Unchanged Read online

  “Do you think she recognizes you?” the doctor asks from the doorway, remarking upon the strange, almost whimsical look on the girl’s face.

  Yes … always yes.

  “No,” the young man answers quietly. “She’s never met me before.”

  But as he turns back to the girl and allows their eyes to lock again, a faint, lopsided smile finds its way to his lips.

  She doesn’t know him. She doesn’t remember him.

  But she will.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Ideas may come from a single spark of inspiration. But ideas don’t equal finished books. Ideas don’t put stories in the hands of readers. They don’t edit, market, hand-hold, support, love, encourage, critique, or make you laugh when all seems lost. You need people for that. Brilliant, funny, supportive, extraordinary people.

  Thank you to the unparalleled team of superhumans at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group: Simon Boughton, Joy Peskin, Allison Verost, Caitlin Sweeny, Kathryn Little, Angus Killick, Molly Brouillette, Lauren Burniac, Jon Yaged, Lucy Del Priore, Katie Halata, Jean Feiwel, Liz Fithian, Courtney Griffin, Holly Hunnicutt, Kate Lied, Ksenia Winnicki, Mark Von Bargen, and Nicole Banholzer. A super-bubbly, jazz-hands thank-you to Janine O’Malley and Angie Chen for pushing me to make these books the best they could be and for always saying “yes!” when I asked for more time. To Stephanie McKinley for being a fangirl, friend, and beta reader! Elizabeth Clark for designing the three best glitching covers ever. And Chandra Wohleber for copyediting the crap out of this beast and for calling the ending “perfect” when I needed to hear it most.

  Mary Van Akin, you deserve your own line. Your own paragraph. Your own book. You make being awesome look easy. But you make finding the words to express my gratitude so very hard. Thank you for being my champion, friend, travel buddy, confidante, master strategist, and, oh yeah, publicist.

  Thank you to my incredible agents, Bill Contardi and Jim McCarthy, for your never-ending wisdom, enthusiasm, encouragement, and patience (it requires a bold and courageous spirit to undertake a career working with writers). Thank you to Marianne Merola and Lauren Abramo, the queens of foreign rights! Also thanks to my amazing film agent, Dana Spector, and super-savvy entertainment lawyer, Mark Stankevich.

  Thank you to Soumya Sundaresh, Deepak Nayar, Tabrez Noorani, and the amazing people at Kintop Pictures and Reliance Entertainment for bringing Sera’s story to sparkly Hollywood. And especially to Soumya for holding my hand through this exciting yet scary yet remarkable process.

  Across the pond, thank you to Claire Creek and everyone at Macmillan Children’s UK for your amazing support and kick-arse covers!

  No matter what we authors do to perfect our characters, the booksellers, librarians, and teachers are the real heroes of any young adult story. Thank you to every single person who has placed my book in a reader’s hand and who has said the magic words “I think you might like this.” Especially thanks to Cathy Berner at Blue Willow, Caitlin Ayer at Books Inc., Jade Corn and Cori Ashley at Phoenix Book Company, Carolyn Hutton and Kathleen Caldwell at A Great Good Place for Books, Crystal Perkins, Maryelizabeth Hart, Courtney Saldana, Amy Oelkers, Julie Poling, Heather Hebert, Damon Larson, Mike Bull, Sandy Novak, Dennis Jolley, Sherri Ginsberg, and Allison Tran.

  Because of the sheer talent, skill, and awesomeness of Nikki Hart at Multi-Designs, Mel Jolly at Author RX, and Dan Martino and Janey Lee at Haney Designs, I am able to stay sane, organized, and appear relatively on top of things.

  I am so grateful for my “tribe”—the people who actually “get” it. My Fierce Reads sisters: Emmy Laybourne, Anna Banks, Leigh Bardugo, Gennifer Albin, Ann Aguirre, Nikki Kelly, Lish McBride, Elizabeth Fama, and Marissa Meyer. My Girls Gone Sci-Fi warriors: Tamara Ireland Stone, Jessica Khoury, Lauren Miller, Melissa Landers, Sophie Jordan, Victoria Scott, Alexandra Monir, Gretchen McNeil, Beth Revis, Megan Shepherd, Meagan Spooner, Debra Driza, Amy Tintera, and Anna Carey. My Traveling Story stars: Robin Benway, Kevin Emerson, Megan Miranda, and Claudia Gray. My Steamboat Soulmates: Marie Lu, Morgan Matson, Brodi Ashton, Jenn Johansson, and Jennifer Bosworth. My dear friends Brad Gottfred, Robin Reul, Carol Tanzman, Lauren Kate, Alyson Noël, Carolina Munhoz, Raphael Draccon, Nadine Nettman Semerau, Mary E. Pearson, and Joanne Rendell. And a very special thanks to Michelle Levy, who is responsible for pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen to me!

