AI Said He Never Loved Me

Start Reading

After Ethan's climbing accident, I lost thirty pounds in a single month.

I uploaded decades of our chat logs into an AI simulator, desperately hoping to create a digital version of him to keep me company for the rest of my life.

But after thirty seconds of deep processing, the AI gave me a cold, calculated reply: The user's husband has never loved her.

Later, they found Ethan's body.

When the avalanche struck, he had used his own body to shield Chloe Miller, protecting her until his very last breath.

When they died, there was no fear on their facesonly a peaceful, quiet acceptance.

After burying my husband and my best friend, my body finally gave out.

I collapsed in the cemetery, coughing up blood, and died right there on the cold grass.

But when I opened my eyes again, I was standing right outside the SAT test center.

In front of the gates, Ethan and Chloe were sweating profusely.

Ethan's grandmother had just suffered heatstroke on the sidewalk.

I took one cold look at them, turned around, and walked away.

This time, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.

I just wanted to live for myself.

I walked briskly through the crowd, keeping my head down.

Just as I was about to step through the school gates, a panicked female voice called out from behind me.

"Hazel! Get over here and help! Ethan's grandma just collapsed from the heat!"

My footsteps paused, but I didn't turn around.

The cold wind of the cemetery still seemed to howl in my ears, and the metallic taste of blood still lingered in my mouth.

Suddenly, a warm, firm hand grabbed my wrist.

"Hazel, please. You're the only one who can help me."

Eighteen-year-old Ethan stood before me, wearing a faded school hoodie.

His eyes were as clear as mountain lakesthe kind of eyes that made you drown in them with just one look.

But I wasn't that gullible eighteen-year-old girl anymore.

In my past life, I was so terrified that Ethan's SATs would be ruined.

So, I volunteered to take his grandmother to the ER myself.

By the time I rushed back to the test center, I was thirteen minutes late. The doors were locked, and I missed the entire English section.

Ultimately, my SAT scores were a disaster, and I ended up at a local community college.

Meanwhile, he and Chloe got into top Ivy League universities together.

When Ethan proposed to me years later, he said that without the eighteen-year-old me, he would never have become the successful man he was today.

Back then, his expression was incredibly complex.

Only later did I realize that his look wasn't just gratitudeit was the suffocating weight of obligation.

I shook my head and gently pulled my hand back. "I can't help you, Ethan."

"If I take her to the hospital, I'll miss the gate-closing time."

Ethan's face went pale with disbelief.

"That's exactly why we're asking you to go!" Chloe chimed in from the side, her voice sharp.

"Ethan is at the top of our class. He has a real shot at Harvard! You can't let his entire future be ruined because of this!"

The more Chloe spoke, the more self-righteous she became.

I took a deep breath. "I know. That's why I'm not going."

"Hazel!" Chloe's voice jumped an octave.

"You're practically a straight-C student who's probably going to end up at some community college anyway. How can you compare your future to Ethan's?"

I froze, looking directly into Chloe's eyes.

With my actual academic level, if I performed normally, I could easily get into a top-tier UC school.

Yet here she was, already labeling me a community college failure.

"Ethan is your boyfriend! How can you be so incredibly selfish?" Chloe hissed.

Ethan pulled her back, letting out a soft sigh.

"Don't say that, Chloe. This is my responsibility. It's totally fine if she doesn't want to help."

"But it's so unfair to your SATs!" Chloe's eyes welled with frustrated tears.

I looked at Chloe calmly. "If you're so worried about him, you can take his grandma to the hospital yourself."

Chloe choked on her words, completely speechless.

"Alright, Chloe, don't worry about it," Ethan said, his tone softening as he patted Chloe's shoulder comfortingly.

"I'll run his grandma to the clinic down the street and sprint back. Just focus on your test and don't worry about me."

Chloe suddenly stood on her tiptoes and threw her arms around his neck.

"You have to run as fast as you can, okay?!"

Ethan's hands hovered in the air for a few seconds.

