I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 448

The spark of appreciation in Zoe's eyes instantly darkened. Professor Layne noticed the sudden shift in her mood.

Wyatt remained blissfully unaware as Zoe offered him a tight, polite smile.

"We aren't very close. Your technical expertise is solid, but as you can see, I'm due to deliver my baby any day now.

I won't be spending much time in the lab, so I don't have an immediate need for an assistant. Let's touch base in the future."

Zoe's gentle but firm rejection left Wyatt visibly deflated.

Although he couldn't pinpoint where he went wrong, he thanked her politely.

Zoe nodded and turned her attention to answering questions from the rest of the group, leaving Wyatt to his own devices.

Professor Layne patted his shoulder comfortingly, equally baffled by Zoe's sudden change in attitude.

"Zoe's condition really isn't suited for heavy workloads right now. Let's revisit this after she has the baby."

The professor's reassurance did little to soothe Wyatt. He couldn't shake the feeling that Zoe had deliberately shut him out.

Returning home from Zoe's lab, Wyatt walked through the front door and immediately heard voices from the living room.

His mother, Martha Yates, rushed over and grabbed his arm.

"You're finally back! Your cousin came by to visit today. Valerie, you're doing so well at Easton Group. Is there any way you could pull some strings and get Wyatt a job there?

He spends all day messing around with this AI stuff. I don't get it at all—is there even any money in it? If you ask me, he needs a real corporate job."

Wyatt brightened up at the sight of his cousin.

Valerie held a position of high esteem in the Yates family as the Director of the Executive Secretariat at Easton Group.

It was a title that commanded respect everywhere. Valerie glanced at Wyatt while taking a leisurely sip of her coffee, clearly dismissive of Martha's ignorant remarks about AI being useless.

"Martha, we live in a technology-driven era. The rise of AI is the future. In fact, our company is currently developing an empathy-based smart bot.

Riding on Valerie's coattails, the chief engineer gave Wyatt the VIP treatment.

They immediately assigned him to a critical systems role. Wyatt had spent a considerable amount of time working under Professor Layne in Zoe's lab.

Stepping into Easton's secure lab and seeing rows of fully functional empathy bots, he was struck speechless.

The bots standing before him were exact, flawless replicas of the ones in Zoe's studio.

From their physical design and the lifelike texture of their synthetic skin to the complex emotional feedback they provided during interactions, there wasn't a single difference from the prototypes Zoe had poured her blood, sweat, and tears into.

A cold wave of shock washed over Wyatt.

"Valerie, is our project actually launching by the end of the month?"

Zoe's Empathy AI Pro wasn't slated to debut until next month. If Easton pushed their models to the market first, Zoe's launch would be dead on arrival. No one would buy it.

Given the impossible level of similarity, Zoe could even be slapped with a lawsuit for intellectual property theft or corporate espionage.