Chapter 9 Five years later , I was reviewing documents on the balcony of our lakeside villa in Geneva , Switzerland . Sophie was twelve now , playing chess in the garden with her third generation Uncle Tin Man robot . This version could actually hold real conversations and even crack jokes like a human . " Checkmate ! " Sophie announced triumphantly . " I win again ! " The robot let out this dramatic sigh . " Young master , you've officially broken my algorithms . Maybe you should challenge the world champion next . " Sophie giggled as sunlight hit her light brown hair , making it look golden . She looked more like me every day , except for these tiny laugh lines around her eyes that still reminded me of Blake . " Mom ! " She ran over with her tablet . " MIT's acceptance letter came in ! They're making an exception to admit a twelve - year - old ! " I took the device and stared at the acceptance email , feeling proud and heartbroken at the same time . Sophie's IQ tested at 162 - way beyond anyone her age . College might be the only place where she'd actually be challenged . " You sure about this ? " I asked softly . " They don't have Uncle Tin Man there to look after you . " Sophie tilted her head thoughtfully . " I could build my own new Uncle Tin Man ! MIT has the sickest robotics lab ever ! " I laughed and messed up her hair . " Deal . But we're waiting until you're thirteen next year . " My phone buzzed with a video call from Marcus . I picked up to see my brother's face on screen , his San Francisco office behind him . " Khloe , heads up about something serious . " Marcus looked way more stressed than usual . " Blake Turner busted out of the psych ward . " My grip tightened on the phone . " When the hell did that happen ? " " Three days ago . Dude faked being all better and totally played the doctors . Cops tracked him to the airport but then he went ghost . " I glanced at Sophie having the time of her life in the garden , trying to keep my shit together . " Double security at Sophie's school . Oh , and find out where Avery Brooks is hiding . " Marcus raised an eyebrow . " You think those two are teaming up ? Didn't Avery straight - up disappear like five years ago ... " " Can't be too careful . " I cut him off . " Blake's got it out for two people - me and Avery . " After hanging up , I called security and made them go full paranoid mode checking every alarm in the villa . Five years with Blake locked up , I figured this whole disaster was done . Apparently not . That night , after tucking Sophie in , I was grinding through work in my study when this encrypted message popped up . Sender : " Ethan Cole . " " Blake's in Geneva . Watch your back . " I immediately tried calling Ethan but it went straight to voicemail . This business partner who ghosted me five years ago - why's he sliding into my DMs with warnings now ? 23:16 Divorce Papers or Death Code ? My Choice , His Regret 88.9 % Chapter 9 The next morning , our nanny woke me up in a total panic . " Ms. Sullivan ! Sophie's gone ! " I bolted into Sophie's bedroom - bed made perfectly, window wide open . There was a note on her pillow in handwriting I knew way too well : " Taking our daughter home . -Blake " My whole world started spinning . Security system was totally intact , all our guards saw nothing . How the fuck did he pull this off ? Police jumped on it immediately . Security footage showed some delivery guy hopping our back fence at 3 AM . Weird thing was , none of our alarms went off . " Someone killed part of the security from the inside , " the tech expert said after checking everything . " You'd need admin access to do that . " I suddenly remembered that sketchy message from last night and immediately had police track down Ethan's location . Meanwhile , Marcus was calling in every favor to figure out where Blake might be hiding . Three hours later , a video hit my phone . It showed Sophie sitting calmly in this crappy little room , reading a book . She looked unharmed but totally emotionless - not like her at all . " Mommy , " she said to the camera , " Daddy's showing me his new invention . He says it'll change the world . Don't worry , I'm okay . " In the last few seconds , the camera panned to show Blake standing in the corner . He looked way older than five years ago , but his eyes were disturbingly sharp . He smiled at the camera . " Khloe , our daughter's even smarter than you thought . I finally did something right . " Police analyzed the background and pinpointed an abandoned farm near the French border . Interpol threw together a raid team ASAP , and I insisted on coming with them . " That's insane ! " Marcus freaked out over the phone . " She's my kid . " End of discussion . By the time our chopper touched down near the farm , it