Those hands. I knew them so well.

They had tied my shoelaces, held umbrellas over my head in the rain, and slipped a promise ring onto my finger.

Slowly, those hands came down and gently patted Chloe's back.

"I will. Now go in and do your best."

Ethan turned his head to look at me.

But I had already averted my gaze, walking straight into the exam hall without looking back.

When the proctor started reading the exam rules, my mind was still a bit hazy.

But I forced myself to calm down quickly.

It didn't matter who Ethan truly loved anymore.

What mattered was that I had successfully bought myself those precious thirteen minutes.

It was only after the exam ended that I saw Ethan again, waiting near the gates.

Chloe walked up behind him, tapped his shoulder, and as he turned around, she leaned in and kissed him right on the lips.

Ethan froze for a second, but he didn't pull away.

Only after a few moments did he seem to regain his senses, whispering, "What if Hazel sees us?"

Chloe pouted. "So what if she does? Were you planning on hiding us from her forever?"

The passing students all turned to look, whispering.

Once they recognized the top two students on the school leaderboard, their gossiping turned into supportive smiles.

I walked right past them just as they were reluctantly letting go of each other's hands.

"How's your grandma?" I asked.

Ethan withdrew his hand from Chloe's, his voice turning cold. "She's in the hospital. Out of danger."

"That's good."

I turned to leave, but Ethan quickly grabbed my arm.

"Let me drive you home."

I pulled my wrist back.

"No need. You should take Chloe home."

Ethan's eyes darkened.

In my past life, our three-way friendship had lasted for over fifty years.

Like Ethan, my parents worked out of state, and I grew up with my grandparents.

When I got my first period at eleven, I was terrified and locked myself in the bathroom.

It was Chloe who knocked on my door with a box of pads, smiling and telling me, "Don't worry, sweetie. It just means you're growing up."

And it was Ethan who rode his bike to school with me every day, telling me, "Whenever your stomach hurts, my passenger seat is always reserved for you."

Later, they went to the same elite university, started a tech company together, and made it onto the under-30 Forbes list.

And I was just the supportive wife, the loyal best friend, the one clapping for their grand achievements from the shadow of the stage.

It was only after they died together in that Everest avalanche that I found out the truth.

In our fifty years together, the chat log backup between Ethan and me was barely a hundred megabytes.

But his archive with Chloe was over ten gigabytes.

His will, locked securely in a safe deposit box, stated he wanted to be buried in the same plot as Chloe.

All he left for me was a single, pathetic note: I'm sorry.

But what use was a cheap apology for a lifetime of wasted devotion?

The morning after the SATs, I put on my backpack and headed out.

My grandmother poked her head out from the kitchen. "Are you starting your part-time job today, sweetie?"

I paused for a few seconds, then shook my head. "No, Grandma. I'm going to the library."

Grandma let out a relieved smile.

"I don't mind you working, Hazel. I just don't want you to exhaust yourself."

"I know, Grandma."

Ethan's family was broke, and with his grandma hospitalized, he could barely afford his daily meals.

In my past life, to help him cover his living expenses, I started working three part-time jobs the very next day after the SATs.

For two solid months of summer, I worked non-stop without a single day off.

Every night when I finished my shift, he and Chloe would walk over from the library to meet me.

They were already studying college-level advanced calculus and would debate math formulas all the way home.

I would drag my exhausted feet behind them, yawning constantly, unable to join their high-brow conversations.

This time, as I sat down in the library with my laptop, I ran straight into Ethan and Chloe.

Chloe gasped in surprise when she saw me.

"Hazel? Why aren't you working at the boba shop?"

She glanced at the thick programming and web design books piled on my table.

"Does your community college really require such heavy reading? I thought you guys just cruised through easy classes to get a degree."

"Honestly, instead of wasting your time on books you won't understand, you should focus on keeping Ethan happy."

"He's such an amazing catch. If you don't lock him down, there's a line of girls waiting to take your place."

