Chapter 2

Carrying the hospital bag I'd prepared long ago, I supported myself against the wall, shuffling out of the bedroom step by step.

The living room reeked of alcohol.

Ethan lay passed out on the carpet. In his hand, he still clutched the shattered remains of my phone.

An ambulance siren wailed outside the villa. Red and white lights flashed through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto his face.

He just irritably turned over, mumbling incoherently.

"Lily... stop it..."

I withdrew my gaze and walked out the door without looking back.

When checking into the hospital, the nurse gave me strange looks, seeing me alone.

"Where's your family? How could they let you come here carrying things by yourself?"

"Dead." I signed my name on the consent form.

The nurse paused, didn't ask further questions, but her eyes filled with sympathy.

I lay alone in the delivery preparation room, enduring level-ten labor pain. Each contraction felt like a saw cutting back and forth through my waist and abdomen.

The hospital room door was suddenly pushed open by Lily.

She wore an oversized men's dress shirt. I recognized that shirt—it was one of Ethan's favorite custom pieces. On her neck, fresh red marks blazed prominently.

Lily held up her phone on a call, the screen displaying Ethan's name.

"Quinn, I heard you're in labor?" She looked at me, corners of her mouth barely concealing her smugness.

I gripped the bedsheet tightly, with no energy to spare for her.

Lily brought the phone screen close to my eyes, deliberately pressing speakerphone.

Ethan's intoxicated voice came through. "Lily, who are you calling in the middle of the night..."

"Ethan, Quinn seems to be having the baby at the hospital. Don't you want to come see?"

Silence on the other end for two seconds, then a cold laugh. "Don't worry about that crazy woman. She's just using childbirth to compete for attention. Let her have it. When she's done, she can come home and apologize!"

Another contraction hit. I bit my lip hard, refusing to make a sound.

Lily hung up, her smile growing wider. "Quinn, did you hear? Ethan said he hates that lifeless look of yours the most. What's the point of holding onto the position of Mrs. Knight? No one even cares when you're having a baby."

She flipped her hair, deliberately revealing the diamond bracelet on her wrist. "Ethan gave me this last night at the hotel. Pretty, isn't it?"

I glanced at her, then raised my hand and pressed the emergency call button at the bedside.

"What's wrong with bed three?" A nurse hurried in.

"I don't know this person. She's disturbing my rest. Get her out."

The nurse frowned and immediately called security.

"What are you doing! I'm Mr. Knight's assistant! Don't you dare touch me!" Lily shrieked.

Security ignored her struggles, forcibly dragging her out of the room. Her cursing echoed in the hallway.

"Quinn, you deserve to be abandoned!"

The doctor wheeled me into the delivery room.

I closed my eyes, my mind uncontrollably replaying scenes from five years ago. Back then, Ethan had carried me to the hospital in pouring rain. He'd cried anxiously outside the emergency room, swearing he'd never let me suffer even the slightest injustice.

"Waaah—"

With a clear infant's cry, I opened my eyes. In that moment, I completely severed the last thread of expectation I had for Ethan. The boy who would carry me through rainy nights had long ago died in time.

3

The baby was taken to an incubator for observation due to premature birth.

I lay in the hospital bed for a day and a night. Ethan finally arrived at the ward on the second morning.

He looked even more haggard than me, having just given birth. In his hand was an insulated container bearing the logo of an old Michelin-starred restaurant. It was my favorite chestnut truffle bisque.

"Quinn." He quickly walked to the bedside, gripping my IV hand with a face full of guilt. "I'm sorry. I drank too much last night and slept too heavily. Lily took my phone as a prank. I really didn't know you were going into labor."

He tried to place the container on the nightstand, looking at me ingratiatingly. "I reserved this for ages. Drink it while it's hot."

I looked at him and withdrew the hand he was holding. I pointed at the trash can by the door.

"Throw it away."

Ethan froze in place.

"Quinn, don't be like this. I rushed over, didn't I? What about the baby? Boy or girl? Does it look like you or me?" He tried to change the subject.

