Chapter 3

When I woke, the entire mansion was dead silent.

They had already left.

I eased my foot onto the floor. After Adrian had massaged it the night before, the pain had faded to a dull ache.

A small, quiet joy rose in my chest.

But the thought of Rachel pushed it back down.

I got dressed and went to the veterinary clinic to pick up Nina, the dog Adrian and I had raised for seven years.

The moment I opened the front door, I heard a woman's coy laugh from inside.

Weak from her hospital stay, Nina caught a stranger's scent and bared her teeth at Rachel.

"Sophie, why did you bring a dog home? I'm pregnant. You can't keep one in the house."

She covered her nose and looked at me with disgust.

Her expression made it seem as though I were holding something filthy.

I ignored her and set the dog down. She bolted straight to Adrian's feet, barking nonstop.

"Sophie, Rachel's right. Maybe you should give Nina away."

He kicked Nina without hesitation. She let out a piercing yelp of pain.

I limped toward him, screaming, "What are you doing? Nina just got out of the vet!"

I bent down and gathered Nina into my arms as she yelped on the floor.

"Ungrateful mutt. All she ever does is bark at me."

He frowned, glaring at the dog in my arms with impatience.

I stroked Nina, trying to calm her trembling.

"Save all that misplaced maternal instinct for Rachel's baby. Nina is just a dog."

The stinging words made me step back, Nina pressed to my chest. The ache in my ankle merged with the dull pain in my heart.

"Just a dog." He knew exactly how much Nina meant to me.

Years ago, after trying for so long, I had finally conceived. Then an injury cost me the baby.

I had fallen apart. Without telling me, Adrian went to a pet store and chose a puppy for me himself.

Nina was the name I had chosen for our unborn child.

To me, Nina was my child.

I gave a cold laugh. "She's my child."

"She's a dog! Once Rachel gives birth, she can sign over her parental rights. You can adopt the baby and raise them as your own. Isn't that the life you wanted?"

The man in front of me wore Adrian's face, yet I barely recognized him. Suddenly the whole thing felt absurd.

For the first time, I let myself ask the question I had been avoiding.

Had creating an android in Adrian's image been a terrible mistake?

"Besides, this only happened because you can't have children. If you could, Rachel wouldn't have had to go through this."

And the reason I couldn't have children was because of him.

Years ago, Adrian failed to come home one night.

Terrified that something had happened to him, I searched everywhere like a woman possessed.

When I found him, a group of men had him surrounded and were beating him.

Without a second thought, I threw myself in front of him and took the blows.

Warm blood ran down my thighs and stained the ground.

When they saw the blood, they panicked and ran.

When I woke in the hospital, Adrian was crying as he told me our baby was gone.

The doctor said I would never conceive again. The loss became the deepest wound I carried.

Later, an investigation revealed the attackers had been sent by a rival company.

He had all of these memories.

Yet now, he was using that scar to blame me.

My heart clenched in waves of pain.

I couldn't help wondering: if the real Adrian were still alive, would he treat me this way?

Would he hurl cruel words at me for the sake of another woman?

Would he kick our Nina away?

Would he twist the knife in my deepest wound?

The thought that the real Adrian might have done all this made me want to stop living.

But this android had been built with the most advanced technology in the world.

We had loaded it with Adrian's memories of our life together and an exact model of his feelings for me.

So what truly separated this copy from the real Adrian?

If nothing did, then perhaps the real Adrian would have hurt me this way too, given enough time.

I could not bear to follow that thought any further.