5 DAYS. 8 HOURS. 42 MINUTES.
Not able to fully comprehend El’s body lying in the bed, IoN had watched her chest rise and fall like a hawk. “Oh, El. You have lost so much.”
He couldn’t let her sacrifice her life when she had so many days left to live: 22,254 to be exact. She was supposed to keep running the garage, show Phyllis her worth, create something out of the ashes between her and her sisters, and demonstrate to the world why she should be as revered as her father.
Lady Lorelai sat beside him, her head in her hands. “I’m so tired.”
“It’s a heavy burden you carry, and I am sorry it sits on your shoulders. I am sorry I made it heavier.”
She shook her head, her eyes not removing themselves from Cinderella. “You did what any father in your shoes would have done.”
“You will tell her afterward?”
Her head spun to face him, and for a moment he was caught by the pain in her eyes. It was always her. She held the sole responsibility of anyone who came here looking for answers on how to stay alive. Every sick person, every single parent, every lovestruck fool—everyone with a story, a worthy reason as to why they should not be allowed to die so soon. But none were ever granted.
Until him, of course.
“What I did for you was unprecedented, and quite frankly, some nights I lay awake under the desert stars wondering if it was the right thing to do.”
“I understand, but the longer I have spent watching El and Meena, the more I have come to terms with the idea that this was meant to be.”
“You think you were always meant to be here, to give your life for hers?”
IoN laid his arms on her shoulders and made a crackly sound that was supposed to be a sigh. “I have always denounced the idea of a god. What’s the point in believing in some revered entity who never answered a single call for help? But I have come to realize that it is not His help I have been seeking, but my own. My choices shape who I am. And this is my final choice.”
“You would die for her?”
“I put my consciousness into a steambot and lived a shell of a life for a decade for her. She is my daughter. I would do anything for her.”