She Begged for Me Back After I Left novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Fifty-Nine Seconds

Alana crossed the room before Dalton could turn his head.

She shoved him with both hands, hard enough to throw him off my chest and into the armchair.

The warmth left with his palm.

The count in the corner of my eye read 00:48.

"Don't you touch him," Alana said.

She dropped to her knees on the carpet and caught my face in her hands.

Her fingers were shaking.

"Nolan. Look at me. Stay here."

My other hand lay beside her knee, so thin I could see the carpet pattern through it.

"It's too late," I said.

"No."

"Alana, it's zero. I can feel it going."

"Then I'm not letting it go."

The panel showed C 0.0 and D 0.0.

00:41.

Dalton straightened his cuffs in the chair and watched us with mild interest.

"She's sentimental," he said. "I did warn you."

"Shut up," Alana said, without looking at him.

She pressed her forehead against mine.

Her hair smelled like rain and hotel soap.

"I was the one who said yes to him at the table," she whispered. "I cried and begged you, and I didn't even look at your face. I'll never forgive that."

00:33.

"I don't care what the number is," she said. "I'm not sorry, I'm done. I'm yours. You hear me? I'm not giving you to anybody."

The panel flickered.

D 0.2.

The count stopped at 00:19, and went gray.

"Floor held," the System said. "Host affection score: 0.2. Erasure suspended."

I dragged in a breath that hurt all the way down.

Alana felt it and made a sound that was half sob and half laugh.

"What?" she said. "What happened?"

"You did," I said.

Dalton's smile had thinned.

"Touching," he said. "But two tenths of a percent is not a life, Nolan. It's a fever. It breaks by morning."

Footsteps pounded up the hall.

Camille stood in the doorway with her hair coming loose and her gray coat half off one shoulder.

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