To Try Again | Divergent (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 26

Tris POV

When I leave Tobias' apartment, I walk to the dormitory. When I walk in, most of the initiates—Dauntless-born and transfer alike—are crowded between the rows of bunk beds with Peter at their center. He holds a piece of paper in both hands.

Oh no.

"The mass exodus of the children of Abnegation leaders cannot be ignored or attributed to coincidence," he reads. "The recent transfer of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, the children of Andrew Prior, calls into question the soundness of Abnegation's values and teachings."

Cold creeps up my spine, and I squeeze my hands into fists. Having to listen to this the first time was bad enough. This is the second time I'm having to listen to the rumors that the Erudite make about my father.

Christina looks at me nervously. I shake my head, and release a breath.

"Why else would the children of such an important man decide that the lifestyle he has set out for them is not an admirable one?" Peter continues. "Molly Atwood, a fellow Dauntless transfer, suggests a disturbed and abusive upbringing might be to blame. 'I heard her talking in her sleep once,' Molly says. 'She was telling her father to stop doing something. I don't know what it was, but it gave her nightmares.'"

I want to scream, but it feels as if I'm frozen. I can't move, but when Molly smiles at me with her crooked teeth, I snap.

What?" I demand. Or I try to demand, but my voice comes out strangled and scratchy, and I have to clear my throat and say it again. "What?"

Trying to stay calm in this situation, but I have to. Otherwise, I might do something that could get me in trouble. I can't risk losing my place in the rankings, especially now that we have a plan.

Peter stops reading, and a few people turn around. Some, like Christina, look at me in a pitying way, their eyebrows drawn in, their mouths turned down at the corners. But most give me little smirks and eye one another suggestively. Peter turns last, with a wide smile.

"Give me that!" I scream, holding out my hand. My face feels like it's on fire. It's taking everything in me not to attack him.

"But I'm not done reading," he replies, laughter in his voice. His eyes scan the paper again. "However, perhaps the answer lies not in a morally bereft man, but in the corrupted ideals of an entire faction. Perhaps the answer is that we have entrusted our city to a group of proselytizing tyrants who do not know how to lead us out of poverty and into prosperity."

That's when I lose it. I storm up to him, trying to snatch the paper from his hands. He holds it above his head, laughing. I'm too short. I am not going to jump to get it. So, I do what any Dauntless in my position would do. I lift my heel and stomp as hard as I can where the bones in his foot connect to his toes. He grits his teeth to stifle a groan.

Then I look at Molly, and throw myself at her.  I'm hoping the surprise will be enough to knock her down. Before I can reach her, cold hands wrap around my waist, pulling me back.

"That's my father!" I scream. "My father, you coward."

Will pulls me away from Molly. My breaths seem to have quickened, but I continue struggling to get the paper before I have to hear another word of it. I have to burn it; I have to destroy it; I have to.

I can only imagine what the rest of that article will say. I expect Marcus' name to come up. I expect it has something to do with the only other Abnegation to transfer to Dauntless. At least that story wouldn't be a lie. My father is nothing like Marcus.