Chapter 7

The rough fabric of his suit brushed against "my" bare skin.

His voice was full of anger, but beneath the rage lurked a raw, frantic energy I hadn't heard in years.

"Chloe, how much longer are you going to keep this up?" he demanded. "You used to want to rip Serena's hair out! She threw boiling coffee in your face, and you just took it? You served her coffee with a smile? Do you have zero self-respect left?!"

No, I didn't.

Because I programmed the machine to obey Ethan's commands and love him forever.

I couldn't answer his question.

Ethan sighed in frustration. He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up so he could inspect the malfunctioning red eye.

"Did it really damage your eye? Does it hurt?"

I shook my head. The voice modifier module had to reboot three times before it finally worked, rendering the voice flat yet sincere. "No, it doesn't hurt."

The real me would never have said something like that.

When I was alive and sick, I was always incredibly clingy. In the early days, he would patiently sit by my hospital bed, holding my hand and keeping me company during my IV drips.

But when Serena came back from Paris, his attitude changed overnight.

I remembered catching a severe case of pneumonia, struggling to breathe. I called Ethan, begging him to take me to the ER.

He sighed impatiently. "Do you not know how to dial 911?"

At that moment, my heart completely died. I called an ambulance and spent three days shivering alone in the hospital. Ethan never showed up.

Later, I saw on Instagram that the day I was admitted happened to be his and Serena's "reunion anniversary."

They were at the Ritz-Carlton. Champagne, roses, and my husband-the two of them looking incredibly in love.

The day I was discharged, I stormed into his corporate office and swept everything off his desk. I screamed at him, calling him a cheating bastard.

He glared at me viciously and roared, "If it weren't for you, I'd be with Serena right now! It's because of you that I lost her! You have no right to throw a tantrum!"

"Chloe, look in the mirror! You're crazy! Vicious! A bitch! You aren't even half the woman Serena is!"

He was right. I was crazy then. I was vicious. I was overwhelmingly jealous.

But I was simply a woman who didn't want to share her husband.

Before we got married, he called my fiery personality "passionate." Now, it had become a disease.

So, I built a robot that was my exact polar opposite. She was docile, obedient, and quiet. She possessed all the virtues I lacked.

But Ethan... why do you hate this version too?

You hated the fiery, real Chloe. And you hate the flawless, subservient robot Chloe.

What kind of woman do you even want?

Perhaps... you never loved me at all. No matter what form I took.

Clearly, my mechanical response was not what Ethan wanted to hear.

His hand slid from my chin down to my throat. He struggled to rein in his fury, his grip tightening.

"It was scalding coffee, Chloe. Of course it hurts. You are so damn stubborn! Are you doing this just to guilt-trip me? You're a lunatic."

I thought to myself, Oh, so you knew the coffee was scalding. You knew it would hurt. You just didn't care because Serena was the one who threw it.

I looked up at him, meeting his gaze with one normal eyeball and one glowing red optical lens. My expression remained as placid as still water.

That utter indifference seemed to completely obliterate the last shreds of his sanity.

He suddenly shoved "me" down onto the mattress and pinned me there.

"You want to play the silent martyr? Fine. Then shut up."

He leaned down and kissed "me" forcefully.

For the first time in three years, he made such intimate contact with the android. It wasn't a kiss of love; it was an angry, punishing bite.

But the moment his lips touched mine, I saw sheer shock wash over his face, his eyes widening.

He hadn't expected my lips to be so ice-cold.

It was not the temperature of a living human.

"Chloe, you..."