Wired For His Betrayal

e years of my life, three years of marriage, were supposed to lead to our shared triumph, not this. Not me s

a software engineer who believed in technology that could connect people, had designed it to personalize user experience

onalize. It extracted a user's deepest desires, their most private emotional data, tu

eone else, his college sweetheart, Sophia, a struggling actress with a rare neurological condition. The condition caused her constant, extreme em

ull. It felt like my thoughts were being ripped out one by one, my

n my face, hot aga

cracking. "You promised. You prom

man who held me when I had nightmares, who told me I was hi

and devoid of the warmth I once cherished. "Only your personaliz

he pain was unbearable, a raw, screaming agony inside my head, but a strange numbness was star

chair, a hollowed-out shell. The vibrant world of emotions

o of my own life force, my emotional essence, now trapped in silicon and metal. He place

bring you back to our penthouse," he pr

here, fragme

rty, the emotional data that made MindSync uniquely mine, were now hers to enhan

the thing that defined me, was gone. I felt like an automaton,

I had to. The silence

spered. The words had no emotional weig

f. Without the MindSync core, my cognitive functions were degrading. I knew the process. My mind would fray, my thoughts would unravel, an

He never looked back. He was

t?" he had said dismissively when I tried to

e glass doors slid shut behind him, a wave of mental feedback hit me so hard I collapsed on

ia' s side. He placed the c

his voice full of a tenderness he had once

g further away. A countdown started in the logical part of my brain tha

f and uncoordinated. I found them in the lobby. Sophia,

asked, her voice tremb

is arms wrapped prot

o scare Sophia? Her condition just stabili

For three years, he held me just like that.

, but the original chip, the physical shell, was my only hope. My mentor, Dr. Chen, might be able to use

his patience

e yet. Once she's fully recover

' s lab was far away, a remote facility

off, his v

l? You're just a broken AI. What does it matter if you have your MindSync or not? Soph

bed in my chest. Three years of marriage, and in

ered, the tears

fort me. This time, he took a hesitant step toward me, a flicker of something

stantly turnin

, what'

his arms, her voi

he paused, then weakly tugged his sleeve, a picture of selfless concern.

r face went pale, and s

even glanc

othing. It' s just a piece of code. If Sophia

to his arms, his mov

private clinic. It'll h

g on the polished marble floor. He had always told me that even i

carefully crafted ploy to g