He Tried AI Wife, I Hacked Him To Jail

Chapter 4

Over the next few days, I became exactly the girlfriend Zachary had always claimed he wanted.

No matter what he or Ximena did to me, I responded with all the affection, praise, and reassurance they demanded.

Whenever Zachary came home, I took his coat, poured him a drink, and knelt to remove his shoes.

Whenever he lost his temper, I murmured soothing words until he relaxed and fell asleep.

Little by little, he stopped watching me for signs of resistance.

Before long, even Ximena's endless demands began to irritate him.

"You're so much better now, Valentina. You never make anything harder than it needs to be."

The night before, he had stroked my hair like a man rewarding a well-trained pet.

I smiled against his chest and listened to his heartbeat, silently counting down the hours until his empire began to collapse.

The acquisition was scheduled to close that day.

That evening, Zachary rented the ballroom of a luxury hotel downtown and threw an extravagant celebration.

He left Ximena at home and brought me as his date instead.

The ballroom was packed with investors, executives, reporters, and some of the city's most prominent business leaders.

Zachary worked the room with easy confidence, boasting to anyone willing to listen.

"This is my fiancée, Valentina. She led the entire financial due diligence review for this deal."

Everyone congratulated him on having it all, the biggest deal of his career, and the perfect woman at his side.

I stood beside him in an evening gown, champagne in hand, accepting their compliments with a gracious smile.

"What Zachary has accomplished is extraordinary," I said. "Standing beside him tonight is the greatest honor of my life."

The flattery landed exactly where I intended. He bent and kissed my forehead.

"That's my good girl. Once tonight is over, we can finally set a wedding date."

'A wedding date?' I lowered my eyes to hide my amusement. By the end of the night, marriage would be the least of his concerns. He would be lucky if bankruptcy were the worst thing waiting for him.

Just as Zachary stepped toward the stage to deliver his toast, the ballroom doors burst open.

His assistant rushed inside, pale and breathless, his tie crooked and his phone clenched in one hand.

"Mr. Gordon, we have a serious problem!" The assistant's voice cracked, drawing every eye in the ballroom.

Zachary frowned, visibly irritated. "What the hell happened?"

"It's over." The assistant's knees gave out, and he dropped to the floor, clutching the tablet in both shaking hands.

"Everything at Stellar Technologies just collapsed! They hid five billion dollars in liabilities! Federal agents just raided their headquarters! We guaranteed their debt as part of the acquisition, and now the lenders are coming after us! Our liquidity is gone! The banks have frozen all of our corporate accounts!"

The champagne glass slipped from Zachary's hand and shattered across the floor.

He snatched the tablet from his assistant and stared at the breaking-news alerts flooding the screen.

"No! That's impossible! Valentina reviewed their books herself! The due diligence report came back clean!"

He spun toward me, panic stripping the color from his face. His eyes, now bloodshot and wild, locked onto me.

A hush fell over the ballroom as the guests backed away.

Zachary crossed the room in a few furious strides, closed one hand around my throat, and slammed me against the wall.

"Valentina, what the hell did you do? Why were those liabilities missing from the report?"

His grip tightened. Air vanished from my lungs. Black spots swam across my vision as my face burned from the lack of air.

I did not struggle. I simply watched panic and despair erase the last of his confidence.

Then I smiled, gentle, flawless, and reassuring.

"I'm so sorry. Please don't be angry. I promise I won't let it happen again."

That same sweet, obedient reassurance finally broke him.

Zachary went still. For one second, he only stared at me. Then the truth hit. He released me. I crumpled to the floor as he tore his phone from his pocket.

He opened the app that controlled my implant.

"Shut it down! Shut the whole system down! Now!" His fingers stabbed frantically at the screen.

Nothing happened. His hand stopped moving. The color drained from his face.

I pushed myself upright, stepped close, and leaned toward his ear. Then I spoke in the eerily soothing cadence of a customer-service bot.

"Would you like me to generate more inspirational stories about broke losers who went on to make it big?"

Zachary's body locked in place. He stared down at his phone. An error message flashed across the screen.

"ERROR: Primary user privileges revoked. Root access transferred to implant host."