After Soren left, Glenn gave her a quick once–over. “Are you alright?”


    Beforeing in, he’d heard voices raised in her room–an argument, by the sound of it. He could guess Soren hade to see her.


    Evangeline shook her head. “I’m fine.”


    “What did he want?” Glenn asked.


    She hesitated for a moment before replying, “Nothing important. Just something


    minor.”


    Soren would eventually learn about her coboration with Glenn. There was <i>no </i>point in hiding it. But Glenn had just returned to the country and didn’t have solid footing yet; she didn’t want him tangled up in her history with Soren..


    Besides, to Soren, a child was little more than a trivial matter. The loss of one wouldn’t be enough to make him storm over and interrogate her. Someday, when he had another child, Alison would be nothing but a distant memory.


    Seeing that she didn’t want to borate, Glenn let the matter drop.


    For the next few days, Evangeline poured herself into developing the new product. At her workstation, she set out dozens of everyday objects on the table in front of the robotic arm. She input the refined algorithms and code, testing whether the arm could fetch the correct item onmand in the shortest possible time.


    After a dozen trials, she found the arm could urately distinguish most objects, but it still couldn’t tell apart items that looked almost identical. For example, it couldn’t distinguish between a round ss for drinking and a round ss vase. The <i>not</i>–so–bright robot didn’t know which one was for water and which was for flowers. It left the arm unable to decide what to bring when a person was thirsty.


    If she wanted the robot to recognize each item’s purpose’more precisely, she’d have to program in <i>even </i>moreplex instructions.


    Stumped and exhausted, Evangeline finally left theb.


    When she returned to the office, she saw a crowd gathered around Lily.


    “Wow, Lily, did your boyfriend give you that? He’s so romantic!”


    “That bracelet is a new release, isn’t it? Looks expensive. I remember he got you something really specialst Valentine’s Day, too.”


    12:34 1


    Chapter <b>126 </b>


    Lily basked in the attention, grinning with satisfaction. She dangled her wrist. “The price doesn’t matter. The point is, he waited in line for two hours just to get it for me.”


    She rolled her eyes as if it was all a bit much. “Honestly, I think it’s kind of


    silly spending two hours on something so pointless.”


    Someone nearby piped up, “Not at all! If it makes you happy, that’s all the reason he needs.”


    Lily kept up the modest act, saying men should focus on their careers and <i>not </i>get too caught up in romance, but she couldn’t hide her smile.


    When Evangeline walked in, Lily’s eyes sparkled with mischief. Ever since Evangeline had caught her red–handed a while back, Lily hadn’t felt at ease. She’d gone digging in HR’s files and found out Evangeline had worked at UME before and left because she got married. Yet in all the time she’d worked here, Evangeline had never mentioned being married and was always so focused on her job.


    Lily figured her husband must treat her badly–why else would she need <i>to </i>work so hard?


    The thought made Lily feel much better. She smiled sweetly at Evangeline. “Director Whitmore, it’s Valentine’s Day. What did your husband get you?”


    Evangeline barely registered the holiday. Every Valentine’s Day–or, really, any day that was supposed to mean something for her and Soren–he was always with


    Poppy.


    As the silence stretched, someone tried to cover for her. “Lily, that’s not a fair question. Even if her husband does get her something, maybe he’s saving it for tonight. Not everyone makes a big show of things like your guy.”