Chapter 2

Adriana POV:

"She's a non-essential," Bryant said finally, his voice flat. He set the whiskey glass down with a soft click on the marble countertop. "Carolina is a lovely woman, but she has no critical skills. This is a genetic and intellectual bottleneck, Adriana. We're preserving the future of the species, not running a charity."

"She paid for your future, Bryant!" I shot back, my voice cracking. "That 'non-essential' woman sold her home so you could get your doctorate!"

"And I'm grateful for that," he said, his tone infuriatingly reasonable. "But past contributions don't factor into the equation now. The calculus is brutal, but it's simple. Katia's potential contribution to the new world is quantifiable and immense. Your mother's is not."

"And our vows?" I asked, my voice dropping to a raw whisper. "The 'in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer' part. Was that just a joke? Not part of the equation?"

He had the audacity to look pained. "Of course not. But those vows were made for a world that no longer exists. We have to adapt, Adi. We have to be pragmatic."

His words were like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, shocking my system into a cold, numb clarity. I felt the last vestiges of love for him freeze and shatter into a million tiny shards. The heat of the dying world outside pressed against the triple-paned glass, but inside our climate-controlled tomb, I had never felt so cold.

He pushed the folder toward me again. "Just sign it. It's temporary. A legal fiction."

I stared at the crisp white paper inside. DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE. Weeks v. Wilkerson. It wasn't a fiction. It was the coldest, hardest fact in the room.

My hand trembled as I reached for it. "You can't be serious. A divorce?"

"It's just a piece of paper, Adi. It doesn't mean anything about how I feel."

"It means you're forming a legal partnership with her," I said, my voice hollow. "It means you're taking her to safety and leaving me and my mother to die."

"Don't be dramatic," he snapped. "I told you, I've set up a fund for you. You'll be more comfortable than ninety-nine percent of the population."

A fund. He was offering me money to watch the world burn from a slightly better seat.

"It's just to get her on the shuttle as my 'key collaborator'," he explained, his voice softening into a placating tone I now recognized as pure manipulation. "Once we're there, it's irrelevant. In my heart, you'll still be my wife. I love you, Adi. Only you."

The words, which once would have made my own heart sing, tasted like ash in my mouth. It was a lie. All of it. A lie he told himself to justify the monstrous thing he was doing.

When had it started? I wondered, a detached part of my brain analyzing the data points. Was it when I stopped correcting the flaws in his models and just let him publish them? Was it when I turned down the CTO position at that biotech firm because he said it would require too much travel? Or was it the day he first brought Katia home for dinner, her eyes wide with adoration for the great Dr. Weeks, and I saw a flicker of something in his own eyes-not just pride, but a hunger for the kind of validation I no longer gave him?

"In your heart," I repeated, the words dripping with a sarcasm I didn't know I possessed. "That's comforting. I'm sure that and the 'fund' will be a great shield against the radiation flares and the resource wars."

Without another word, I pulled the pen from the holder on the desk. My hand was perfectly steady now. I uncapped it and signed my name on the line. Adriana Wilkerson. Not Weeks. Wilkerson.

The stroke of the pen felt like a severing. A clean cut.

Bryant reached for the paper, a relieved smile starting to form on his lips, but I held onto it.

"You seemed to expect a fight," I said, my voice devoid of emotion.

His smile faltered. "Well, I... I know this is emotional for you."

"It's not emotional," I said, my gaze level with his. "It's a transaction. You've made your choice."

"Adi, once I'm settled, I'll find a way..." he started, reaching for my hand.

I pulled back as if his touch were toxic. I slid the signed document across the table. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't make promises you have no intention of keeping. It's insulting." I turned and walked away from him, toward the vast window overlooking the smoldering city.

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Be this way. Sulk. But in a few weeks, when you're safe and comfortable, you'll realize I made the right call. The only call."

I didn't answer. I just stared out at the sickly yellow haze, feeling a strange emptiness where my heart used to be. He stayed on his side of the room, and I stayed on mine. The space between us, once filled with love and laughter, was now a chasm of cold, hard pragmatism.

A single tear escaped and traced a path down my cheek. I wiped it away before he could see. I would not give him the satisfaction.

That night, sleep was a luxury I couldn't afford. The city's power grid was failing again, and the intermittent hum of our building's backup generator was the only thing standing between us and the suffocating heat. Every creak of the building, every distant siren, was a reminder of the decaying world and my rapidly expiring ticket to survival.

Around 2 a.m., a frantic buzzing sound came from the living room. Bryant's phone.

I heard him stir, the rustle of sheets as he fumbled for it. He was trying to be quiet, trying not to wake me. As if I were sleeping. As if I could ever sleep next to him again.

He padded out of the room, his voice a low murmur. A few minutes later, I heard the front door chime.

My blood ran cold.

I slipped out of bed and crept to the bedroom door, cracking it open just enough to see.

There, standing in the doorway, was Katia Hodges. Her face was smudged with dirt, her clothes slightly disheveled. She looked panicked.

"Bryant, thank God," she sobbed, practically falling into his arms. "The power went out in my building. The security systems are down... people were trying to break in. I was so scared."

"It's okay, you're safe now," he murmured, holding her.

"Can I... can I please just stay here tonight?" she asked, her voice small and pleading. "Just on the couch? I don't know where else to go."

I braced myself, waiting for him to do the decent thing. To say no. To tell her this was inappropriate. To have one shred of respect for the woman whose marriage he had just asked to dissolve.

"Of course," Bryant said, stroking her hair. "You can stay in the guest room. Just be quiet. We don't want to wake Adriana."

The guest room. The room my mother always stayed in.

Katia pulled back slightly, her eyes flicking toward our bedroom door. "Thank you, Bryant. You're my hero."

Then her eyes met mine through the crack in the door. There was no fear in them. Only a cool, calculated triumph.

"She won't mind, will she?" Katia asked, her voice laced with mock concern.

Bryant's jaw tightened. He steered her toward the guest room, his back to me. "It doesn't matter if she minds," he said, his voice low and firm. "Your safety and your focus are my priority. You are the future, Katia. We can't let anything jeopardize that."

It was the most honest thing he'd said all day.

He wasn't just choosing her for the ark. He had already replaced me in his life. I was just an administrative detail he had to clear up.

A cold, hard knot of despair tightened in my stomach. The future he was talking about, the one he was so determined to protect, had no place in it for me. I was obsolete.

Just then, my phone, clutched in my hand, vibrated silently. I looked down at the screen. A new, encrypted message.

Sender: Helios Initiative - Office of the Founder.

Message: Your request has been approved. Transport and Accommodations for You +1 (Carolina Pearson) are confirmed. Details to follow. Welcome to Helios, Ms. Wilkerson.

A gasp escaped my lips, a sharp intake of air that was part shock, part relief. It was real. I had a life raft.

And I was going to cling to it with everything I had.