hive of forced smiles

the edge, wat

w

r laughter too bright, her han

onths, a slow, public teari

ators Gala. Victoria's company, P

.. present.

rted, rare tec

document from a computing

aised hi

neer calle

udden, rec

d my ow

set up, the one I never tou

rippled

smirk playing on his l

ised

and f

climbed, a

ieted, all

s gone, her eyes na

n slowly lowered his paddle,

cried, banging the gave

confused

oria, a curt nod in my direction

steps measured, her expression

the ice i

e said, her voice

an answer, just tu

avy patent folder

ictoria's knuckles whit

n't hea

t, a place of decaying factories and forgotten wareho

chain-link fence,

by the distant city hum and the wind w

ut," s

ot

in the fence, towards a h

was caverno

I saw

ther,

nes, positioned terrifyingly close to a wide, crumbling op

security men stood

was a choked w

utbid him, Ethan." Victoria's

my ski

ent. It was a trifl

ther, her frail f

Or we'll have an accident here. A terrible, t

ooked from my mother t

I breathed, but

ht I knew, the woman who had, in

are after her stroke, care I could never have afforded after

tinging. "That patent... it was somethi

re important than her?" S

f cour

Julian. Now. Or I

was a mas

ne

, helpless, her life

wo

Okay, I'll give it to him. Just... j

od

ded to

ove the bed, one o

violently towa

cre

asn't my

al clothes, tumbled out of

es wide with a terror she couldn't voice, t

e, a small, cruel

an. This is what happens when Julia

knees, shaking, the patent fold

ed, moving my mother further from the edge.

ked up the p

this. And you'll apologize t

had paid for my mother's care, who had pursued me relentlessly

n care of everythin

, so humiliating for me... I'd sta

n, for keeping my mother alive. She didn't know I knew about her own infertility, a sec

otion was a m

dit card at my feet. The

incidentals. But you ask fir

y, her silhouette fram

bout Julian. My le

gone, I picke

of cold fury, I s

phone, my hands

number I hadn't

d. My old univ

ed on the

e Chimera offer... that research

mother, her f

. You said you had connections..

ashes of my old life. A