Love's End, Betrayal's Sting

My husband, Mark, told me he was reborn. In the ruins of San Francisco, he promised me a safe harbor, built on the back of his miraculous "system." I, a scientist who dealt in facts, chose to believe in him, in us. That trust was my first mistake. A week later, our penthouse was breached. Mutated creatures swarmed. Trapped in my lab, being torn apart, I cried out the emergency phrase Mark had taught me: "Celeste' s Melody." A synthetic voice echoed in my head, asking, "Host, what did Luna ever do to you? How could you trade her to those sharks?" Then Mark' s voice, cold and flat, confirmed it all: "No choice. Celeste is fragile...Luna is my co-founder, I can' t do anything about it. Celeste has suffered enough. After this, my stock options will be enough, and I' ll find a way to compensate Luna." He had orchestrated my demise. My husband, the man I loved, sacrificed me to monsters to protect his manipulative protégée, Celeste. For "stock options." The pain of betrayal was worse than any wound. But it wasn' t just physical agony. As I lay dying, the system revealed Mark was watching, monitoring my forced torture for 72 hours. He had a timer on my agony. My life, my work, the cure I' d perfected-all disposable in his cruel game. And worst of all, I was pregnant. Our child, Lily, would never be born. I wouldn' t let them win. With my last breath, I found a flare gun and my audio recorder. I would ensure the truth survived, even if I didn' t.