Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“You were the closest to family I ever had,” I tell them, my voice hoarse. “You know how much you meant to me.”
“Sera, I don’t want to…” Ellie stops herself, putting her hand over her mouth.
“Say it,” I whisper.
She shakes her head.
“Say it.”
“I don’t want to die with a rift between us,” she says, her voice tight with grief. “We’ve done wrong, but please, tell us how we can make it right. We’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” I ask pointedly.
Graham nods. “Anything, Sera,” he says firmly.
“Are you still in contact with Damien?”
“He hasn’t spoken to us since he threatened me,” Ellie murmurs. “But we have his number. Why?”
“There might be something you can do. Come to LA. Tell him you want more money. Tell him you’re ready to trick me… again,” I say a little too excitedly, exhilarated at the thought of finally turning the tables on the bastard.
Luke looks at me. “You want to set a trap?”
“I’m sick and tired of waiting around for him to do something,” I say fiercely. “First it was the laptop, then it was switching the numbers, the gun, the threats, threatening me this morning… It’s time for us to take the first step. He’s not in charge anymore.”
“What about Ellie’s treatment?” Graham asks hesitantly.
“If Sera is ready to work with you,” Luke says, “I’ll cover her treatment. I’ll cover your flights, your board, everything.”
Graham gasps. “A-after everything I’ve done?”
“I won’t be doing it for you,” Luke snaps. “I’ll be doing it for her.”
“This is the only way,” I mutter. “I’m asking a lot – but you’ve done a lot. And I can’t stand the thought of him out there, waiting for his next chance to pounce.”
Graham and Ellie exchange a look. The moment becomes heavy with how pivotal this moment is. This is where they show if they truly care, if they ever did. Finally, Ellie whispers, “We’ll come. We’ll do the right thing. Thank you for giving us this chance, Sera. You’re like the daughter we never had.”
“Luke, can you arrange the details?” I ask, standing, avoiding her last words.
“Sure,” he replies. When I walk away from the laptop, he throws a ‘I’ll be back’ over his shoulder as he follows me. He gently grips my shoulder when he reaches me and turns me toward him. “Are you sure about this?”
“We need this to end so we can begin our lives together.”
He gently brushes tears from my cheek, then leans down and kisses me softly. “My life began the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I love you. I almost say the words aloud, but I can’t cross that line, not yet, not until I know we’ve got a serious future together.
“Arrange the details,” I murmur. “I’m going to get some more work done. I feel like I’m close to a breakthrough.”
“Sera, it’s almost midnight.”
“Please.” I press my hand on his chest, my fingernails bending as I claw against his firm muscles through his shirt. “I need to do this. All of this – life – sometimes it gets too much.”
He leans down, kissing me again. “Okay, Sparkplug. Don’t worry. Soon, this will be over. Then we can decide what the rest of our story looks like.”
I step into his office and switch on the computer, then log into my NeuroDrive Cloud account. Recovering my work, I slip on my headphones and play some music to help me drift into that perfect fluid state.
I only realize I’ve been sitting for so long when Luke gently slips his arms around me and massages my shoulders. I let my head fall from side to side, stretching my neck out as he rubs out the kinks in my neck.
“It’s four AM,” he whispers when I take off my headphones.
I spin to him, smiling despite everything. My heart pounds – not with fear, but with excitement. “Luke, I think this is going to work. We need to go to the office now. We need to upload this to the prototype car. I honestly think this is it. The empathetic model fits right into the existing framework. Luke, this is it.”
He wraps his arms around me. “First thing in the—”
“No, let’s go now. Let’s make it happen. Don’t you get it? This is it.”
He smiles and kisses my cheek. “The office is closed. Even if I opened up, I don’t want to take you there without security. Let’s grab a few hours’ sleep. I promise, as soon as the office opens, we’ll head in and upload your program. Not that we need to.”
“What do you mean?”
He squeezes my hips. I love when he does that. Before Luke, I never would’ve imagined feeling so confident about curves. “Your passion is enough to tell me this is going to work.”
“It is,” I say breathlessly. “This AI, this personality, it wouldn’t dream of saying the things the sabotage caused the other model to say. Listen to me. Dream. I’m not saying it’s sentient, but the algorithm wouldn’t produce those responses.”