Chapter 3

I used to be a proud woman. The only time I ever put my pride aside was when I knelt and begged that strange doctor, Dr. Vincent, to make prosthetic legs for Edward. I would’ve traded my life for it, without hesitation.

If I were still alive, I’d have screamed at Edward, not caring about anything else.

But the machine didn’t understand humiliation. To it, the command was just that—a command.

It had inherited all my memories, and its core programming was to love Edward.

So no matter what orders he gave, it would follow them without question.

And right now, I was licking the spilled tea off the floor like a dog, utterly devoid of dignity.

The machine couldn’t comprehend emotions. I thought that by obeying Edward, he would be satisfied. Maybe even happy.

“Emma Parker, you’ve really surprised me.”

His expression shifted to something more complicated, as though he wanted to take a closer look at my injuries.

But just then, Sophia let out a feeble cry, collapsing softly into his arms.

Edward scooped her up immediately and rushed her out.

He was so close. If he’d only looked a little longer, he might have seen the faint glint of metal under my skin.

After they left, I connected to a power source and entered standby mode.

Staring at the burnt synthetic skin, I felt a rising sense of fear, even though I was already dead.

I couldn’t help but think back to the day Dr. Vincent came to me.

Edward had been in a rage, smashing everything in the hospital room, while I stood outside, hiding my tears in my hands.

Normal prosthetics could let him walk again, but they’d never be as fluid as real legs.

“I can make prosthetic legs as good as the real thing,” Dr. Vincent had told me, “but you’ll have to agree to be my test subject in exchange.”

“I agree.”

Vincent had looked at me, surprised by my quick response, and raised an eyebrow.

“Think carefully before you answer. You’ll endure a lot of pain and die in the process. After you’re dead, I’ll replace you with a humanoid robot. That’s part of the experiment.”

Edward had saved my life once. In return, I would give him back his legs.

In my mind, that made us even.

But even knowing what was to come, I hadn’t expected the experiment to be so brutal. To create an exact replica of me, Vincent had to remove the skin from different parts of my body, piece by piece, for testing.

The final step was opening up my brain to create a memory chip.

By the time I died, there wasn’t a single patch of skin on my body left unscathed.

In my agony, I’d begged Dr. Vincent to make one last call to Edward. I just wanted to hear his voice one final time.

But the call went unanswered, and Vincent—tired of my requests—told me that Edward had blocked my number.

“I almost feel sorry for you.”

Vincent had said, switching on a surveillance camera. The screen showed Edward carefully tending to the roses in the passenger seat of his car, smiling as he drove to the airport.

Soon, Sophia appeared at the arrivals gate, and they embraced tightly.

The people around them were cheering.

“Kiss! Kiss!”

Edward brushed a strand of hair away from Sophia’s face and kissed her passionately.

Vincent turned to me and asked, “Do you regret giving up your life for his legs?”