In the Frigid Apocalypse My Husband Lost His Wife With His Own Hands Chapter 08

In the Frigid Apocalypse My Husband Lost His Wife With His Own Hands Chapter 08

The robotic arm began stripping away my emotional responses.

A small bowl of frozen grapes sat on the table.

After the first round, I looked at them and remembered only that they were fruit.

After the second, I forgot the night the power went out in our basement apartment.

After the third, I could still remember our wedding, but the memory no longer made my chest tighten.

Ethan pressed his hand against the glass.

“Nora, look at me.”

I raised my eyes.

I knew his name.

I knew he was my husband.

But for the first time, I did not want to go near him.

He noticed it too.

His fingers suddenly curled against the glass.

The researcher warned him quietly, “We’ve extracted twenty-five percent.”

“If we continue, her attachment response to you will disappear permanently.”

Ethan was silent for several seconds.

“As long as she’s alive.”

“We can make new memories later.”

His voice was steady, as though he were reassuring the researcher and trying to convince himself at the

same time.

Sophie pulled off her oxygen mask.

“Ethan, maybe we should stop.”

“I don’t want you to hate me someday.”

She said the words, but her hand remained locked around the hem of his jacket.

Ethan bent down and replaced her mask.

“I’m not letting you die.”

The robotic arm began moving again.

The images broke apart into blue specks of light and streamed into the device attached to Sophie’s chest.

Her heartbeat gradually strengthened.

My world slowly bleached white.

Ethan spoke softly through the glass.

“When the surgery is over, I’ll take you home.”

Home?

Sophie’s name occupied his registered dependent slot.

My scarf was wrapped around Sophie’s neck.

My ring was in her pocket.

He was destroying every feeling I had for him, yet he remained certain that as long as he kept me alive, I

would obediently follow him home.

I raised my hand and pointed at Sophie’s chest.

Ethan followed my gaze.

The wedding ring that should have been inside her pocket was hanging at her throat.

She had never kept it for him.

She had been wearing it all along.

The procedure stopped after thirty percent of my cryocore had been extracted.

It was not because Ethan had changed his mind.

I had ordered all the infected in cold storage to hurl themselves against the institute at once.

Alarms blared throughout Haven.

Cracks spread across the glass.

The researchers scrambled to shut down the robotic arms.

I ripped out the IV line and rolled out of the containment pod.

My right leg still had not been repaired, so I could only drag myself toward the ventilation shaft.

Ethan shouted behind me.

“Nora, stop!”