Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

She still needs to eat something. Her stomach is empty, and the baby will need nutrients to grow.
While Hallie’s soup warms up, I pop into my office and sink into the chair behind my desk. I
glance up to make sure she hasn’t snuck up on me, then I reach behind me for the book I keep my key
tucked inside.
Moments later the drawer is open and a wave of security washes over me. I place my hand on
top of the folder I haven’t used yet, and then push aside Hallie’s phone and my clone of it. Hers isn’t
the one I want to look through right now.
Instead, I grab the clone I made of Jackson’s phone. It’s a less sophisticated clone. With Hallie, I
used a special SIM card I designed myself. The ones readily available on the market wouldn’t do
what I wanted them to do, mostly because it would be very easy to use that kind of technology
unethically. Which I am, but I needed up-to-date information on what she was doing, not just a copy of
everything she had done up to the point of cloning. In order to get what I wanted, the SIM card in her
phone and the one in my clone had to be linked.
With Jackson’s phone, I didn’t need to keep up with anything new. I only wanted a phone with
copies of every photo, every video he ever took of her. I wanted their text message chain, the private
messages sent via social media. I wanted to know every godforsaken link she had ever shared with
him.
I wanted the Hallie Meadows back catalog: Jackson edition.
When I pull up the photos, it doesn’t matter that her smile is for him and not for me. I scroll
through and click the one of Hallie smiling happily at the phone camera, her face flushed, nose red
from the cold, snowy weather. She’s wearing her hair back, a bit damp and messy from the weather,
and a knitted scarf. She’s holding the hand of a dark-haired, red-nosed little girl bundled up in a snow
suit. The girl is probably around 2 or 3. I don’t know who it is, but I know Hallie looks happy. You
can practically see the faint glimmer of maternal yearning in her eyes.
She’s mad right now, but that’ll pass.
Hallie will be a wonderful mother. I know she wanted children. Perhaps not mine, but she
wanted them someday with someone, and I think in time she’ll find I was an excellent candidate. The
men in my family tend to be assholes, but at least we’re intelligent, and the women are quite lovely all
the way around. Good looks and healthy bodies run pretty strong. If she were flipping through a book
of qualified candidates at the sperm bank, I think she’d find mine quite desirable.
As long as we have a daughter instead of a son, everything should be just fine.
It doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s done now, so she has to accept it.
I swipe away from the picture of Hallie and scroll through more photos. I’m tempted to play one
of the clips, but I don’t want to risk Hallie hearing her own voice and coming to investigate. I’m not
sure how I would explain why I have a video that she sent to her ex-boyfriend. Sure, I could say he
sent it to me, but I don’t want to lie to her.