I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 265

Zoe grabbed her documents and headed straight out the door. She practically collided with Garrett at the elevator bank.

"Heading out?" he asked, noting her rushed demeanor and assuming there was an emergency.

"Yeah. Hayden wants me down at City Hall to sign the divorce papers."

"..." Garrett didn't know whether to congratulate her or congratulate himself. Given the circumstances, he obviously couldn't offer to tag along. He just nodded. "Call me if you need anything."

Thanking him, Zoe drove to City Hall alone. When she arrived at the lobby, she scanned the room but saw no sign of Hayden.

She waited for nearly half an hour, but he was a no-show. Frustrated, she pulled his number off her blocked list and called him.

"Where are you?"

On the other end, Hayden's face was dark as a thundercloud, radiating a suppressed fury.

"Something came up. Let's reschedule."

He certainly answered quickly this time.

Colin wiped the sweat from his brow as he drove. He had fully expected the boss to wait for his wife to show up. They had even seen Zoe's car pull in. But out of nowhere, Hayden had barked at him to drive off and pick up Sienna.

For the very first time, Colin was actually thrilled that the boss was running back to his mistress. God knew he had been terrified. If Mr. Thorne and the missus had actually pulled the trigger on the divorce, he had no idea how he would have explained it to old Mrs. Thorne.

Hearing Hayden's casually dismissive tone, a sharp pain shot through Zoe's chest from pure rage. She had dropped everything in the middle of a massive workload. Her tech team was scheduled for a major meeting in twenty minutes!

Just because he muttered the word 'divorce', she had driven half an hour and waited another twenty minutes, only for him to say 'let's reschedule'?

Zoe wanted to scream every curse word in the book, but Hayden had already hung up.

Staring at Zoe's unsaved number on his screen, Hayden finally added it to his contacts.

He saved it under one word: Wife.

Easton Group reps? Did Hayden trick her into coming to City Hall just so he could hijack the meeting at Sterling Group?

Garrett didn't fully grasp that the core logic behind the AI companion robot didn't even require Sterling Group's resources. Easton Group had zero involvement in the project, which meant Hayden was pulling a textbook bait-and-switch. He was probably marching into Sterling Group with his little mistress right now, planning to con Garrett into signing away the development rights.

Zoe slammed on the gas, tearing back to the office at breakneck speed. She took the executive elevator up. Sure enough, every single person involved in the project was sitting in the conference room—except her.

Sienna was currently standing at the front of the room, eloquently presenting on behalf of Easton Group. And the man who had just demanded a divorce was sitting loyally by Sienna's side. He had given her the seat of honor, and a stack of data reports was fanned out in front of her.

When Zoe walked in, Sienna was in the middle of a deep-dive data analysis. The entire room was completely engrossed in the market research she was projecting onto the screen.

Zoe stood frozen in the doorway. The data blazing from the projector was exactly what she had spent countless sleepless nights compiling—data that hadn't even been released to the public yet. The whole point of today's tech meeting was to unveil it and discuss launching the AI companion robot.

She had been delayed for a mere half hour, and Sienna had effortlessly stolen her concept.

"So, with the current aging population, combined with young professionals who have deep pockets but lack emotional fulfillment—and considering the immense financial risk marriage poses to high-net-worth individuals—the AI companion robot perfectly bridges this gap.