She Tried to Shut Me Down But He Was Running on Me Chapter 05

She Tried to Shut Me Down But He Was Running on Me Chapter 05

A deathly silence crashed over the observation suite.

The microchip slipped from Charlotte’s fingers and clattered to the floor.

The tiny clink was deafening in the silence, a sound freighted with the weight of what had just been lost.

She recoiled as if struck, her balance deserting her for a half-step. Stunned. Disoriented.

“This is impossible.”

“You’re lying.”

“Blaine could never die because of her—”

Her sentence broke off abruptly.

Sharp, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Elder Mr. Ford had arrived.

Nearing seventy, the elderly patriarch leaned on a cane, supported by his aides as he stepped into the suite.

His gaze fell first on my unconscious form resting on the surgical table, then locked on the bloodied anchor chip lying on the floor. All color drained from his face in an instant.

“Who did this?”

No one dared to speak a word.

Charlotte parted her trembling lips in a rush to defend herself.

“Mr. Ford, I did this for Blaine—”

Crack.

A sharp, heavy slap slammed across her cheek.

Charlotte’s head snapped to the side, her earring flying off and clattering on the ground.

The entire room held its breath.

The old man’s hands shook with suppressed rage.

“For Blaine?”

“You tore his life from him with your own hands, and you dare stand there and say it was for his own good?”

Charlotte pressed a shaking palm to her stinging cheek, tears flooding her eyes instantly.

“I had no idea!”

“No one ever told me the truth!”

“She’s an outsider. Why does she get the best resources the Ford family owns? Why does everyone shield her above all else?”

Elder Mr. Ford closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened them again, only icy coldness remained in his gaze.

“She stays awake, and that is the only reason Blaine still draws breath.”

Charlotte froze completely, rooted to the spot in shock.

Dylan burst into the room, dropped to his knees, and fumbled to pick up the fallen chip, his hands shaking so violently he could barely grip it.

“The interface is torn, the chip is contaminated, and the anchor source is trapped in deep drug-induced sleep.”

“We have to repair the connection immediately.”

The chief neural physician barked urgent orders.

“Transport Mia back to the main control pod at once!”

“Initiate reverse brainwave wake-up protocol!”

“Alert the overseas medical team to sustain Mr. Ford’s vital circulation, and wait for Mia’s recovery at all costs!”

I was rushed down the emergency resuscitation corridor.

My consciousness sank deep into endless darkness, cut off from all sound and sensation.

But outside my quiet oblivion, the entire world had fallen apart.

In the main control hall, massive screens pulled up three full years of synchronized neural data.

Every fluctuation in my brainwave patterns perfectly aligned with every shift in Blaine’s consciousness AI.

One year ago, trace sedatives had accidentally contaminated my nutrient solution.

My consciousness blurred for three seconds.

Blaine’s heart rate flatlined for twenty-seven seconds.

Three months ago, a high fever destabilized my brainwaves.

Blaine’s overseas conference crashed mid-session, his neural AI drifting offline for fifteen minutes.

The night before, Charlotte had unplugged the cable, forced sedatives down my throat, silenced the emergency alarms, and rejected all urgent communications.

Blaine’s consciousness cloud fractured three separate times.

Today, the chip had been ripped from my neck.

Blaine’s consciousness coordinates had vanished entirely from the system.

The cold, irrefutable data streamed past—a damning indictment that landed like a physical blow on everyone who saw it.

The board members who had questioned and doubted me earlier now stood utterly speechless.

Charlotte stood motionless, her face drained of all color, pale as blank paper.

She whispered numbly to herself.

“This can’t be…”

“This defies all logic…”

Dylan lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot and burning with fury.

“Now you want to talk about logic?”

“How many times did we warn you yesterday?”

“Did you listen to a single word?”

Charlotte turned to Elder Mr. Ford, voice trembling, begging for understanding.

“Mr. Ford, I truly didn’t know. I only thought she was deceiving Blaine, wasting the family’s resources—”

The old man did not spare her a single glance.

“Effective immediately, revoke all temporary administrative privileges granted to Charlotte Wade.”

“Lock down the entire medical tower.”

“No one who participated in the removal of Mia’s interface is permitted to leave the premises.”

Charlotte’s head jolted up in panic.

“Mr. Ford!”

The elderly voice rang thin and weathered, yet every word cut sharp as a blade.

“Pray she wakes up.”

“If she regains consciousness, Blaine may still have a chance to return.”

“But if she never wakes…”

He fixed a deadly gaze on Charlotte.

“Your entire family will answer for Blaine Ford’s life.”