Chapter 1
"Ding! Target Jude Shelton's affection drops to -100. Mission failed. Penalty activated right away. Host's capacity for love is erased. All memories will remain."
A cold mechanical voice rang in my head the moment I was wheeled out of the delivery room, barely alive after giving birth to Jude's child.
The anesthesia was wearing off, and the cut on my abdomen felt like someone had sawn through me with a dull knife.
I was freezing. Sweat soaked my hair, plastering it to my pale face.
A nurse brought the baby over to him, her voice bright with excitement. "Mr. Shelton, congratulations. It's a healthy baby boy, weighting six pounds, eight ounces."
Jude didn't even spare the child a glance. He stared at me instead, his handsome face twisted with pure rage.
He said, "Isabelle, do you think you can tie me down with a baby? You disgust me."
His voice was colder than the air in the operating room.
Something in my chest went hollow.
Every shred of pain and every bit of the seven-year obsession I had of him was all drained out of me like a tide pulling back.
The world went eerily quiet.
I looked at him calmly, like he was a program glitching out.
I said, "If you don't want the baby, you can send him to an orphanage. And here you go. This is the divorce agreement. I already signed."
I pulled out the document I'd placed under my pillow long ago and handed it to him.
*****
The divorce papers were creased from how tightly I'd been clutching it.
"My mission's complete. Goodbye," I said.
Jude Shelton was left speechless.
He probably never thought that the woman who was once madly in love with him, who would have thrown her life away for a single word from him, could say these words.
He was even more shocked that I could turn my back on my own child, too.
He clenched the divorce papers so hard that the veins on the back of his hand bulged.
"Isabelle, what kind of game are you playing now?" Jude demanded. "Is this your way of trying to get my attention?"
I didn't answer. I just turned to the nurse. "Could you bring my baby to me?" I said.
The nurse hesitated, glancing at Jude, but finally, she gently set the baby down next to me.
He was just a tiny, wrinkled bundle. His eyes were shut tight, fast asleep.
This was the baby I'd nearly died to give birth to.
On my system interface, the 'love' stat was now grayed out.
I felt no motherly love for him at all, only responsibility.
Jude watched me, his gaze locked on how calmly I looked at the baby, like I was inspecting merchandise.
His anger was doused in an instant, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. In its place was a panic he couldn't explain.
He took a step forward, about to say something, but I spoke first.
"Mr. Shelton, look over the divorce agreement. If you have no issues, sign it," I said. "I don't want any of your money. And the kid's mine.
"If you want custody, go ahead. I won't fight you. Just pay the child support in one lump sum, covering him until he turns eighteen."
My voice didn't waver, not a hint of emotion in it.
I was just stating the facts, like a programmed machine without feelings.
Jude's panic increased by the second.
He opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Isabelle, you... Don't do this."
He actually sounded almost defeated.
I gave him a puzzled look.
There was no analysis for his reaction in the system's database. This was way beyond anything I could have predicted.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.
"You weren't like this before," Jude mumbled.
"The Isabelle you knew is gone," I said. "She died the moment you decided not to come into the delivery room and chose to wait out here just to interrogate me."
With that, I closed my eyes.
'Switching to low-power mode. Unless it's urgent, don't bother me.' I mentally sent the command to my system.
Nothing outside mattered to me anymore. All I wanted was to sleep.
*****
When I was discharged from the hospital, Jude didn't show up.
Instead, his assistant, Paul Walter, came.
When Paul saw me carrying the baby and lugging all those bags by myself, his eyes softened with a hint of pity. "Ms. Deleon, let me help you."
"It's okay," I said.
I turned down his offer, hugging the baby close to my chest.
"Has Mr. Shelton signed the divorce papers yet?" I asked.
Paul looked a little awkward. "Mr. Shelton is on a business trip," Paul said. "He said we'll talk about the divorce when he gets back."
I nodded. "Could you tell him that by law, if we've been living apart for two years, the court will grant the divorce automatically. I'll be filing for divorce in court."
Paul opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just sighed. "Ms. Deleon, must you make such a fuss?"
"I'm not making a fuss," I corrected him, my voice steady. "I'm just following the legal procedure."
Paul was left speechless.
Without sparing him another glance, I walked straight to the taxi I'd already called, holding the baby close.
The driver helped me load my bags into the trunk.
I sat in the back seat with the baby.
He was so good the whole ride, not a single cry or fuss.
I named him Benjamin Deleon. I wanted him to be safe his whole life.
Moreover, I wanted peace from now on.
When I got back to the apartment I bought before I got married, everything was just the way I left it.