The Body Upgrade

Chapter 3 – The Body Upgrade

The jewelry store smelled like money.

Cold air, soft lighting, everything behind glass that cost more than most people made in a lifetime. I walked in wearing that red gown and the two women behind the counter looked at me like I had just stepped off a runway. Funny how clothes change the way people treat you. Yesterday I could have walked in here in my Target jeans and they would have pointed me toward the exit.

"I'm looking for something special," I told the woman closest to me. She had silver hair pinned up tight and reading glasses hanging from a chain around her neck. "Bracelets. Diamonds. The best you have."

Her eyes lit up. She reached below the counter and pulled out a velvet tray with six pieces on it, each one catching the light like a small fire.

"These are our current collection. The pair on the far left is our most exclusive set. Natural diamonds, platinum band, handcrafted in Switzerland. One point two million for the pair."

I picked them up. They were heavier than I expected, cool against my skin, and when I slipped them onto my wrists they looked like they belonged there. Like they had been waiting for me.

"I'll take them."

She blinked once, then smiled with her whole face. "Wonderful. Shall I wrap them?"

"No. I'm wearing them out."

The payment cleared in seconds. One point two million, gone from my account like pocket change. And then my phone buzzed in my clutch, and when I looked at the screen, my breath caught in my throat.

CASHBACK MILESTONE REACHED. TOTAL SPENDING EXCEEDS $10,000,000. SPECIAL REWARD UNLOCKED. CHOOSE ONE: $100,000,000 CASH. TEN ADDITIONAL YEARS OF LIFE. TEN TIMES PHYSICAL FITNESS. DOUBLED BEAUTY.

I stood there in the middle of that jewelry store with my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my ears. A hundred million dollars would solve every problem I had. Ten more years would give me time I never thought I would get. But I kept thinking about the hospital bed. About how weak I was. How my arms couldn't even push me up off the pillow. How I lay there like a broken thing while my family picked me apart.

I chose the body upgrade.

The change didn't wait.

It hit me right there, standing between the display cases. A heat started in my stomach and spread outward like warm water pouring through my veins. My spine straightened on its own. My shoulders pulled back. The constant ache I carried in my lower back, the one I had lived with so long I forgot it wasn't normal, just vanished. My skin tightened. My reflection in the glass case shifted, and the tired woman I had been staring at for the last decade was gone. The face looking back at me was smooth, bright, alive. I looked twenty five. I felt like I could run through a wall.

The saleswoman tilted her head slightly, confusion crossing her face like she was trying to figure out what just changed but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Never been better."

I walked out of that store feeling like a completely different person. Because I was.

Then my phone rang. Nathan's name on the screen. I almost didn't answer, but something in me wanted to hear his voice one more time while I still had the taste of freedom fresh in my mouth.

"What."

"What do you mean, what? Did you drop off my dry cleaning or not? I told you three times before we left." His voice was sharp and annoyed, the way it always got when he thought I forgot something.

"No, Nathan. I didn't drop off your dry cleaning."

"Are you serious right now? I needed that suit for the dinner on Tuesday. What have you even been doing all day?"

Something snapped. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just a clean break, like a thread that had been pulled too tight for too long.

"What have I been doing? You want to know what I've been doing for the last eleven years, Nathan? I've been paying your mother's credit cards. I've been covering your brother's rent. I've been working fifty hour weeks and handing you every paycheck like a good little wife while you sat on the couch and complained about dinner being late."

Silence on the other end. Real silence. The kind where you know someone's mouth is hanging open.

"Olivia, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong with me. For the first time in my life, absolutely nothing is wrong with me. When you get back from Miami, I want all of you out of my house. You, your mother, your brother. Pack your things and leave."

"You've lost your mind." His voice was shaking now, not from sadness but from the shock of hearing something he never expected. "You can't just throw us out. This is my house too."

"It's in my name, Nathan. It's always been in my name. You just never bothered to check."

The sound of shuffling. Then Margaret's voice, loud and furious, grabbing the phone from Nathan's hand.

"Listen to me, you ungrateful girl. After everything this family has done for you, after we took you in when you had nothing, you dare speak to my son like that? You will apologize right now or I swear I will make your life a living hell when we get home."

I smiled. Actually smiled. Standing in the middle of a Manhattan sidewalk in a four hundred thousand dollar gown with diamond bracelets on both wrists, smiling at the sound of Margaret Chen threatening me for the last time.

"Make my life hell? Margaret, you've been doing that for eleven years and I barely noticed. You're going to have to try harder."

"How dare you. How dare you talk to me like this. I am your elder. I am your husband's mother. You owe me respect."

"I owe you nothing. And when you get back, your room better be empty. I'm changing the locks."

I hung up. Then I blocked her number. Then I blocked Nathan's. Then I blocked Derek's just for good measure.

My phone went quiet for the first time in years, and the silence felt like the sweetest sound I had ever heard.

On a beach in Miami, Nathan stared at his phone with his face gone white. Margaret was already pulling up flight apps, scrolling with shaking fingers, her jaw clenched so tight the veins in her neck were showing. They were scrambling to get home and confront me.

They had no idea what they were coming home to.