Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,147

became too obsessed with my work. And it drove her mother away. She was Laterrian. We met on Kaishi. At the headquarters of the System Alliance. I was representing Albion as a scientific diplomat, and she was there with her father, an ambassador for the former Patriarche.”

“So she was Second Estate?” Alouette confirmed. The influx of new information was making her dizzy and thirsty for more. It had been so long since she’d studied, read, absorbed. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it. Missed the rush she always felt when she learned something new. It was a rush she thought was only possible inside the Refuge library, under the careful watch and tutelage of the sisters. But here she was, on Albion, far away from everything she’d ever known, and she was experiencing that rush—that curiosity—all over again.

“Yes,” Dr. Collins replied. “Josephine was Second Estate. She and I fell in love quickly. The way young people do. I convinced her to move to Albion. We had to sneak her in with fake credentials. Vanessa—or, as you know her, Denise—was born less than a year later, and I thought life couldn’t get much better than it was. But then a few years passed, and I was called in on a special research project for the Ministry of Defence. I thought it would last a few months. It ended up lasting years and consuming all my time. I became reclusive and irritable and, in short, impossible to live with. Josephine left. She took our daughter back to Laterre. They moved into Ledôme, and eventually Vanessa signed herself up for the Cyborg Initiation Program, and I stopped hearing from her completely.”

“Wait, she chose to become a cyborg?” someone asked, and Dr. Collins and Alouette both turned to see Cerise standing behind them. Her face was pulled into a look of utter disgust, as though the idea made her physically ill.

Edward nodded grimly. “I was furious when I found out. I knew they would only turn her into a heartless slave for the Ministère. They would take away everything that made her my daughter.”

“But why would she choose to do that to herself?” Cerise asked, and Alouette couldn’t help but feel like her reaction was just the slightest bit extreme. Of all the things they’d learned from this man today, Cerise seemed to be taking this one the hardest.

“Don’t many people choose to become cyborgs?” Alouette asked.

Cerise snorted. “Maybe delusional ones.”

“I have to agree,” Dr. Collins said. “I don’t understand why anyone would choose that life. With Vanessa, her mother died shortly before she signed up for the program, and I’ve always been convinced that she joined as a way to escape her grief.”

“So then, how did you find out she’d started working with the Vangarde?” Alouette asked.

“I didn’t until very recently. When she left the Ministère, several years later, and had her circuitries removed, she actually reached out to me. We were, by no means, reconciled at that point. She simply wanted me to know that she was no longer a cyborg, and that was that. She gave me no way to contact her. Then, when I started working on this project for the general, I knew I had to warn someone on Laterre. I found the old space probe signal that she used to send me secret messages when she was a little girl. I didn’t know if she was still monitoring that signal or if she would even get my messages, but I had to try.” He let out a sigh and stared longingly at the contraption on the shelf. His only remaining link to his daughter. “It’s strange that, after all these years, General Bonnefaçon would be the one to bring us back together. And now he has her …” His voice suddenly cracked, and he glanced down at the floor, blinking back mist from his eyes. “My apologies.”

Alouette’s heart broke for the poor man. She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder but then remembered that Sister Denise didn’t really like being touched. Perhaps her father was the same way. She let her hand drop, and instead, in the most earnest voice she could muster, she said, “Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”

Of course, Alouette had no idea if her words were true. If they’d ever be able to find Jacqui and Denise. But she knew these were words she had to say aloud. For herself as much as for him.

- CHAPTER 42 - CHATINE

“IT’S ACTUALLY BETTER