Off Limits
"You've been running this entire simulation from the start. The stalker in the alleyway, the flooded apartment building, the legal contracts, the security detail... it wasn't a protection detail. It was a setup! You manufactured a nightmare to terrorize me, just so you could lock me in your golden cage and treat me like a piece of corporate property!"
"Your hypothesis is fundamentally flawed, Phoebe," I said, my tone remaining entirely flat, unbending, and detached. I didn't reach for her. I didn't step closer to close the physical gap. I maintained the five-foot parameters of our cold war, my arms resting loose and motionless at my sides. "I did not authorize the wire transfer. The auxiliar