My husband was a transmigrator. The System had sent him into this novel to pursue the designated female lead, but he fell in love at first sight with me, her best friend.
After we got together, the System tried to tear us apart by engineering a car accident meant for me.
I was burned. Disfigured. Fitted with a catheter bag. I would never stand again.
Even so, my husband still loved me.
So the System bankrupted him.
Without money, he took care of me himself.
During the hardest stretch, he survived on a single bread roll over three days, yet made sure I received IV nutrient bags that cost three thousand dollars each.
It broke my heart. I tried to kill myself.
After they brought me back, he held me and sobbed so hard he could barely breathe.
"Cat, I can't live without you. If you die, I won't go on either."
For his sake, I threw myself into physical therapy. The progress was almost nonexistent.
Still, I believed that one day I would get better.
Until the day Polly Drake came to visit me, and I accidentally took a few too many pills.
He snapped.
He grabbed a bottle of pills and shoved them into my mouth.
"I already told you there's nothing between her and me. Why do you keep making a scene?"
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have lost everything. You want to die so badly? Fine. Then go ahead and die!"
After forcing the entire bottle down my throat, he stormed out and slammed the door.
His System appeared before me. It said he had already fallen in love with the female lead and asked whether I was willing to die so they could be together.
I thought about it for a moment.
"Yes."
——
The System froze for a few seconds, then spoke. "I didn't actually mean for you to die. You must have felt it too—all Neville feels for you now is obligation. If you're willing, I can send you to another world and give you a new body."
"Stop," I said. "Just give me a way out."
The moment the words left my mouth, a fruit knife appeared in my hand.
I was about to plunge it into my chest when the bedroom door swung open.
Neville Stephens had come back.
First, he pried my mouth open and dug out the pills.
I hid the knife while he wasn't looking.
Then he brought over a basin of water and brushed my teeth, washed my face, wiped down my body.
Before, he would have kissed me while he cleaned me up, murmuring, Your husband was mean to you today. I'm so sorry.
But this time, after he finished everything, he turned off the light, lay down on the cot beside my bed with his back to me, and took out his phone. He didn't say a single word.
In the darkness, I turned my head to look at him.
"Neville."
The instant I called his name, a voice rang out from his phone—
"Neville, today I..."
He silenced it quickly, but I had already heard.
The message was from Polly Drake. The designated female lead of this world. Neville's assigned target.
I didn't know which world Neville had come from, but the very first time I met him, he confessed his feelings.
He told me he was from another world, that he had been sent here to pursue Polly. But I was too beautiful, he said. He liked me too much. So he wanted to give up on Polly and come after me instead.
At the time, I thought it was a joke.
It wasn't until Neville and I were actually together—married—that his System appeared inside my mind.
It told me that if I gave Neville up, it could guarantee me a happy marriage, a successful career, and a long life.
I refused without hesitation. The next second, the car accident happened, and I became this wreck of a person.
Remembering what the System had said earlier, I couldn't help myself. "Neville, have you fallen in love with Polly?"
The room went quiet for a few seconds. Then Neville suddenly sat up.
Just as I thought he was about to say something, he took his phone and walked out of the bedroom.
The door did nothing to block sound. I heard Polly on the other end of the line, begging him for help.
