The number floats above Dante's head like a neon sign only I can see. Zero. Not a one. Not even a fraction. Just a cold, glowing zero hovering in the air between us while he kneels on the polished gallery floor, ring box open, smile perfect. "Maya Chen," he says, voice steady and warm, "will you marry me?" Around us, the opening night crowd has gone silent. My gallery—the one I've spent three years building from nothing—is packed with collectors, critics, friends. Everyone's watching. Everyone's waiting. And above Dante Rivera's head, my boyfriend of five years, the man who's held my hand through every late night and every self-doubt, floats a number that says he feels nothing. I blink. The number doesn't move. Then text scrolls across my vision like I'm reading a teleprompter that shouldn't exist. *AFFECTION SCORE: 0/100* *DECEPTION INDEX: 94%* *THREAT LEVEL: CONTAINED* My mouth opens. Nothing comes out. Dante's still smiling, but something flickers in his eyes. Concern? Calculation? The text keeps scrolling. *TARGET: Maya Chen* *DESIGNATION: Villain-class entity* *MISSION STATUS: Five years, two months active* *OBJECTIVE: Behavioral suppression via emotional attachment protocol* The words don't make sense. They can't be real. But they're there, hovering in my field of vision while Dante waits for an answer and my heart does something complicated in my chest. "Maya?" His voice drops lower, intimate. The voice that's whispered good morning for eighteen hundred days. "You okay?" I'm not okay. Because new text appears, and this time it's red. *PROTOCOL FAILURE DETECTED* *AFFECTION SIMULATION: UNSUCCESSFUL* *RECOMMENDATION: Terminate assignment* *COUNTDOWN INITIATED: 9 days* Dante's smile doesn't waver. His hand doesn't shake. The ring catches the gallery lights, throwing rainbow fractals across the floor. And I realize with perfect, terrible clarity that I have no idea who's kneeling in front of me. "Yes," I hear myself say. The crowd erupts in applause. The countdown in my vision ticks down to eight days, twenty-three hours, and fifty-nine minutes.