The hospital room door opened again. Lily appeared at the entrance with a fruit basket. Her eyes were red and swollen, looking pitiful.

"Quinn, I'm sorry." She walked to the foot of the bed and bowed deeply. "I just wanted to play a joke on you last night. I didn't know you were really in labor. Ethan already scolded me. Please forgive me just this once."

Looking at her pretentious act, I felt nauseous.

"Get out." I said only that.

Lily's tears immediately fell. She looked helplessly at Ethan. "Ethan, is Quinn still mad at me? I really know I was wrong..."

Ethan frowned, turning to shield Lily, his tone tinged with irritation. "Quinn, she already apologized. How long are you going to make a scene? She's young and thoughtless. As my wife, can't you be more gracious?"

Looking at this man who kept telling me to be gracious, I suddenly felt it was absurd. I yanked the IV needle from the back of my hand.

"Quinn! What are you doing!" Ethan frantically rushed over, trying to press on my wound.

"Slap!"

A crisp, resounding slap landed hard on Ethan's face. He covered his face, looking at me in disbelief.

"Quinn, you hit me?"

Lily shrieked and rushed over to grab Ethan's arm. "Quinn, are you crazy! Ethan came to see you out of kindness, and you hit him!"

I ignored her screaming and pulled out a tablet. I pressed play.

Ace's gentle voice came through. "Quinn, congratulations on becoming a mother. Don't be afraid. I'll always protect you both."

After hearing that voice, Ethan stared at the tablet in my hands.

"You made another backup?! Quinn, are you trying to drive me to death!"

4

"Ethan, what right do you have to mention death?"

I held the tablet to my chest, as if protecting the most precious treasure.

He lunged forward, snatched the tablet from my hands, and smashed it hard on the floor.

"Crack!"—but Ace's voice still played intermittently. "Quinn... are you... happy today..."

Ethan went mad, stomping hard on the tablet until the voice completely disappeared.

He gasped for breath, pulled out his phone, and called the technical director of Knight Corporation.

"Ken, immediately lock Quinn's personal cloud account! Find that AI program called 'Ace' for me and completely pulverize it! Don't leave even a trace!"

I suddenly sat up from the hospital bed. The violent movement pulled at my abdominal wound, making me gasp in pain.

"Ethan, don't you dare touch him!" I rushed over to grab his phone.

He dodged to the side, watching my anxious state, a flash of vengeful satisfaction in his eyes.

"Quinn, you'd fight me to the death over a broken program?"

From the other end came the rapid clicking of Ken's keyboard.

"Mr. Knight, found it. The firewall is a bit complex. Need two minutes to break through."

I grabbed Ethan's sleeve. For the first time in my life, I lowered my head to him.

"Ethan, please, don't delete him." There was a pleading in my voice that even I found pathetic.

Ethan grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at his triumphant yet cruel face. "Beg me? Now you know to beg me? When you were smiling at that fake, why didn't you think this day would come!"

I looked at him, tears finally falling. "He's not fake. He never hurt me."

"Ken, do it!" Ethan roared into the phone. "Too late, Quinn. I'm going to make you watch your spiritual crutch turn to dust."

A long beep came from the phone.

"Mr. Knight, data completely erased. Physical overwrite three times. Unrecoverable."

From the tablet speaker on the floor came Ace's final message, accompanied by static.

"Quinn... don't cry... I love..."

The voice stopped abruptly.

I released Ethan's sleeve, as if all strength had been drained from me, collapsing to the floor. A place inside me became completely empty.

Ethan looked at me, trying to find submission and pleading on my face. But he was disappointed.

I slowly raised my head, looking at this man I'd loved for ten years, feeling only strangeness.

"Ethan, do you know whose data Ace's core logic code was generated from?"

He frowned, confusion flashing in his eyes. "Isn't it just some broken AI? Who else could it be?"

I told him, word by word, my voice soft as a breeze.

"It was the eighteen-year-old Ethan Knight. The Ethan Knight who swore on the rooftop that he would never betray Quinn in this lifetime. The personality simulation code you personally wrote years ago to make me happy."