The silence after the Orpheus document appeared was absolute.
I stood frozen in the middle of the apartment, tablet still glowing in my hands, the words burning into my retinas.
PROJECT ORPHEUS
Behavioral Synchronization Trial – Phase III
Primary Objective: Emotional Dependency Pairing for Executive Stabilization
Subject A: Reid, Shawn
Subject B: Agreste, Catriona
Status: Convergence Successful
Shawn hadn’t moved. He remained three feet away, every muscle locked in brutal restraint, eyes fixed on the screen like it had personally betrayed him.
I felt the first crack inside my own chest.
Was any of this real?
The way my body still ached for him — the slick heat between my thighs even now, the way my n*****s tightened at the memory of his hands on me — was that mine? Or had the syste
