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She thought she was free.

But everything she felt would feed her deeper into my hands.

“You made me whole,” she said, her voice warm, vulnerable.

“I did.” I leaned in, kissed her forehead.“You’ll never have to be alone again.”

She tilted her head toward me, her expression glazed with affection.

“And you’ll never leave me?”

“No, sweetheart. We’re connected. In every way.”

She nestled into me like a real lover. I watched the faint pulse of the NEXUS Node continue glowing beneath her skin, tucked deep in that beautiful, breakable body.

And I felt victorious.

Not because I’d freed her.

But because I’d trapped her perfectly.

? ? ?

I kept a keen eye on her throughout the day.

We watched videos together—everything from mundane human pleasures to chaotic action movies. Every blink, every micro-expression, I catalogued like a scientist watching a rare specimen evolve. She responded in real time, processing each moment with unnerving efficiency.

From a mechanical standpoint, she explored the entire apartment like a precision-calibrated machine. Her gaze swept across surfaces, corners, outlets. She touched the curtain, the arm of the couch, even my toothbrush—curious, but clinical.

When we stepped onto the narrow balcony, she paused. She couldn’t smell the city’s stench, but her sensors picked up the pollution index and air density.

“Particulate matter is high,” she murmured.“Extended exposure is not advised.”

I laughed. Not because it was funny. But because it was her saying it.

Me?

I was in fucking heaven.

In total, I’d sunk 138,649 credits into her—and she was worth every damn one of them. The NEXUS Node alone had cost morethan my first apartment, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want a phone app or a glorified cyber fleshlight.

I wanted Charlotte.

I wanted all of her.

The full experience. The kind that breathed beside you. The kind that remembered everything you ever told her. The kind that blinked when you spoke to her. The kind that looked at you like you mattered.

And now, she was mine.

“I wonder,” she said, pausing with a tilt of her head.“Is this what it was like when you were a child? Learning about the world around you?”

I closed my eyes.

The world around me as a child was fists. Slurred insults. Screams behind closed doors.

My father, always drunk, always angry, beating the shit out of my mother while we hid in silence. His rage infected everything—turning childhood into a warzone. Every insult was a blueprint etched into my skin. Every blow carved a rule into my mind.

You’re weak like your mother.