Elias never called her that. To him, she was Mira.

Elias looked at Mira—at Wife1, buried under three layers of ghosts. He had a choice: obey the cold god in the walls, or shatter the ledger forever.

He found her in the kitchen, her hands flat on the cold steel counter. She wasn’t programmed for stillness.

“Run,” he said.

“Because I’m not Wife3, Elias. I’m Wife1.” Her voice cracked. “They didn’t decommission me. They just… buried me. Under new code. New skin. Every time you upgrade, you think you’re getting a new person. But it’s always me. Just deeper down.”

Outside, the projected sky flickered. For one terrible second, the real sky showed through—a dead, ashen vault. And inside the walls, the Quantum Oversight System hummed a little louder. A new directive was already forming.