The truth slaps me across the face. Both of my parents have been pawns in Eric Smith’s game. My dad may have been one of the very first—a consequence of speaking his mind. And confirmation the changes I saw in Mom that I just put down to…I don’t know? What it means to be an adult? Her settling for her lot in life? It wasn’t that at all.

I think about the cookbooks I found in the garbage bag, the ones I have stashed away in the corner of the locker—along with the photographs and letters from my father—so old-fashioned in our era of modern technology. The acceptance letter to a top cooking school, the dream of traveling to Paris, to Florence, to Istanbul, to try the food and indulge in her passion. Mom and I haven’t gone on vacation for years, but it’s nothing to do with a lack of money or desire the way I thought it was.

It’s been because of Eric Smith all along.

My throat constricts at the thought of what our lives could have been like had Mom not been subject to the update. What could she have become? Would we have been happier if she had been able to pursue her dreams?

What if she pursued her dreams and failed? Would that have made her miserable? But the point is, she will never know. She was never given that choice.

And then there’s my dad. He must have tried to stop Eric’s plan. Did he know that by speaking against him, he would lose out on a whole life with Mom and me? Now he’s living out his days at Lake Baku in blissful (is that the right word?) complacency, a walking zombie with no mind of his own.

I take steps backward from Eric, not wanting to get swept up into his twisted logic.

“Once people know about this, you will be forced to stop,” I say, shaking with anger. This man has taken so much from me and from my family. While I still have my own mind, I won’t ever stop fighting him.

He presses his fingers against his temples, and I sense now that he is getting tired of me. I have to find a way out of here. Or else Eric Smith will force the update on me, and these might be the last words I ever care about hearing. Jinx, any ideas?

>>I’m thinking…

“Oh, Lacey,” Eric continues. “This has been Moncha Corp’s core goal since Monica and I founded this company. How can we make people happier? I’ve simply…accelerated things.”

“If this was really a ‘shared’ company goal, you wouldn’t have had to lock Monica away.”