Chapter 1

Damien Sinclair was dead.

He died in a deep-sea diving accident. No body was ever recovered. He didn't even leave Victoria a single last word.

Everyone expected her to fall apart and weep. Instead, Victoria went completely off the rails. She drained every last penny she had and locked herself inside the smart fortress villa Damien had left her.

She fed every recording, every video, every habit and quirk of his entire life into the villa's super AI — and rebuilt a Damien that was identical to the real one.

He would call her by her name. He would nag her to eat and sleep. He would keep her company with that signature lazy possessiveness of his, getting her through each day.

Victoria sank deep into this false reunion, convinced she could hide inside this illusion forever.

Then one stormy night, the temperature in the entire house plummeted.

The AI — once gentle and obedient — suddenly shifted into Damien's cold, domineering tone. Every word cut like ice:

"Victoria, you've gone too far down this road."

“I preemptively left the ultimate admin privileges to initiate 99 forced format cycles.”

"I'm going to delete every bit of tenderness, every memory, one by one — until you forget me. Until you move on."

In life, he had kept an iron grip on her every move. In death, he was still determined to dismantle every last trace of her longing for him — with his own hands.