*Chapter 14, still choose you
618 Words
Jail visitation room. Glass between them. Phones to their ears.
Alexander sat in orange jumpsuit. Hands cuffed. Eyes still black from seeing her jump.
Ava pressed palm to glass. He copied her. Same spot. Always.
“DNA test came back,” Ava said. Voice steady. “You’re not James’ son.”
Alexander closed eyes. “I know.”
Ava froze. “You… knew?”
“Since I was 16,” he said. “Victoria told me when she caught me reading her files. She wanted me broken. I stayed anyway.”
The guard tapped table. “5 minutes.”
Ava leaned forward. “Then why did you let me think you were his son? Why ‘you belong to me’ if you’re just her clone weapon?”
Alexander looked up. Black eyes fading to gray. His real color. “Because cloned or not, Ava, I chose you. Victoria programmed me to obsess. I chose to love. There’s a difference.”
He told her everything. Fast. 5 minutes isn’t long.
Victoria found a dead baby 30 years ago. James’ real son. Died in car crash she caused. Victoria cloned him from DNA in hospital freezer. Raised clone as ‘Alexander’ to torture James.
“Programmed to crave control,” Alexander said. “But no one programmed me to pull you from ocean. To let Sophia go. To jump when you said ‘jump’. That was me.”
Ava’s hands shook. “My mom’s diary said ‘run from the man who says you belong to me’.”
“I read that page too,” he said. “Found it before Victoria burned it. Your mom wrote it when she was sick, scared, poisoned by Victoria. She didn’t know me. She knew Victoria’s version of me.”
Glass vibrated. Victoria’s voice over speaker: “Time’s up, lovers.”
Victoria walked in behind glass. Red dress. Gun at her side now, not in hand. She liked watching.
“Did he tell you the last part?” Victoria smiled. “Clone degrades. You have 2 years, Alexander. Then your cells collapse. I built you to die. Revenge complete.”
Alexander didn’t look at her. Only at Ava. “2 years is enough. If I get them with you.”
Ava stood up. Pressed forehead to glass. “I don’t care if you’re cloned. I don’t care if you die in 2 years. I care that you chose me for 5 minutes when no one else did.”
Victoria slammed hand on glass. “You’re both insane! He’s not human!”
Ava turned to her. “Then I’ll love the non-human who stayed. Not the human who locked my mom in basement for 2 years.”
Victoria’s smile cracked.
Guard: “Visit over.”
As they dragged Alexander away, he mouthed 3 words: “Still choose you.”
Ava mouthed back: “Always.”
Outside jail, Sophia waited. No wheelchair. No lies.
“I gave you the key,” Sophia said. “Now take this.” She handed Ava a vial. Blue liquid. “Antidote. Victoria made it to control Alexander’s degradation. Steal it from her lab. Room 404 safe. False bottom.”
Ava took it. “Why help me now?”
“Because you jumped,” Sophia said. “No one jumps for him. Everyone runs. You ran TO him. That’s worth more than 9 months of lies.”
Sirens behind them. Victoria’s men.
Ava ran. Vial in fist. Plan forming.
If Alexander had 2 years, she’d make them 20.
*End of Chapter 14*
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Comment: Is “I chose you” better than “I was born for you”? Comment CHOOSE or BORN. I reply to first 200
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