Chapter 9
I said calmly, “Nick, you didn’t keep the promises you made to me, did you?”
Nick clutched his head in agony, his voice breaking as he screamed, “I was wrong, I’m sorry. Please forgive me, just this once. Helen, we’ve been together for so many years. I just made one wrong step. Please give me another chance.”
I looked at the man before me, whose desperation was almost maddening and continued, “Even if I gave you another chance, you’d still make the same mistakes.”
I continued, “Nick, do you remember when those videos were recorded? Back then, you swore you would never hurt me.”
Nick fell to his knees, almost begging, “Helen, I truly made a mistake. Please
come back. Let me see you one more time.”
I didn’t respond to his plea. Instead, I spoke
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quietly, “Do you know? Before I left, I dreamed of us in the past. Back then, you would secretly skip class to meet me, using your part–time job money to buy me the newly released ice cream.”
“You promised that you would always be with me and never, ever change your heart.” I paused for a moment, watching his face, now full of regret and sorrow. “In the dream, I asked you, ‘What if you change?‘ Do you know what you said?”
Nick stood frozen, unable to speak. I continued, “You said, ‘If anyone changes, it’s another Nick. Don’t forgive him.‘ So I said, ‘I won’t forgive that other Nick.”
Nick gasped, clutching his chest and bent over in pain. He muttered in a broken voice, “Helen, Helen … my Helen. I’ll find you.”
***
I finished my thesis and successfully enrolled as a student of my mentor, diving
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into research on artificial intelligence.
Nick agreed to the divorce. He treated the robot as if she were a real person, dividing the assets between us. When I received the divorce certificate, I clearly saw in the backend data that Helen the bionic robot was happy.
She was becoming more and more like a real person, but her personality was growing increasingly different from mine.
Yvonne caused a scene several times, accusing Helen of being a murderer because her child had died. Nick gave her parents a sum of money and had her committed to a psychiatric hospital.
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