Hidden Secrets.

Armand opened the door of the laboratory and went inside, the girl did not notice how he came, as she was absorbed in work. She had old wired headphones in her ears, and in her pocket was the same old player with songs from the end of the last century. It's not that she was a music fan of that period, these songs lost their popularity long before her birth, but something in these rhythmic melodies gave her a sense of real life - bright, provocative, free.

Ashley moved her hips to the beat of the music and hummed the words under her nose, completely without falling into the rhythm. A couple of times Armand's ears were about to blow up. He knew these songs, and once he even attended a live concert of this artist, but to tell the girl that her ear training required, khem, substantial practice, was quite a challenge for the man.

That was one of the reasons why he and Nick did not like karaoke. More precisely, Armand could not stand the pressure when Ashley turned to high notes, and only Nick would sit with a stone face and suffer this torture to the very end, giving the girl a storm of applause. Apparently, a talented person is not always talented in everything, and Ashley's entire genius went into robotics.

Nick, unlike her, had a beautiful voice but showed his vocal abilities only when she was not nearby. Armand did not know who the guy had such a talent after, and if not for the current situation, the young Teser would become a mega-popular idol, as the stars in Asia used to be called, but the guy was indifferent to such things.

The man grinned, watching the girl's strange movements, went up to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Oh, hi!" Ashley pulled headphones out of her ears and couldn't help but notice that Armand was holding back his laugh, "Just don't tell me... Hey, how long have you been here?"

"I just came," the man shrugged and turned toward the robot, ignoring the girl's gaze.

"Yeah, right," Ashley felt the blood rush to her cheeks. God, what a shame. She knew that it would take her years to be a graceful dancer, but she could not do anything about it. These old songs seemed to intentionally make the body move in a strange way.

"How did Nick react to your new toy?" Armand distracted the girl from embarrassing thoughts, his attention was attracted by the facial features of the robot, which was looking at him with wide-open brown eyes.

"Hmm, we have not fully discussed this, but I think he will be happy to help me."

'As if he has a choice,' Armand thought to himself. "By the way, it only seems to me or is the face of your robot... kind of... familiar?"

Ashley's eyes shone after this question, "Have you noticed? Awesome! I knew that you would notice!" she grabbed a tablet from the table and opened a program on it, "Look, I entered the physiognomic data of mom and Daniel, did an analysis and got - ta-dame - my sister! Well, at least she would have looked like that. Beautiful, isn't she?" The girl put the tablet back on the table and hugged her robot, "look, Nancy and I are alike, right?"

"Um, well...," Armand did not know how best to answer this question, this robot turned out to be so realistic that he was even surprised, "If you think so, then you would have a brother, not a sister. For many generations, only boys were born in the Anderson family. Even such strong blood as Teser, where there were only girls in the family, did not win this genetic battle."

"Hey, do not deprive me of my unfulfilled dreams! One Anderson is already enough for me, and it doesn't matter what they had in their family, I would have a sister," Ashley tucked a strand of Nancy's black hair in her ear and stroked her head, "However, it doesn't matter anymore." The girl's hand slipped down, no matter how she looked into the eyes of the robot, they remained lifeless. "I have to set up the program so that she blinks every six seconds."

Armand silently watched Ashley's fingers move at the speed of light on the keyboard, the lines of code on the monitor screen were replacing one another. A couple of minutes later, the girl pressed the restart button and leaned back in her chair.

"Armand, you think I'm weird, don't you?"

"Why do you think like that?" the man took a chair and put it next to Ashley's chair, he leaned his hand on the table and looked at the girl, "Is something bothering you?"

"Sean wants me to tell him what I think about an idea of dating him."

The man blinked a couple of times, different facts began to come together in his head until he realized what the reason was, "Oh. Christmas. All clear. And he is romantic," Armand smiled, but Ashley became even sadder. "And what are you going to tell him?"

"The fact of the matter is that I do not know. I am attracted to him, but every time the last step remains, I cannot do it. Those terrible memories pop up in my head, and I feel disgusted from myself that somewhere deep down I blame him for what had happened," Ashley squeezed the edges of her clothes in her palms.

She wished not to know all this so much.

"Maybe then it makes sense to tell the guy everything? Ashley, he is not a child anymore and sooner or later he will find out about it anyway," Armand answered in a calm voice, this topic was hard for both of them.

"And how do you imagine this? How can I just come to him and say, listen to me, Sean, do you have any idea that my father died because of you? Oh, well, not really because of you, you were just under the influence of Marcus, and Rick wanted to protect me from that crazy man. Oh yes, your parents also died trying to save you from that person's clutches, but you don't remember any of this, because someone masterfully cleared your memory.

But WAIT! That is not all! Your uncle Daniel was so shocked by the death of his brother and Elena, and did not sleep for a week while you were lying in the hospital unconscious, trying to restore your health and help people who were injured after the outbreak, but his health could not stand the pressure and he died a month later from pneumonia.

