Chapter 2

I suddenly calmed down. Slowed my breathing.

Two days left. I couldn't give up.

Three years ago, Ryan got a stomachache after dinner.

Eyes red, he accused me of spiking his food.

Before I could react, Clara pried my mouth open and forced an entire bottle of laxatives down my throat.

The pain left me unconscious on the bathroom floor.

No one checked on me. The whole family went to the hospital with Ryan.

On the verge of death, a mechanical voice rang in my head.

"Host life value has reached zero. Forcibly binding Revenge System."

"Current Mission: Survive three years."

"Success: Pain Rebound. One hundred million dollar cash reward."

"Failure: Soul annihilation."

I didn't understand what a system was back then. Thought it was a hallucination before death.

But when I woke up on that bathroom floor and the pain was gone, I believed.

The system gave me a second chance.

I was eighteen. I started valuing my life. Became silent. Compliant.

I recalled survival shows I'd seen on TV.

Forced down my fear. Stayed perfectly still.

The python slithered past me. Its touch cold and terrifying.

Outside the glass enclosure, Ryan held my fianc¨¦e's hand. That smirk on his face.

"Lucy, your fianc¨¦'s dirty, so he got tossed in the snake pit."

"Does it hurt your feelings?"

Lucy's eyes barely flicked over me.

"Stop talking nonsense. I don't have a fianc¨¦. That engagement has been canceled."

Even now, my heart twisted painfully.

Lucy was different from the Carter family.

She was my childhood friend from the orphanage.

When she first came to the orphanage, her leg had been broken. No one wanted to adopt her.

I pretended to be dumb. Stayed behind to keep her company.

Her leg made it hard to walk. I fought for food for her. Stood up for her.

One winter, some older kids stole her crutch to burn as firewood.

I threw myself in front of her.

They hung me upside down from a tree.

Packed snowballs hard as rocks and used me as target practice.

They broke my nose. Blood splattered everywhere.

Lucy held my frozen body and cried all night.

She said when she grew up, she'd protect me.

I laughed in my haze. Thought she meant it.

Later, when the cops brought me back to the Carter family, the first thing I did was help Lucy find her family.

Turned out she was an illegitimate daughter. The Astor family had thrown her away on purpose.

To help her return home, I proposed a marriage alliance.

Clara called me pathetic. Said I'd just gotten back and was already chasing women.

I knelt in the courtyard for seven days. No food. No water. My knees bled through the scabs. In exchange for a marriage contract.

It wasn't that the Astor family was bad. Mom and Dad just wanted me to marry better.

To be a stepping stone for Ryan's rise.

The day I went to pick Lucy up from the orphanage, her eyes were red.

She hugged me tight. Swore to the God.

"Ethan, once I'm stable in the Astor family, I'll marry you!"

But she never married me.

She personally tore up our marriage contract.

Threw me to Ryan to humiliate.

When did it change?

Maybe the first time Ryan put his arm around her shoulders.

He was stronger than me. More outgoing. Better at making people happy.

He'd put his arm around Lucy's shoulder and say, "Lucy, your engagement to Ethan was forced on you, right?"

Lucy didn't deny it.

Maybe it was that business dinner when I drank myself to a bleeding ulcer trying to shield her from toasts. Collapsed on the floor, couldn't get up.

Lucy frowned.

"Ethan, you're so embarrassing."

I brought up marriage. Brought up rings. A wedding.

She got impatient. Plucked a weed from the roadside and wrapped it around my finger a few times.

Then turned around and dropped a fortune on a luxury watch for Ryan. Personally picked out the style.

I asked her, "Lucy, do you remember what you said back at the orphanage?"

She laughed.

That laugh was mocking in a way I'd never seen before.

"Ethan, you drag up the orphanage every single day. Aren't you tired?"

"Yeah, you helped me. But you've used that favor to tie me down for years. Isn't that enough?"

I tied her down?

I shattered my knees kneeling. Went on a hunger strike. Fought like hell to get her a future.

But she said, "Ethan, stop pretending. You wanted this marriage because you're the least favored son in the Carter family."

"Couldn't find a wife, so you latched onto me?"

"That desperate to get married? That starved for a woman?"

In that moment, something inside me shattered.

Ryan's laughter pulled me back from the memory.

"Lucy, don't be so heartless. Ethan was your fianc¨¦ for years."

Lucy sneered. "Fianc¨¦? A freeloader like him? As if."

I took a deep breath. Silently asked the system.

"Will betrayal get reflected back too?"