Chapter 3I Sent My Cheating AI Incubus to the Scrapyard

In the dead of night, Lucien finally strolled in, impatience in his eyes.

"You were reckless today. Vivian was just maintaining my system. We didn't actually cross any lines."

"Be the bigger person. Stop pushing her to quit, and I'll let you have a little more contact with me."

He bent down, leaning in toward my lips.

Looking at the mouth that still carried someone else's scent, my throat closed with disgust, and I jerked my head away.

Lucien caught nothing but air. He blinked, and his expression turned cold.

"Still throwing a tantrum? Fine. Then don't expect me to coax you anymore."

He spun around and went straight upstairs.

A little later he came back down, his face dark.

"My system needs an upgrade. Buy the latest service package. Now."

The package he meant ran five figures, all out of the owner's pocket.

The truth was, an AI runs fine without upgrades. But Lucien was always obsessed with seeming high-end, refusing to be lumped in with low-end units, so I'd always upgraded him without a word.

But not this time.

I lifted my eyes and held his stare, my voice flat.

"I'm not paying for any more upgrades."

His pupils shrank and his face twisted, ugly, and he kicked the table hard before storming upstairs.

It sat badly with me too. Then my phone calendar popped up a reminder that today was the anniversary of my parents' deaths.

I hurried to the garage, lit a stick of incense for them, then ran back to the bedroom and buried my head under the covers.

Fresh wounds layered over old grief and pressed down on me, and before long a cramping ache twisted through my lower belly.

Drifting in and out, I felt a glass of water touch my lips and took an absent sip.

I opened my eyes, and it was Lucien.

The knot in my chest loosened on instinct.

But before the sting could rise in my eyes, the taste bursting across my tongue nearly shot me upright.

"This isn't brown sugar water. It's mango juice?"

Lucien stalled.

I'd told him a hundred times over that I was severely allergic to mango.

My parents had severe allergies too, and an enemy of theirs secretly upped their dose of allergens until their hearts gave out.

I pulled up the backend data right away, and fury sparked in my chest.

Every allergy and restriction I'd flagged had been wiped, replaced top to bottom with Vivian's food preferences.

Mango gummies, mango juice, mango pie.

The anger I'd been holding down boiled over. I forced Lucien into a hard shutdown and lock, dragged his chassis out the door, and shut him in the cold, dim garage.

I couldn't let myself go soft again.

But when I stormed back to the bedroom to find my medication, I searched and searched, and every spare dose was gone.

Veins throbbed at my temples and my vision started swimming dark.

And right then, from the direction of the garage, came a thrilled, breathy moan.