But you don't remember all this. Is this what I should tell him? Armand, you know Sean's temper! If he finds out about this, he will blame himself and do some stupid thing!" tears appeared in the girl's eyes, even if her mind said that Sean should know about it, her heart was contracted with pain at the mere thought of what he would feel when he finds out about it.

Armand leaned forward and pressed the girl to his chest. The first time he saw her, was when she was still a teeny tiny baby, not even knowing how to turn on her side. And now she has grown into such a beautiful and smart lady with a good heart. "Shhh, calm down. Everything will be fine. You will be next to him so that he will not do anything stupid. And even if he does something crazy, we will set your Nancy on him. How do you like this idea?"

"Ahaha, yes, it can be an effective method," Ashley laughed through her tears, "Listen, maybe you'd better become my boyfriend?"

Armand smiled and pinched the girl by the nose, "Silly, I'm so old that I am like a great-grandfather for you. Look, don't joke like that when Sean's around, otherwise, he won't understand this joke. He is always looking at me strangely every time I mention your name," the man shrugged. This hot-tempered young Teser was losing his whole mind when it came to Ashley. In this regard, he looked like his father, David. Owner from head to toe.

"Seriously? Lord, I didn't think he was so...," the girl's eyes slid over Armand's arm and stopped at the edge of the patch, slightly protruding from under the cuff of his shirt, "What is this?"

"Nothing," Armand removed his hand behind his back and stood up from the chair, "I think I got to leave. I'll go and check how Mitchell's work in the laboratory is progressing," the man turned around and was about to head for the exit, but Ashley grabbed at him with a death grip.

The girl lifted up the sleeve of Armand's shirt and saw two patches attached to the skin, next to a few scratches.

Something was wrong. She never saw a single scratch on him, they healed so quickly that watching this process was one of her favorite hobbies in childhood, although it was extremely strange.

Ashley tore off the patches from the man's hand, Armand grimaced but said nothing.

It was his secret, about which he too could not confess for a long time, and, apparently, there came a time when there was no more sense in hiding.

"How did you...? Why are they... like these?" Ashley was looking at two cuts, the edges of which were only slightly protruded, leaving the center of the wound still open. She recalled that a week ago, a shelf with tools fell on Armand in the laboratory, but the girl did not attach much importance to this, because she was sure that the man's body would quickly cope with the consequences.

Ashley turned her gaze to Armand's chest and the fingers of her hands themselves stretched to the buttons. She urgently needed to make sure that it was only her sore imagination... But to the great shock of the girl, when she unbuttoned the man's shirt, there were several dark purple bruises on his chest.

"What's happening? Shouldn't they have disappeared in a couple of minutes?"

Armand clenched the girl's trembling fingers touching his chest. They were so cold, and Ashley's face was so scared that the man's heart throbbed at the sight. "My body no longer regenerates. For two years now," he answered quietly and began to observe through Ashley's eyes how the meaning of his words reached her.

"N-no. This is not true. This cannot be," the girl shook her head, she could not accept such a truth. It was too unexpected and scary.

"I don't know how much time I have left, but I will be there for as long as I can."

Tears streamed down her cheeks. This man was her only family, besides Sean. He was their father, uncle, brother, friend. He was the one who was with them when no one else was left. But now even he was about to leave them.

"You and Sean will have to educate your grandchildren yourselves. I can't be a nanny anymore," Armand laughed softly and his words made Ashley smile.

"You have to promise to be a nanny for our children. We'll deal with our grandchildren ourselves," the girl hit the man on the chest, her stern look left no room for compromise.

"Yes, ma'am. Your order will be executed," Armand wiped the tears from the girl's face with his fingers, "You and Sean are the most important people for me. I love you. So promise not to be sad anymore," he leaned over and kissed her still wet cheek.

Ashley lowered her head and smiled shyly in response, the words of Armand were for her as a blessing from her father, "I love you too."

BANG!

The girl flinched in surprise and turned her head, her face paled the next second.

Nick was standing in the doorway of the laboratory, his eyes were burning with fury, but pain and betrayal were hidden behind bright sparks of anger.

Ashley immediately backed away from Armand, realizing that from the outside they created a different impression. The man was standing with his shirt open, the girl was in his arms with an embarrassed face and a blush on her cheeks.

"Nick, I'll explain everything," the girl's voice sounded with hesitation, she was at a loss, but it seemed to Nick that she was embarrassed that he interrupted them.

"There is nothing to explain here, everything is clear. I perfectly heard your ardent confession!" the young man angrily threw a helmet and a bunch of motorcycle keys on the floor.

"Sean!" Armand took a step forward to calm Nick down, but the guy made it clear with his appearance that he could hardly restrain himself so as not to attack the man.

"Do not dare. Pronounce. My. Name," the young man hissed through gritted teeth, cast a look at Ashley, full of resentment and disappointment, turned around and slammed the door.

The girl should have made great efforts to move as if her legs had merged with the floor. She had never felt so scared and felt such wild pain as when Nick looked at her with such a look. She never thought that even the thought that he could refuse her was like thousands of needles that have sunk into her body and striving towards her heart.

But when she ran out into the corridor to stop him, Nick wasn't there anymore.