I took a moment to digest her thinly veiled insults, then offered a faint smile.

"Ethan is indeed very talented. You should hold onto him tightly then."

Ethan remained silent for a long time before asking, "Since when did we become so distant, Hazel?"

I smiled but said nothing.

Since when?

Probably since the moment I heard of his death, when I couldn't eat or sleep, and my hair fell out in clumps.

Or maybe when I imported his chat logs and tearfully typed to the AI, Ethan, I miss you so much.

And the AI, after analyzing every single message, generated a brutal summary in its hidden thought process:

The user's husband initiated conversations only 1.2% of the time. Average response length: 4.1 words. High-frequency words: 'Ok', 'Sure', 'Got it'. This relationship shows severe emotional asymmetry.

Ethan didn't know that I stayed up all night reading that analysis.

When dawn broke, I sent one last message to the virtual Ethan: Let's get a divorce.

The AI replied: If that's what you want.

From that moment on, I knew I had to let him go.

Because I hadn't missed those thirteen minutes during the SATs, I scored fifty points higher than in my previous life.

My score was more than enough to get into a top-tier university.

Ethan didn't make the cut for Harvard, but his foundation was solid enough to get into UC Berkeley.

The day the results came out, Ethan was waiting for me downstairs.

"I'm planning to go to UC Berkeley. Tell me your scores, and I'll help you find a decent college nearby."

I didn't buy into his helpful act.

"I've already committed to San Francisco State University. Don't worry about me."

Ethan's brows furrowed deeply.

"Long-distance is incredibly hard." He paused, then explained, "I don't have a scholarship. If we aren't in the same city, it's going to be really expensive to see each other."

In my past life, hearing this would have melted my heart.

I would have thought he was desperately trying to keep us together.

But now, I saw right through him. He was calculating costs.

He was weighing whether seeing me was worth the bus fare.

In my previous life, Ethan's business took off right after college.

We got married, and I naturally became the housewife managing his home.

But by our third year of marriage, he and Chloe went to Europe to establish a branch office.

The round-trip flight tickets were pocket change to him by then, yet he didn't come home once that entire year.

During New Year's, I couldn't help but ask when he was coming back.

He merely replied, "Things are chaotic here. Low-priority matters have to wait."

I smiled at the memory.

"You don't have to worry about the distance," I said, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. "Our relationship was never a high priority anyway."

Ethan's face went completely blank. "Hazel..."

"What are you guys talking about?" Chloe interrupted, suddenly appearing and wrapping her arm warmly around mine.

"I've decided to go to Berkeley with you guys! Aren't you excited?"

"It's a shame to give up my Ivy League offers, but I just couldn't bear to be apart from you two."

Chloe giving up her Ivy League spot for Ethan was actually a bit of a surprise to me.

"Ethan said that even though your major isn't great, getting a degree from SFSU is good enough to pad your resume."

I gently pulled my arm out of her grasp.

"I've already submitted my enrollment. I'm staying in San Francisco."

"San Francisco?"

A flash of surprise crossed Chloe's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a smug satisfaction.

"Well, look at our Hazel, finally making her own choices! SFSU is fine, the city is beautiful."

She nudged Ethan's shoulder with her own. "Right, Ethan?"

Ethan didn't answer her. He just kept his eyes on me, his voice dangerously low. "You can still change your college portal submission. There's still time."

I shook my head.

"I've made up my mind. I'm not changing it."

Ethan stood frozen for a few seconds, his hands slowly clenching into tight fists at his sides.

"Suit yourself."

In my past life, while Ethan was building his empire overseas, I was teaching myself video editing and social media management while raising our kid.

When Ethan and Chloe finally returned, a major creator agency in San Francisco actually reached out to sign me.

Chloe had brought me a brand-new Gucci bag as a gift.

"For our hardworking Hazel! Your social media page is doing so well!"

"But... if you sign with an agency in SF, who's going to take care of Ethan and his parents? You won't have any time for family."

