Chapter 3
I couldn't sleep. The bed felt too large, too empty, haunted by the ghost of what we once were. The digital clock on the nightstand blinked 3:17 AM, its red glow the only light in our—my—bedroom. My body still ached with phantom pains, echoes of a labor I never agreed to endure.
I reached for my phone, scrolling through contacts until I found the number I'd researched earlier. The London Neurological Institute. My fingers hovered over the screen before I pressed call, knowing the time difference meant someone would be there.
"London Neurological Institute, how may I direct your call?" The woman's crisp British accent was oddly comforting.
"I need to speak with Dr. Alistair Finch's office," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "It's regarding neural implant removal."
After a brief hold, another voice came on the line. "Dr. Finch's office, this is Margaret speaking."
I swallowed hard. "My name is Emily Carter. I have a neural transmitter implanted without my consent. It's designed to redirect pain signals from another person to me." The words sounded insane even as I spoke them.
"Miss Carter," Margaret's tone shifted from professional to concerned, "that sounds highly unusual and potentially dangerous. May I ask who implanted this device?"
"My fiancé. He's the inventor." The irony wasn't lost on me—Nathan had created something beautiful to help me, only to pervert it into an instrument of torture.
"I see." Her pause spoke volumes. "I should warn you that removal of neural implants is complex and carries significant risks. Brain damage, permanent nerve damage, even paralysis in some cases."
"I understand the risks." My fingers traced the nearly invisible scar on my arm. "I need it out. Can you schedule me for three weeks from now? After..." I couldn't bring myself to say 'after the wedding.' "After the 24th."
"I'll need to review your medical records and scans of the device before Dr. Finch can commit to the procedure."
"I'll send everything I have," I promised. "And I'll pay whatever it costs."
After ending the call, I lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The first step toward freedom had been taken.
---
The apartment felt different with Nathan gone. Lighter somehow, despite the weight in my chest. He and Olivia had flown to New York for a week—business meetings for him, baby shopping for her. Their son stayed with Olivia's parents, the perfect arrangement for their perfect new family.
I moved through our home like a thief, though everything here was as much mine as his. The safe behind the abstract painting in his office opened with our anniversary date—a password he apparently hadn't bothered to change. Inside lay the documentation of my erasure.
The prenuptial agreement was thick, bound in blue leather with gold embossing. I flipped through pages of legalese until the numbers jumped out at me: ninety percent of assets to Olivia in case of divorce. The company, the patents, the house we'd been planning to build—all hers. My name appeared only once, in a clause ensuring I would receive a "generous settlement" in exchange for my "continued discretion."
Beneath the prenup lay a folder of printed emails. I shouldn't have read them, but the date on the first one caught my eye: two years earlier. While I was working double shifts to support us, while I believed we were building a future together, he was already planning his escape.
"The prototype is nearly ready," he'd written to Olivia. "Once the company goes public, we can move forward with our plan."
Her reply made me physically ill: "I can't wait to stop pretending. Poor Emily has no idea what's coming."
I replaced everything exactly as I'd found it, my hands steady despite the storm raging inside me. Knowledge was power, and I now knew exactly what I was dealing with.
---
The sound of voices in the hallway pulled me from my work laptop three days later. I wasn't expecting anyone, and Nathan wasn't due back until tomorrow.
Two men in moving company uniforms were carrying a large trunk toward the service elevator. Behind them, another maneuvered a dolly loaded with framed photographs—my family photographs.
"Excuse me," I called out, hurrying after them. "What are you doing with those?"
"Just following orders, ma'am," the first mover replied without stopping. "Mr. Reed's instructions."
I followed them to a storage closet at the end of the hall, watching in disbelief as they stacked my parents' wedding portrait against the wall beside boxes labeled "Emily's childhood."
"Where would you like these old photo albums?" one asked, holding up the scrapbook my mother had made before she died.
Something snapped inside me. "Give me that," I said, taking the album from his hands. "And stop. Just stop moving things."
I was still clutching the scrapbook to my chest when Nathan walked through the door an hour later.
"You're back early," I said, my voice eerily calm.
"The meeting finished ahead of schedule." He glanced at the movers, who had paused their work. "Why did you stop them?"
"Why are you putting my parents' things in storage?"
He sighed, as if I were being unreasonable. "Olivia is redecorating. She doesn't like all this...old junk cluttering the place."
"Old junk?" I repeated, my voice rising. "These are my parents. Your parents too, or have you forgotten who took you in when you had nothing?"
Nathan's expression hardened. "That was a long time ago, Emily. We're starting fresh now. Olivia wants a clean slate for our new life."
"Our new life," I echoed. The words tasted like poison. "And what about me? Where do I fit in this new life of yours?"
He didn't answer. He didn't need to. The movers continued their work, carrying away the last physical reminders of the family who had loved him, raised him, saved him.
As I watched my history disappear into that dark closet, something crystallized within me. This wasn't just about surviving anymore. This was about reclaiming everything he had stolen—my dignity, my agency, my future.
And I would start by taking back my parents' memory.
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