I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 405

Zachary's desperate attitude shocked everyone—except Zoe. She was entirely used to this by now.

The moment they had officially announced their emotional AI bot, investment offers from all over the country had practically crashed their corporate servers.

But their doors had always been firmly closed to foreign capital. If Zachary hadn't burned his bridge with Easton, he probably wouldn't have even looked twice at their project.

Nobody was more stunned by Zachary's groveling than Sienna and Ethan.

Ethan shot a look at Garrett, suddenly convinced he had figured it out.

Zachary wasn't actually here for Zoe; he knew about Zoe's 'special relationship' with Garrett. A smart negotiator knew that when dealing with a tough opponent, manipulating the woman was far easier than tackling the man directly.

If he won Zoe over, Garrett would cave. It was the classic tactic of pillow talk—a trick that had brought down empires for centuries.

While Ethan continued to dismiss Zoe entirely, Sienna felt a cold spike of anxiety. Was Zoe really this capable?

Zoe was the one who had originally pitched the concept for The Domestic Care Bot back when she led the team. Why had Zachary trashed that idea, but completely lost his mind over this new emotional AI project?

Sienna was absolutely certain there was a secret genius pulling the strings behind Zoe—maybe the real author of the paper in The Global Science Review, Lily. If that was true, Zoe was nothing more than a convenient puppet.

Puppets always got exposed eventually. And when that happened, Zoe would be outed as completely useless.

Zoe and Zachary's negotiations officially collapsed. The trip back to the States was going to be a bitter pill for Zachary to swallow.

A tech titan of his caliber assumed that her previous refusal was just a negotiation tactic to drive up his investment. He had literally shown up with an open checkbook and an unlimited black card, and he was still going home empty-handed.

It was his first massive failure in the investment world. Never in a million years did he think he would be stonewalled by a woman in her twenties. No matter how much it burned, he had no choice but to leave.

In a desperate attempt to salvage his pride before departing, he insisted on exchanging business cards, claiming that if he ran into any technical issues, he hoped she would allow him to pick her brain.

At that point, Zoe couldn't really refuse without being unnecessarily cruel, so she agreed. However, when he tried to get her personal number for a more casual connection, she firmly shut him down.