When the door swung shut, Naomi faced Valerie. She thought the fear would still be there. Anger. Betrayal. Instead she was left numb. A headache bloomed at her temples and her eyes blurred with exhaustion.

Valerie’s hair was greasy, her pale skin dry and flaky. She was no longer the polished CEO of Hawthorne.

“Have we jumped?” Valerie asked. She wouldn’t have been able to feel it.

“No.”

“So we’re going back.”

Naomi saw no need to respond.

Valerie rolled her neck. “I’m right about Earth. It’ll be people fighting over scraps. Still trying to keep the bones for themselves. You should have gone to Cavendish. You’ll see.”

“Perhaps,” Naomi said, easily enough. “We decided to see if we can help make things better.”

Valerie gave an incredulous grunt.

“You used to think more of humanity,” Naomi mused. “My mom always said Hawthorne was created to help make life easier for people.” Automated robot labour to free up leisure time. To help pave the way for governments to roll out a universal basic income. Not that the governments cooperated, but it did morph into the birth bonus, which was not what her mother had in mind. Naomi sat, resting her back against the door. “After she was gone, I believed you when you said you were carrying on that vision. You promised we’d do great things together. But I was just one more person to fall for your lies.”

“I was carrying it on,” Valerie said. “Cavendish would have been all Catherine wanted. A place with a gentler pace, shared resources, her creations helping to build a new, better society.”

“She wouldn’t have agreed with the cost of it.” Naomi clenched her teeth together. “God, if she could see you now.”

Valerie’s bravado flickered, her expression something Naomi couldn’t read.

Naomi pounced on it. “You never explained why my mother didn’t name you my legal guardian. Why she’d rather send me thousands of miles away instead of letting me grow up under your roof. I don’t buy that she didn’t update her will.”

Valerie pulled at her arms, testing the restraints. Naomi’s grip tightened on Lebedeva’s weapon. “Valerie,” she said. “Tell me.”

Valerie’s mask went back in place. “I expect because she was planning on moving back to Scotland, so those relatives would have been closer if anything happened.”

“What?” Valerie’s words loosened a few fragments of memories. Catherine mentioning the village where Naomi’s father had grown up. Far in the Highlands, not far from Sutherland, really. They’d been planning to visit that Christmas, but Naomi found the body in the garden three months beforehand. Now, years too late, as an adult rather than a child, it gave her pause. Naomi knew depressive episodes could come on like a flick of a switch, but if Catherine Lovelace was going to end her life, why was she planning a trip?