My Husband Turned Me Into Wife Unit 007 Chapter 04

My Husband Turned Me Into Wife Unit 007 Chapter 04

It was my anniversary too.

Nobody remembered.

Three years ago today, I’d begged Graham through tears,please, can we just have one more anniversary before I go?

He said we’d make it up when I came back. Once I’d learned my lesson.

I learned it. I learned every single one.

But the cake never came.

Ember turned to me, her smile calibrated to perfection. “Sister, I can define ‘normal’ for you.”

“Normal means pushing away people you don’t like.”

She stepped closer.

“Push me. Just like you did three years ago.”

There it was. A definition. A parameter. Something I could process.

I put my hands on her shoulders. I hadn’t even applied pressure yet.

She fell anyway.

Her dress pooled across the floorboards like a wilting flower.

The door swung open. Graham stood in the doorway holding two glasses of juice.

His face erupted.

“Wren! What the hell are you doing?”

The glasses hit the floor. Juice and shards of glass scattered everywhere.

Ember stayed on the ground. She lifted her chin, tears welling in her eyes. Perfect. Programmed.

“Sister, why would you push me? I only wanted to wish you a happy anniversary. I thought—I thought you didn’t hate me anymore.”

I didn’t speak.

She was lying.

I knew she was lying. Her tears were a simulation. Her trembling was an algorithm running on a loop.

Graham stormed toward me, his expression warping from shock to fury in three seconds flat.

“What is wrong with you? Why would you push Ember?”

“She instructed me to.”

“Bullshit!”

Ember’s voice cracked, wet and fragile.

“How could you say that? I would never tell you to push me. I just wanted to get along with you.”

He knelt down and gathered her up with the kind of gentleness reserved for porcelain. For something precious that might shatter.

Then he looked up at me.

Nothing but disgust.

“You haven’t changed at all.”

“Three years in that place. Three years pretending to be fixed. And the second my back is turned, you’re the same person you always were.”

“I should’ve known. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”

“I was actually feeling bad for you. I was actually regretting sending you there. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make things right.”

He stepped closer. His finger jabbed into my chest.

“And this is what I get? You never changed. You just got better at hiding it. Three years of playing nice, and you had everyone fooled.”

My mouth opened. I wanted to say it wasn’t an act. I wanted to say the Institute made me this way. That he was the one who put me there.

But nothing came out.

No command. No speech.

“Say something!”

He screamed it.

“I have not received a command to speak.”

Graham’s face went purple. Behind him, Ember curled against his chest and whimpered.

“Go die.”

Graham said it.

The living room went quiet for one second.

Then he said it again, louder. So loud the windows rattled.

“You follow every order, don’t you? You’re so obedient now, right?”

“Then go die! Do us all a favor and just die!”

Ember crumpled to the floor.

Her body convulsed. Her eyes rolled back. White foam bubbled at the corners of her mouth.

“Ember! Ember, what’s happening?”

Graham dropped to his knees. His hands fumbled over her face. He pressed at her pressure points, screaming into his phone for an ambulance.

He surrounded her. Consumed by her. He didn’t even glance at me.

“Command received. Die.”

He didn’t hear it.

He was too busy hovering over her. Panicked. Devastated. Somewhere in his chest, his heart was breaking for a machine.

I turned.

Slow. Steady. I walked toward the balcony doors.

The night wind cut through, bitter and cold.

“Wren!”

Graham saw me. His phone slid from his hand and cracked against the floor.

“Wren! What are you doing? Come back!”

I looked over my shoulder.

I gave him a small, perfect smile.

Then I followed the order.

I went over the railing.