Flight to LA

Leanna didn’t hesitate. The moment she saw Jessica Sanchez on the screen, she booked the next flight to LA. It didn’t matter that she had work to do. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t spoken to Jess in years. None of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was that Jess was alive, and Leanna needed to see her.

The airport was a blur. She moved through security, boarded her flight, and stared out the window as the plane took off, her thoughts racing faster than the aircraft itself. She had spent years trying to move on. She had thrown herself into her research, trying to make sense of Project Prometheus. She had followed every lead, chased every rumor, looking for scraps of information about Vanguard Biotechnics. She had told herself it was for Jess—that she was keeping her promise. That if Jess ever came back, she would have the answers.

But Jess had never come back. Until now. Leanna exhaled, closing her eyes for a brief moment. “What am I even going to say to her?”

She still carried the guilt. She had done this to Jess. If she had never given her that drink, never sought out revenge for something Jess—Jason—couldn’t even remember, none of this would have happened. But Jess had owned her fate in the end. She had chosen to burn down Vanguard, to take down the people who had experimented on her.

Leanna had taken those words to heart. She had never stopped playing her part. And now she was about to face someone she had long believed to be dead.

The plane touched down in Los Angeles, and Leanna’s grip on her bag tightened. This was real. She was about to see Jess again—no, not Jess. Jessica Sanchez.

Leanna just hoped she still recognized the woman she had once called her best friend.