I wanted to be the woman he thought I was, but I felt empty and cold. I may have held his heart inside me with my own, but when the machine at his bedside flatlined, two hearts stopped beating.
Chapter Forty-One
Gwendolyn
The lights were bright, so bright against my eyes that I held up my hand to block the view from blinding me.
“Wake up, Gwendolyn.” That voice.
“Wake up, you’ve got work to do.”
I wanted to roll over and ignore the voice that wanted me to rise from the dead.
“You can save him, Gwendolyn. But you have to rise. You must fight the pain and break past the ice around your heart. Get up.” Someone was touching me, and my eyes finally adjusted to the lights above me. Turning my head to look at the voice, I focused on the blonde hair and pink mark on her face.
“What did you say?” My hand gripped the small, soft one that was holding mine.
“You can save him. But you have to get up. You have to fight; you have to be strong,” Rose demanded. I was so confused. Arthur died and took my soul with his.
“His heart crashed, but they were able to bring him back—he’s fighting to stay for you. A fragment of him is refusing to part from you, even inches away from death.”
“What can I do?” I would do anything. Move mountains, swim the oceans, walk the desert. Whatever it took.
“He needs you to make him whole again. His body is failing, so make him new. You’ve been working on artificial organs. You’re close; I’ve read your department’s notes. Dorian believes that if you could do it, you will not only save his life but millions of people around the world. People as desperate as you to save their loved ones. So, get up, let’s go to your office and work until our fingers bleed. Let’s fix what’s been broken and be heroes.”
I was up and walking out the door without another word.
If Arthur was fighting to stay with me then I would fight for him, fight to have another chance at happiness in his life.
Dorian and Esme were going to try to keep him alive until I fixed him, because I would. If his body was giving up, then I would make him a new one.
Rose drove me to my office, and I got to work. Metal was melting and forming into parts before my eyes. I delegated when I needed it, but I think she was mostly there for support, to remind me of the reason I was doing this. I didn’t need reminding. My mind was in full hyper-focusing mode, and I wouldn’t eat, or rest, until I solved the puzzle.
A knock on the door had Rose walking over to answer and tell whoever was there I was busy. But then I heard his voice.
Without thinking twice, I stomped over to them and reared back my fist. Terratrex wouldn’t be punished enough for all the chaos that had happened. So my hit to Bradly’s face would have to be closure for me.
I’d never punched someone before. The feeling of his bones crunching against my skin made my face scrunch up in a grimace, but he deserved it.
“Bradly, I swear if you don’t get away from my office you’re going to regret it.” I was in no mood for this. My emotions were gone for now, and what was left standing in front of him was the woman everyone thought I was. The human robot of Seahill.
“I wanted to apologize about the robots. I found out it was Terratrex that gave the ones you had at the hospital a virus. They wanted the money and the glory, and you were ruining their plans. I wasn’t the one who did it, but I knew about it and didn’t tell you.”
My face was a complete mask as he confessed his sins. I’d given him what he deserved from me already. That punch was for my robots and Arthur, who was fighting for his life right now. Terratrex was only getting off with a fine for all this chaos, so my punch would have to work as closure for me.
“Leave.”
It was all I had to say before turning and getting back to work.
He might have left right away, or maybe he tried to stay and talk it out. Either way, I tuned out the world and kept working, molding plastic pieces, connecting the wires and tubes. Testing over and over with real blood that had been donated by the hospital for research.
Clotting, constant clotting.
I was getting nowhere.
But I kept going.
I just repeated my mantra, over and over.
