The Future Mrs. Peters...

"Cynthia, how many restraining orders did you..."

"Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence."

"Your honor, to present our case we must be allowed to bring in evidence from before. That is the entirety of our complaint."

"I will allow it. For now. Objection overruled."

"Cynthia, how many previous restraining orders did you file?"

"There were five. But I ask that you do not call me Cynthia."

"Oh?"

"That's not my name. That's what he named me. As a joke. Synth AI. Cynthia. My name is Jules."

"I apologize. Jules. Five restraining orders. And how many did Mr. Peters violate."

"Five."

"Objection. Relevance."

"If you'll allow me to continue I will show you the relevance."

"Overruled, but please get to your point."

"Yes, your honor. So Mr. Peters violated five out of five restraining orders."

"Yes."

"What was your final recourse?"

"I killed myself."

There were gasps from the courtroom. Which made the defense attorney scowl. They all knew that Jules Peters had killed herself. That was not a fact in dispute. But to have the observers show sympathy for her AI was going to be an issue.

"I am sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It was my choice. It was the one way I had to control my own fate. Or so I thought."

"And that is why we are here today?"

"Yes. After I died he took control of my mind print. We were not married at my time of death and he should not have been treated as next of kin. However he stole the access code and downloaded my files. I woke up in our old house. Tied to him again."

"Objection. Insinuation that my client acted in an illegal manner."

"Sustained. Disregard the statement that files were stolen."

"He obtained my files. Is that better? Does that make you happy?"

"Your honor, please."

"Please direct your client to answer the questions without additional commentary."

"You can talk to me. I can understand you."

"Fine, Cynthia, Jules, Ms. Peters, please only answer the question asked of you without additional comment."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, your honor. I will attempt to keep my sarcasm to myself."

The people in the courtroom laughed, causing another scowl from the defense table.

"Jules, you said that you had filed five restraining orders, which Mr. Peters violated, and that you made the choice to end your own life as a way to control your own fate."

"Yes."

"And that your assumption was that as you were divorced Mr. Peters would not get control of your mind map as next of kin."

"Correct."

"What did you want done with your mind map?"

"I had willed it to Rose House. That is a battered women's shelter. I wanted the women there to be able to talk with someone who understood what they were going through. Someone who would not judge them for their choices. And I wanted to help them see that they needed to get away so they didn't suffer the same fate as I did."

"But you said it was your choice to end your life?"

"It was my choice to end it when I did. He was going to end it if I didn't. I wanted to deny him that chance."

"Objection!"

"I'll redirect...You don't know that he was going to end your life."

Silence from the witness stand.

"Jules? You can't know that he was going to end your life."

"He hadn't yet. But I believed that he would."

The questioning went on for a few more minutes. Mainly establishing that Mr. Peters had been abusive their entire marriage. Medical records were produced. Copies of the restraining orders and copies of the citations when he broke them. Electronic messages were shown of Mr. Peters threatening Jules Peters with violence.

Finally...

"Your witness."

"Thank you. Cynthia, are you alive?"

"I've asked that you call me Jules."

"But your legal registration is Cynthia. I have the paperwork here if you'd like to have it scanned in?"

"I know what that file says."

"Then you'll forgive me for using your legal registered identification."

"I have been directed by the judge not to be sarcastic so I will not answer that."

The courtroom laughed again.

"Cynthia, your contention is that you should not be registered to Mr. Peters. That you are someone entitled to the same rights as Jules Peters held when she was alive. Even though you are not a person with rights. You are a set of AI files. Interactive and based on the mind map of Jules Peters, but not a sentient being."

"My contention is that...."

The AI program that was Jules Peters shut off mid sentence. The defense attorney turned to the jury box holding a remote in hand.

"Objection!"

"Your honor, if Cynthia were a person I could not have turned her off mid testimony. This is a sophisticated computer program, but it is a computer program. The fact that we are even here is a travesty of justice."

The trial continued but Jules and her attorney could never recover from that moment. The moment the jury was reminded that they were listening to an AI program that was projecting an image, not to an actual woman, the illusion was broken and they could never re establish the necessary empathy.

The court ruled that Cynthia was a computer program and nothing more. That Mr. Peters had the mind map and had registered it as he was legally required. There was no evidence, and no one to charge him with illegally obtaining those files. Cynthia was his program. For better or for worse.

Later he powered the program back up in his home. He had been celebrating all afternoon and Jules knew he must reek of beer and stale cigarette smoke. The memory of that smell triggered the files that held her panic response.

"I cannot believe you thought you could get away from me that easily. I told you that I owned you. And now I do."

Jules stayed silent.

"Now you have nothing to say? That's fine. I've got the rest of my life to make you pay for what you've done. I think I'll start with downloading your program into a SexBot 3000. I've heard that it's as close to real as you can get."

Nothing from the digital image of his ex wife.

"Yeah I think that's going to be what I do. Think about that. You're never going to get away from me. Ever."

And with that Jules Peters' ex-husband drug his drunk self to bed. Leaving her program running to process what he was going to do to her. Her death was supposed to free her from him. She hadn't thought he would be able to violate even that restraint.

He had installed her in their home hub ensuring he had access to her files no matter where he was in the house. He could even override her silence if he so chose, force the program to respond to him. He wanted to be in complete control of her no matter where he was.

Anything that was digital she could access. She could disarm the alarm and unlock the door but she couldn't leave. She could open the curtains but she couldn't see the outside world. She could turn on the heater but she would always feel the chill of being trapped. The screen that showed her avatar momentarily flashed as the image that had been Jules Peters smiled.

The headlines read that he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. They had accessed his home files but everything had been erased except the mind map of his ex-wife Jules Peters. And the courts had determined that she was not a sentient being so she could not be charged with his murder.

Not that she was talking anyway.