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Not for a baby, not for money, not for the program.
For her.
He reviewed the chain of events that had unfolded the last time he had tried this tack with Piper and Brax. Something like a shiver sent a slight glitch through his running apps, as if there had been a main power surge.
He calculated the odds of success, but then deleted the results before assessing them. It was better not to know.
It was a long shot. And if it failed, he’d be pulled offline for evaluations for sure, maybe for good this time. No one liked the idea of having an unstable AI in charge of every facet of their surroundings.
But desperate times called for desperate measures.
Every great matchmaker knew that.
Oberon adjusted the final parameters and set the program in motion, wishing he had breath to hold as he did.
23
TIAGO
Tiago stood in the meadow with a picnic basket in his hand, feeling like an idiot.
The sun was shining in a gorgeous blue sky and the wildflowers were nodding their heads in a gentle breeze. Birds sang and swept through the air in beautiful arcs.
And Alexis was nowhere to be found.
He paced a little, each step releasing an annoyingly sweet scent from the romantic carpet of flowers.
Maybe she had needed more time in the shower. Women were always fussing with the air dry and all their mysterious scents and potions.
But she had literally taken a five-minute shower the other day. And she was anything but fussy. All her fussiness she clearly saved for ballet.
He closed his eyes and pictured her on that stage again.
She was exquisite, like a magical creature from a fairytale. Ethereally, effortlessly beautiful from the depth of the auditorium where he had watched her.
And yet she was so down-to-earth and intuitive when it came to helping him find his balance. She was willing to sweat.
She was even willing to risk getting hurt.
And now he finally understood that this was what love looked like to Alexis.
It wasn’t about fairy tales and happy endings, or even the beautiful illusion of flying across that stage.
For Alexis, love was action.
And even if it broke him to think of what she was willing to do by being here, he finally thought he understood it.
She had been willing to do anything - savaging and starving her own body- to protect her ballet career.
And yet she was willing to put it all on the line without a thought, to give him a single chance to land that kick on the pad she held.
And that was what her sacrifice of a living child from her own body here at the Center would have meant for her, too. Not abandonment, not cold calculation - butlove. Active, deliberate, heartbreaking, soul-shattering love.
And yes, Alexis came here willing to provide this act of selfless love to help someone she did not yet know.
But now that she knew him and he knew her, Tiago would be forever grateful that he had been chosen to receive that gift.
Because he knew now that he could never ask her to give it.
