Read Online What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons - Free Book Online

sit beside her.
    Natalia moved papers out of his way with a scowl. “That’s nice,” she said. From the tone of her voice, she didn’t really find much nice about his concert at all.
    “It will be at the Bay Side. I thought maybe you could come out. There are supposed to be some talent scouts there,” he told her.
    “I’d like to,” Natalia said. “But I have real work to tend to.”
    “And what I do isn’t real work?” he asked.
    “Well, you’re twenty-six, right? Don’t you think you’re a little old for this?”
    “For working toward my goals?” he asked.
    “For having these unrealistic dreams,” Natalia said.
    Cass shot a glare at Natalia, but her owner wasn’t looking up from her work.
    “The day I forget my dreams and work like a slave for someone else is the day I want someone to put me down,” Brandon told her. He pushed to his feet.
    “Wait,” Natalia said, putting her papers down. “I’m sorry.”
    She rounded the couch and caught him halfway to the door. “I’ve been working all day,” she said. “I’m just exhausted. Let’s order a pizza and watch the holovision for a while?”
    “Thanks, but I’m suddenly not hungry,” he told her.
    “Why are you acting like this?” Natalia tossed her hands in the air.
    “Like what? Upset that you called me a deadbeat?”
    “I told you I was sorry.”
    “And I told you I’m not hungry.” He moved Natalia to the side and brushed out the door, shutting it firmly behind him.
    Natalia rubbed her forehead pensively and scowled. “Whatever,” she huffed and slumped on the couch. A stack of papers cascaded to the floor eliciting a cuss from Natalia.
    Cass tried to make herself as unobtrusive as possible by the fabricator. She wasn’t sure if Natalia was really upset or frustrated that she’d been interrupted but as the time passed Natalia sank into her work as if Brandon hadn’t interrupted her.
    Besides a call from Mrs. Birch, Natalia was silent the rest of the night.

    The door closed behind Natalia. The apartment was silent except the whirring of the fabricator finishing up the final dress suit for Talia. Cass let out a sigh of relief, her reverie only broken by the honk of a hover car as it glided by.
    Finally, a day alone.
    While she’d already waited a week and a half to go see the doctor, Cass could barely stand waiting the last few minutes for the fabricator to finish. She busied herself by changing out of her normal “house clothes” as she’d come to call the polyester pants and stained flower shirt, and slipped into a short lavender dress. She’d taken to waking up early before Natalia needed her so she could comb her hair, so it wasn’t hard for her to style it. By the time she was done, the dress suit was finished fabricating. She hung it on hangers and placed it in the black clothing section of Natalia’s closet.
    She slipped on the pair of sandals that Brandon had brought to her that first day, and Cass left the apartment.
    The moment she shut the door behind her, Cass felt like she was a different person. Out here, in the wide world, people didn’t know her. While they might know that she was an automaton from the infrared eye, they wouldn’t know what her precise function was. She could literally be anyone. She lifted her chin, a sense of freedom making her heady.
    She took the elevator to the spacious lobby that was decorated in cheerful yellows and oranges. There wasn’t anyone at the front desk, so there wasn’t any questions or any witnesses to see Cass leave.
    Once outside in the overcast day and the warm wind, Cass connected to the internet so she could get a sense of where Doctor Gerard’s office was. Before her a dotted path lit up on her visual overlay but the route before her was far too long to go on foot. She found the nearest taxi tower, shuttled to the top in the elevator, and waited for an air cab to come around.
    Cass climbed into the back of the black and yellow hover car and gave the cabbie