Chapter 2

The System still showed 100% for Mark.

One hundred percent.

It was supposed to mean total devotion, unwavering love.

But numbers felt cold, mechanical, when Mark rushed to Chloe' s side.

She' d made a small sound, a little gasp, when she almost tripped on the edge of the rug.

Mark moved so fast to steady her, he bumped into me.

I stumbled, catching myself on the back of the sofa.

He didn' t even look my way.

His hand was on Chloe' s arm, his voice full of concern. "Are you okay, Chloe?"

"Just a little clumsy," she said, laughing it off, her eyes flicking to me for a split second.

My heart hurt.

The System' s numbers couldn' t explain this.

Could a machine really understand human feelings?

Later that night, after Chloe left, Mark tried to smooth things over.

"She' s just an old friend, Sarah. It' s been years."

Leo, coached by Mark, I guessed, came and hugged me.

"Sorry, Mommy. Aunt Chloe is just... nice."

It felt like a performance.

A temporary fix to a problem they didn' t really understand, or didn't want to.

I remembered the Napa Valley wildfires, years ago.

We were trapped. Fire all around.

I' d pushed Mark and a younger Leo towards safety, taking the brunt of a falling, burning branch.

The System recorded Mark' s affection spiking to 100% that day.

It stayed there ever since.

My sacrifice, my pain, had cemented his love, or so the System said.

Now, that memory felt hollow.

Was his 100% for me, or for the woman I resembled, the woman I saved him for?

I nodded at Mark, let Leo kiss my cheek.

"It' s okay," I said.

But it wasn' t.

A deep unease settled in me, a quiet whisper that this perfect life was built on something fragile, something not entirely real.

The 100% felt like a pretty lie.