Terrified.
“What if he’s right?”
That question nearly destroys me.
Because she sounds so scared.
Not of Wu.
Of herself.
I move toward her immediately.
“He’s not.”
“But what if—”
“He’s not.”
Her eyes fill instantly.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“How?”
Because I know what it feels like when something real walks into your life and tears your entire world apart.
Because nothing about this feels programmed.
Because no conditioning on earth could fake the way my chest stops functioning every time you look at me like that.
But before I can say any of it—
Wu speaks again.
Quietly.
Carefully.
Cruelly.
“You kissed him before or after the emotional dependency began?”
Hannah goes completely still.
And I see it happen.
The shame.
The doubt.
The horror.
That’s what he’s trying to do.
Not recover her.
