"It's okay," Thomas said because it was. He knew his parents were dead, taken by the Flare, but he liked to think they'd been good parents. They'd tried their best to save him and before the Flare, they'd loved him and protected him. He remembered how tightly his mother had held him before WICKED had come to take him away and how much she'd cried.

He swallowed thickly and took a slow, ragged breath. "That's a shucking crap move on his part. Why'd you he leave you?"

The words were out before he could think about them and Thomas shook his head quickly. "You don't have to answer that. Sorry."