  Thank you to my beautiful and supportive family: Laura and Michael Brody (a girl can’t ask for better parents. Well, she could, but she’d never find them!); Terra Brody (the founding member of Team Zen); Cathy and Steve Brody, who are always genuinely excited about whatever I do (You wrote a book? Yay! You went to the dry cleaner? Yay!); and my fur-babies: Honey Pants, BooBoo-Shush, Gracie-Kins, and Baby Baby. No matter how long I disappear for, you are always happy to see me. And, of course, Charlie, my rock and my Zen. Thank you for always keeping your feet on the ground so I can fly.

  At the risk of sounding completely crazy (too late!), I want to thank Seraphina and Zen. You are as real to me as anyone else on this page. I will miss you.

  And now comes the hard part. How do I properly thank you? The person responsible for all of this. If you’re holding this book right now it means you made it to the end. You took the whole journey with me. There were so many other things you could have done with your time (played Candy Crush, watched The Mindy Project, eaten a bagel) and yet you chose to spend it with Sera and Zen. Even though I make a living stringing words into sentences, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to effectively convey how grateful I am that you’re here. That you came along for this ride. You might just have to trust me. You might just have to believe.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jessica Brody is the author of several popular books for teens, including Unforgotten, Unremembered, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, and The Karma Club, as well as two adult novels. She splits her time between California and Colorado. Visit her online at jessicabrody.com, or sign up for email updates here.

  BY JESSICA BRODY

  THE UNREMEMBERED TRILOGY:

  Unremembered

  Unforgotten

  Unchanged

  52 Reasons to Hate My Father

  My Life Undecided

  The Karma Club

  Thank you for buying this

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux ebook.

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  Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers

  175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010

  Copyright © 2015 Jessica Brody

  All rights reserved

  First hardcover edition, 2015

  eBook edition, February 2015

  macteenbooks.com

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Brody, Jessica.

  Unchanged / Jessica Brody. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (The Unremembered trilogy; book 3)

  Summary: “As more secrets are revealed, more enemies are uncovered, and the reality of a Diotech-controlled world grows closer every day, Sera will have to choose where her true loyalties lie, but it’s a choice that may cost her everything she’s ever loved”—Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-374-37989-6 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-07359-4 (trade pbk.)

  ISBN 978-0-374-30178-1 (e-book)

  [1. Amnesia—Fiction. 2. Genetic engineering—Fiction. 3. Space and time—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.B786157Um 2015

  [Fic]—dc23

&nbs
p; 2014040382

  eISBN 9780374301781

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  0. Before

  PART 1: The Unknowing

  1. Updated

  2. Amiss

  3. Mated

  4. Reminders

  5. Watchful

  6. Fortunate

  7. More

  8. Threats

  9. Sense

  10. Gaps

  11. Released

  12. Unearthed

  13. Leaves

  14. Sequenced

  PART 2: The Unveiling

  15. Encapsulate

  16. Reactive

  17. Hospitality

  18. Ruins

  19. Silenced

  20. Styled

  21. Entrance

  22. Falsify

  23. Rebirth

  24. Invitation

  25. Unwelcome

  26. Conviction

  27. Breakage

  28. Recall

  29. Summons

  30. Abnormal

  31. Paradox

  32. Ruptured

  PART 3: The Unraveling

  33. Cleansed

  34. Strangers

  35. Heroism

  36. Leader

  37. Off-Line

  38. Parts

  39. Pretenses

  40. Nourished

  41. Incentives

  42. Heritage

  43. Tainted

  44. Answers

  45. Staged

  46. Subtext

  47. Insults

  48. Legacy

  49. Unclean

  50. Illogical

  51. Requests

  52. Surprises

  PART 4: The Undoing

  53. Detached

  54. Chamber

  55. Below

  56. Ripped

  57. Tempest

  58. Crossing

  59. Equality

  60. Mourning

  61. Hopeful

  62. Trespass

  63. Wounds

  64. Appeals

  65. Rearranged

  66. Converted

  67. Her

  68. Somewhere

  69. Now

  70. Legend

  71. Light

  72. Unblinded

  73. Resemblances

  74. Inherited

  75. Favors

  76. End

  77. After

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Jessica Brody

  Copyright