Javier put his hands behind his back. He could still feel the freezing temperature of her skin burning against his fingertips. He forced himself to turn around.
He faced the window, putting his back to the bed. "Your request is absurd," he stated, his voice a flat, bureaucratic drone.
"You are a young, single female. I am an adult male with no blood relation to you. Cohabitation is entirely inappropriate."
The word "inappropriate" hit Ella like a physical slap. The desperate light in her eyes died instantly. She turned her face away, staring blankly at the blank wall.
Javier didn't turn around to see the damage he had done. He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a heavy silver pen.
He walked over to the small table in the corner. He grabbed a piece of hospital stationery and quickly wrote down a string of numbers.
He walked back to the bed and slid the paper under her plastic water cup. "This is a secure, encrypted line. It is active twenty-four hours a day."
He didn't wait for her to respond. He turned and walked out of the room. The heavy door clicked shut behind him.
The room fell dead silent. Ella stared at the ceiling. Hot tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, sliding down her temples and soaking into her hair.
The next afternoon, the door swung open. A young man with messy blond hair and a bright baseball jacket walked in.
"Hey! I'm Caleb Shepherd. Javier's cousin," he announced, dropping a massive, obnoxious bouquet of sunflowers onto the chair.
Caleb pulled up a stool. He pulled an apple and a pocket knife from his jacket and started peeling. "Javier is a robot. Don't let his cold act get to you."
Ella's tense muscles relaxed slightly at his easy, loud energy.
Caleb pointed the knife at the door. "The security on this floor is insane. He's guarding you like you're the President."
Ella's heart skipped a beat. She gripped the edge of her blanket. "Why is he doing this for me?"
Caleb stopped peeling. He let out a long breath. "Because of your mom. Elara."
He looked at Ella's confused face. "Elara was the Shepherd family's adopted daughter. Javier and her... they were close. He never got over her leaving."
The air punched out of Ella's lungs. Her chest tightened painfully. She wasn't special. She was just a replacement. A tool for his guilt.
A sick feeling of humiliation washed over her. She squeezed her eyes shut, her fingernails digging into her palms.
After Caleb left, Ella sat alone in the quiet room. Her eyes locked onto the piece of paper trapped under the water cup.
Her hand trembled as she reached out and pulled the paper free. She stared at the numbers. The numbers that represented absolute power.
A sudden, reckless urge to test him flared in her chest. She picked up the plastic receiver of the hospital phone.
She punched in the numbers one by one. The line rang exactly once before it connected.
"Report," Javier's voice snapped through the speaker. It was sharp, cold, and ready for a national emergency.
Ella took a deep breath. She forced her voice to sound soft, yet completely entitled.
"Is anyone feeding Whisper?" she asked. "My cat. At the apartment."
Five seconds of absolute, dead silence stretched over the line. Ella could hear the faint sound of his breathing stop.
She braced herself for him to yell at her and hang up.
Instead, a very low, very tired sigh came through the speaker.
"Asset secure," Javier answered. His voice remained entirely flat, a cold, bureaucratic drone devoid of any human emotion. "Food supply meets standard requirements. It is alive."
