Page 53 of The Restoration Program

Nicole snapped her eyes to Levesque, reeling that a perfect stranger could glare at her with such personal contempt. Ryan had spoken for fifteen minutes straight, and through it all, Levesque had clearly been waiting for the opportune moment to gripe about Nicole’s existence.

“Let’s focus on your accounts, Mrs. Levesque,” Ryan said in a measured voice. “We should use our time wisely.”

“I simply cannot understand what possessed you to allow that thing to be made.” Levesque all but tossed the tablet back onto the desk, the clatter making Nicole flinch.

Ryan clenched his jaw, ignoring the careful notes he had drawn out. His sentences came out in short bursts. “She’s the love of my life. She was in an accident. She was going to die. They told me they could save her. What was I supposed to do?”

“Don’t misunderstand, I am deeply sorry for your loss.” The worst part was that Levesque sounded genuine. As far as she was concerned, Nicole wasn’t there—living, breathing, listening. She was no more than another inanimate object on Ryan’s desk.

“Ryan…” Nicole started, her throat tight.

“There’s nolossto be sorry for,” he snapped. “She never left.”

Levesque eyed Ryan as though he was a fool who had been duped. “You’ve been given a placeholder, young man. A figurine for people who can’t bring themselves to move on. It’s unnatural, manufacturing these little creatures and convincing them they used to be people.”

Ryan glared daggers from across the desk. “With all due respect, ma’am, this isn’t any of your damn business.”

“Isn’t it? You’re certainly being brazen, letting it waltz out in the open and expecting the world not to comment.”

“I’m expectingthe worldto have a little decency.”

Levesque stood abruptly. “I believe our business here is concluded, Mr. Northe. I will ask about the availability of your colleagues, who I hope have more traditional sense of running affairs.”

“Wait, no!” Nicole didn’t realize tears were pushing at her eyes until a couple slipped onto her cheeks.

The client spared her a disgusted glance before sneering at Ryan. “Did you teach it to beg, too? Shame on you.” With that, she was out the door, slamming it behind her.

Nicole’s chest seized icily.This can’t possibly have gone so goddamn awful. This isn’t real.

But it certainly was real. It was her fault. Her fault that it was not even noon and Ryan had lost a client.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Ryan said softly. He was concerned forher, and that made her want to scream.

“It’s not. It’s not okay, she just—she walked out.” Nicole’s voice tapered into a childish gasp. “Shew-walked.I’m sorry, Ry, I didn’t mean…”

Ryan reached for her hesitantly, as though she might refuse. He scooped her to his chest and hugged her tight.

“You didn’t do anything. I turn down clients all the time, it’s fine.”

Liar, she thought. But it was a nice lie, and she let him hold her. It was a needed balm as Levesque’s disappointed scowl flashed through her mind. That woman was just one person out of hundreds of millions in the country. There had to be many more just like her. Would they cheer for all NüPrints to be annihilated? To watch Nicole burn to restore the natural order?

She didn’t realize she was zoning out, eyes fixed on the photo, until Ryan leaned over to turn the frame around. He tucked it behind the computer monitor.

“Why’d you do that?”

“You’ve been staring at that all morning,” he said.

“So?”

“I just don’t think it’s helping.”

Not everything has to help. She clenched her jaw and swallowed the words. He was doing his best, and the morning would only get worse if she debated with him. So she nodded quietly and looked for something else to focus on.

The next hour was quiet, and after a while, she relaxed into the comfort that no one came to chew out Ryan for losing a client.

They shared a danish that Ryan procured from the coffee bar in the lobby. Meanwhile, he worked on his computer—spreadsheets that made her dizzy as he whirled through them. She remembered a few things he had explained to her while in school, but mostly the formulas made her head hurt.

“Nerd,” she scoffed, amazed and proud of him.