Chapter 4

The motel room felt like a cage. I plugged the microchip from the locket into a custom-built reader I carried in my bag. The encryption was complex, military-grade, but it had a signature, a style of coding I recognized. It was my own. It was a variation of a private key encryption I had designed with David, years ago, a digital secret handshake only the two of us knew.

My fingers flew across the keyboard. The file decrypted.

It wasn't a document or a photo. It was a live feed. A video of a man in a medically induced coma, hooked up to a dizzying array of machines in a sterile, white room.

And the man was David Chen.

I zoomed in, my heart pounding against my ribs. It was him. The real him. A small scar above his eyebrow from a childhood accident, the exact pattern of freckles on his hand. This was the man I had loved. The man I had mourned.

The feed had a timestamp. It was current. He was alive, but he was unconscious, hidden away.

A second file unlocked. A medical dossier. It detailed a violent assault, a severe head trauma, followed by an experimental procedure. A procedure that involved neural mapping and... cloning. Not a physical clone, but a digital one. An AI consciousness, based on David's neural patterns, implanted into a biologically grown but blank host body. An impostor.

The pieces clicked into place with horrifying speed. The man who had tormented me, who had stolen my work and destroyed my family-he wasn't David. He was a copy. A twisted, cruel version, likely manipulated by Emily and his own father, Mr. Chen, to secure the IPO at any cost. The real David, the one who might have objected, was conveniently put on ice.

My new "husband" had sent me the truth. He had given me the weapon I needed. Who was he? And how was he involved? I ran a search on his name from the marriage certificate. Nothing. The man was a ghost, a complete digital blank. But he had access to the real David and my locket. He was powerful, and for some reason, he was on my side.

A sharp rap on the door jolted me. I quickly shut down my laptop.

It was Emily. Her face was flushed with victory, her smile sharp and cruel.

"I knew they'd find you," she said, pushing her way in. "Running away? So predictable. So weak."

She looked around the cheap motel room with disdain. "This is what you've been reduced to. It's almost sad."

Her eyes landed on the locket in my hand. Her smile widened. "Oh, is that your little trinket? I'm surprised you found it in the gutter where it belongs."

Before I could react, she snatched it from my hand.

"Give it back," I said, my voice dangerously quiet. That locket wasn't just a locket anymore. It was my connection to the truth.

"Why? It's just a piece of junk," she taunted. She held it up, dangling it from her fingers. "A reminder of your pathetic, broken family."

With a snap, she broke the delicate chain. Then, she dropped the locket to the floor and brought her high heel down on it with a vicious stomp. The silver casing crunched, twisted, and broke apart. The microchip inside was shattered.

A primal scream of rage tore from my lungs. The video feed, the proof, the connection to the real David-gone. I lunged at her, no longer caring about strategy or control. I just wanted to hurt her.

We crashed to the floor, a tangle of limbs. I was stronger, fueled by a righteous fury she couldn't comprehend. I got my hands around her throat, ignoring her panicked scratches.

"You destroyed it!" I shrieked. "You destroyed everything!"

Suddenly, I was pulled off her. The impostor David was there, his face a mask of cold fury. He had followed her.

He threw me against the wall. "I leave you alone for two days, and this is what happens?" he roared. "You try to murder my girlfriend?"

He helped a gasping, weeping Emily to her feet. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"She's... she's insane," Emily choked out, playing the victim perfectly. "She just attacked me for no reason!"

The impostor turned back to me, his eyes burning with hate. "I should have known you were too far gone."

"She destroyed the locket!" I yelled, pointing at the shattered remains on the floor. "The proof!"

"Proof of what?" he sneered. "Your delusion?"

Emily, now safe behind him, regained her confidence. She laughed, a sound full of malice. "She's talking about the 'forbidden art,' David. The little trick I used to make you better."

The impostor looked confused, but Emily continued, her words directed at me. "You think you're the only genius, Sarah? I'm a pioneer. Bio-hacking, neural programming... it's the future. I didn't just fix your buggy code. I fixed him. I made him stronger, more focused, more decisive. I cut out the sentimental weakness that was holding him back. I cut out you."

My blood ran cold. She was admitting it. She was bragging about the monstrous thing she had done.

"That technology... it's unstable," I said, my mind racing, remembering fragments from the dossier I'd read before she destroyed the chip. "The cellular replication... it can't sustain itself. It leads to degradation. To decay."

Emily just smiled. "Professional jealousy. You're just angry you didn't think of it first."

"You have no idea what you've done," I whispered. "You've created a monster, and you've signed his death warrant."

The impostor seemed tired of the conversation. "Enough. Emily, you want her family's firm? The building, the land, everything? It's yours. A pre-wedding present."

"Oh, David, thank you!" Emily squealed, kissing him.

He turned to me, his face devoid of any emotion. "It's done. I've just transferred the deed. You have nothing left. No firm, no legacy, no past."

I didn't react. I just stared at him, at the man wearing David's face, and I felt a strange sense of calm. Let them take the building. Let them have the junk. I had the truth locked in my head. And I knew something they didn't. The clock was ticking.

"The IPO is tomorrow," the impostor said, his voice full of triumph. "The whole world will be watching me. Celebrating my success. While you'll be here, in this dump, with nothing."

He took Emily's hand and led her towards the door, a conquering hero leading his prize away from the battlefield. They were laughing as they left, celebrating their victory.

I waited until the sound of their car faded away. I stood up, my body aching, but my mind was clear. I calmly packed my small bag. They thought they had won. They thought they had left me with nothing.

They were wrong. They left me with a motive.

As I walked out of the motel, a black car, sleek and silent, pulled up to the curb. A man in a dark suit got out and opened the rear door for me. He was one of the men who had delivered the marriage certificate.

"Ma'am," he said respectfully. "It's time. We have a wedding to attend."

I got into the car without a word. The impostor David and Emily were celebrating their victory at the Phoenix IPO launch party tonight. It was the biggest event in the tech world.

And I was about to crash it.