Emmy was brushing her teeth while explaining, “He just moved dorms. He lives next door now, so he called me on his way out.”
James frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. “He’s a guy. How did he end up living next door to you?”
Emmy quickly leaned toward her phone, trying to clear things up. “No, that’s not what I meant. He’s in the building next to mine, not the room next door.”
“All the grad and doctoral dorms here are connected. He really was just passing by.”
She glanced at the pile of things she still needed to pack and rushed her words. “I have to go. I’ll call you back later, okay?”
Before James could say anything else, she hung up.
...
That evening in the Capital, James stood in the courtyard of Moonlight Bay, his face dark with worry.
He dialed a number in Boston. “I need you to look into a guy named John in my wife’s lab.”
A few hours later, a detailed report landed in his inbox. James scrolled through page after page, his eyes moving fast, his frown deepening with every line.
By the end, he felt a wave of unease he wasn’t used to.
John Suede. A neuroscience prodigy. Twenty-five, working on his PhD at Harvard, IQ of 160. He’d even been nominated for the Turing Award as an undergrad.
Worse, he and Emmy had so much in common. John had led several cutting-edge AI medical projects, all highly praised, and his latest one was up for a global AI gold award.
He was young, gifted, and spent nearly every day with Emmy, talking about things only the two of them could really understand.
James had just finished the last page when a new message popped up at the top of his screen.
It was just one line.
[Mr. Nelson, our contact at the university reports that John seems to have a crush on your wife.]
James stared at his phone, silent.
So his gut had been right all along.
...
Boston, early morning.
Emmy grabbed the stack of New Year’s gifts she’d prepared. There were a lot, so Penny helped her carry them.


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