understand.” I no longer wanted to hide it. “But I don’t want to go back. I want to find my mother.” I told them everything the voice in my head had said. Their expressions shifted and twisted as they listened. Finally, Callum helped me up. “Lily, listen to me. Your mother is truly gone.” She had drowned in the lake years ago. Ethan Dad pulled her out, but Callum had used everything he knew and still couldn’t save her. Afterward, all four of them removed me from her womb and kept vigil for seven days. They watched her body rotten until there was nothing left. Callum said the voice in my head was probably a trauma-induced hallucination. It wasn’t. I was certain. But no matter how I insisted, they refused to believe me. Callum sighed. “If you truly don’t want to come back, then stay here with me. As long as you behave, I won’t let anyone hurt you again.” I was about to shake my head. Heavy boots came pounding from outside. Moments later, Ethan Dad and Nathan Dad rushed in. “Callum, Xander, have you seen Jade? She’s missing.”
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