Ethan had pressed his hand down on the contract I was about to sign, his voice filled with annoyance.

"Hazel, why do you always lose sight of what's actually important?"

"The money I make is enough to support us for ten lifetimes. Why do you need to show your face online like some cheap influencer? Taking care of our home is your top priority."

After weighing his words, I gave up the SF opportunity.

I spent decades cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his demanding family.

And what did I get in return?

The strap of my backpack was digging into my shoulder.

I shifted it to my other hand and walked straight past them, refusing to waste another breath.

The library's AC was blasting cold air.

I flipped through a massive textbook on interior design, filling half a notebook with study notes.

By the time I walked out of the library, the sun had already set.

Passing by a familiar boba shop, I remembered that this was where I used to work in my past life.

As I stood near the entrance, two familiar voices drifted over from the side alley.

"Standing for eight hours straight is literally killing me."

"Ethan, my back hurts so much. Massage it for me, please?"

I looked over and saw Chloe leaning against Ethan, whining playfully.

Ethan looked startled and took a half-step back.

"Why are you dodging? Hazel isn't even here."

"Seriously, when are you going to break up with her?"

Ethan remained silent.

Chloe gave him a frustrated push.

"I'm a straight-A student who could have gone to an Ivy League, and here I am shaking boba cups for you every day until my wrists ache! And you still won't give me a proper title!"

Ethan sighed, suddenly uttering a completely random sentence.

"Back then, Hazel worked three jobs a day. It couldn't have been easy for her."

I stood in the shadows, unmoving.

I remembered that hot summer when I would walk tiredly behind them after a long shift.

Once, my shoelaces came untied. By the time I tied them and looked up, they had already vanished down the street.

Back then, I thought he walked fast because he was busy.

Now I knew the truthhe simply never bothered to look back for me.

I pulled my gaze away and walked home.

After taking a shower and getting ready for bed, my phone suddenly buzzed.

"Hazel, I'm downstairs."

I pulled back the curtains. Ethan was standing under the old oak tree outside my window, looking up at me.

"What do you want?" I asked over the phone.

The yellow streetlamp cast his long shadow across the pavement.

He just stared up at me, silent.

Just as I was about to hang up, he suddenly blurted out, "I changed my college choice."

"Five minutes before the portal closed."

I gave a flat, "Okay."

"Aren't you going to ask me where I'm going?"

I echoed flatly, "Where are you going?"

I heard him let out a soft, nervous sigh over the receiver.

"I'm coming to San Francisco with you."

He looked up expectantly, his eyes filled with a tenderness I had never seen before.

I looked away, staring into the dark sky.

"What time does the boba shop close? You should be picking up Chloe right about now."

"Hazel... please don't be like this."

He paused, sounding as if he was making a massive sacrifice. "I don't know why you refused to come to Berkeley with me. But since you chose San Francisco, I'm coming to you."

I replied calmly, "There is absolutely no need."

The night breeze rustled the leaves of the oak tree.

I remembered the last time we saw each other at the airport before he and Chloe went to climb Everest.

They were laughing and chatting as they disappeared past the security gates.

He hadn't looked back at me once.

"Ethan," I said softly.

"Let's break up."

"What?" His breathing suddenly grew ragged.

Under the streetlamp, his fists clenched tightly as he stared up at my window.

"Hazel, why?"

I looked down at him and spoke in a quiet, steady voice.

"After the avalanche, it took me a very long time to crack your phone passcode."

"Do you still remember what that passcode was?"

His shoulders began to tremble.

Silence fell over the line.

"I know what it was. 0924. Chloe's birthday."

I continued, "The night before the climb, you sent her one last Snapchat."

"If there's a next life, I'll choose you."

Under the dim light, he stared up at me.

After what felt like an eternity, he whispered, "Hazel, what are you talking about?"

His face was filled with confusion, yet his hand was gripping his phone so hard his knuckles turned white.

My hand tightened on the curtain.