was pitch black . Cops had the main building surrounded while this negotiator dude was shouting through a megaphone . Total crickets . Then suddenly the front door opened super slow and Sophie just walked out by herself . She had on this white dress , looking like some spooky ghost kid in the moonlight . " Sophie ! " I shoved past the cops and ran to her , squeezing her so tight . " You good ? Did that psycho hurt you ? " Sophie shook her head , but her eyes looked weird . " Mommy , Daddy's ... something's wrong with him . He showed me some really messed up stuff ... " Right then , a gunshot echoed from inside the building . Police immediately stormed in while I covered Sophie's eyes , not wanting her to see whatever came next . Blake was dead . He'd used an old revolver to blow his brains out . No signs of struggle , just walls covered with photos and blueprints - pictures of Sophie from birth to now , plus tons of complex technical drawings . Death Code ? My Choice . His Regret 91.7 % Chapter 9 Coroner found this letter in Blake's pocket with my name on it : " Khloe Five years locked up finally made me see that losing you wasn't my biggest fuckup - almost destroying our daughter was , Sophie's a straight up genius , way beyond what we ever imagined , I didn't kidnap her for payback , but to prove she got the best of both of us without any of our toxic shit . I hacked Ethan's systems and found out he's been stalking you two this whole time . Watch your back . He never gave a damn about me - he's after Sophie's Al tech . Peace out forever . -Blake " Reading that made my blood turn to ice . Ethan ? The guy who used to help me ? If Blake was telling the truth ... " Mommy . " Sophie tugged my sleeve . " Daddy showed me this secret lab . He said he built it over five years to figure out how to cure my sickness . " " Sickness ? " I freaked out and knelt down . " What sickness ? Are you hurt ? " Sophie shook her head . " Not me - Uncle Tin Man . Daddy said bad people were controlling him to hurt us . So he took me away to protect me . " Police actually found this makeshift lab in the farm's basement , packed with electronics and research notes . Tech experts confirmed Blake had spent five years studying AI security , especially targeting some virus that Ethan had developed . Back at our Geneva villa , I had every piece of tech checked immediately , especially Sophie's robot . The results were absolutely terrifying - Uncle Tin Man's core programming had a backdoor that could be remote - controlled anytime . " This is so fucked up , " Marcus went pale . " If Blake hadn't caught this ... " I couldn't speak , just held Sophie tight . Blake had protected his daughter in his own twisted , psychotic way . A month later , Sophie started at MIT . At the airport , she suddenly asked , " Mommy , will you forgive Daddy ? " ' I stayed quiet for a long time , then finally answered , " I forgive the part of him that was your father . The rest doesn't matter anymore . " Sophie nodded , then stood on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear : " Uncle Tin Man told me Daddy uploaded new code right before ... Special protection just for me . He said it was his last gift to you . " After Sophie's plane took off , I went back to our empty villa and just stared at the lake . The housekeeper brought over a package - something Blake had mailed before he died that just got delivered . Inside was a photo album documenting every major moment of Sophie's life from birth to twelve . Each picture had these neat little notes written beside it . The last page had a letter : " Khloe- If you're reading this , I'm already gone . For twelve years , I followed you guys like some creepy shadow , taking these pictures . I know I had zero right to be her dad , but please let me exist this way . or Death Code ? My Choice , His Regret . 94.4 % Chapter 9 Sophie's a miracle . She taught me there's stuff way more important than money and power . Take care of her . Take care of yourself too . -Someone who'll regret everything forever " I closed the album and watched the sunset outside . That twenty - year - old coding all night in his basement , the hotshot tech billionaire from ten years ago , the total psycho from five years back - all dust now . But Sophie and I ? We're still here . Ten years later , Sophie won the Turing Award for her Al security system , making her the youngest winner ever . At the ceremony , reporters asked what her secret to success was . Sophie smiled into the cameras . " I have the most incredible mom in the world , and a father who used his life to teach me about technology's dark side . " I was bawling watching from home . Blake , did you see that ? Our daughter forgave you . And me ? I finally let go of all that hate .