Chapter 7
I wanted nothing to do with him.
He came straight after me and blocked my path.
I looked at the face I knew better than anyone else.
It was the face that always came to mind whenever I was tired or drained at the Institute of Advanced Studies.
Suddenly, curiosity got the better of me.
After five years of lies, how could he even begin to explain it?
I stopped in my tracks, staring at him with cold indifference.
He used to hold my gaze so gently, and now he couldn't bring himself to meet my eyes, and they darted away with the guilt written all over him.
After a moment, he finally looked at me, sounding a bit panicked.
"That night I was drunk.
"I messed up and ended up adding some new code I was testing into our chat interface.
"That's why you got those two weird messages."
He quickly added, his voice urgent.
"But I swear, that was the only time.
"Other than that, every word I said to you over these five years was genuine, from the bottom of my heart.
"You know there's no way a program could do that."
I let out a silent, bitter laugh, feeling nothing but disappointment in him.
It turned out he wasn't here to explain, he was just making excuses.
The AI programs on the market now couldn't hold five years of conversation with that much feeling behind it.
But the program he and Ethan developed was way ahead of anything on the market.
That program might well have been capable of it.
Even if that program really couldn't do it, I heard the truth with my own ears last night.
These past five years, the person I was pouring my heart out to, it was never really Andrew.
I didn't want to hear another word from him, so I told him coldly. "I meant every word of the break up."
I walked past him and headed for the doctor's office.
Behind me, Andrew's voice was full of grievance and frustration.
"Emma, this isn't fair.
"It was just those two messages. I swear, I haven't messed up in any other way these past five years."
He was totally convinced his program could never go wrong.
He was convinced last night was the only slip-up.
He just assumed I'd never catch on to anything else.
He figured there was no way I could've made it to Northbridge last night.
He hadn't expected me to hear those things, or to see how close he and Sophie were.
He had simply convinced himself of one thing.
I would always be the slow, clueless one.
I stopped in my tracks.
After a moment, I turned back to him, my voice calm.
"Honestly, if you didn't want me around anymore, you could've just told me sooner.
"I wouldn't have clung to you or made a scene."