Done With This Love

On the day of our ninth wedding anniversary, I sat in the empty living room and summoned the system I had not contacted in ages.

"System, help me submit an application. I've decided to leave this world."

The cold, mechanical voice came through, and somehow it sounded comforting.

"Understood, Harry. Your departure application has been received. The space-time corridor is being constructed. I will come to retrieve you in one week."

I hummed quietly and stared at my phone screen. A family photo of three stared back.

In the photo, I stood in the center holding an adorable little girl. A beautiful woman stood beside me, kissing my cheek.

On our wedding anniversary, my beloved wife spent the day with her male assistant.

She sweetly called him "Honey," and my daughter called him "Daddy."

I calmly summoned the system I had sealed away for years and chose to leave this world.

I came here for a mission, but I stayed for love. Now I realized just how utterly wrong I was.

After I truly erased my memories and left this world completely, they cried and begged me to come back.

…

"System, I want to leave this world."

On the day of our ninth wedding anniversary, I sat in the empty living room and made my final decision.

"Understood, Harry." The cold, mechanical voice came through.

"Your departure application has been received. The space-time corridor is being constructed. I will come to retrieve you in one week."

I hummed in acknowledgment and stared silently at my phone screen. A family photo of three stared back.

In the photo, I stood in the center holding a cute little girl. A pretty woman stood beside me, kissing me.

I gazed blankly at the photo. The me in it looked so happy.

Ten years ago, I accepted a mission from the system, traveled to this world, and was tasked with winning over the famous actress Naomi Ashford.

It took me one year to complete the mission, but when the system announced the mission was complete and I could leave, I discovered that I had truly fallen in love with her.

I could not bear to see her hurt and I could not bear to leave her, so I chose to stay.

Naomi truly loved me too. On my birthday, even though she was filming out of state and could not get away, she insisted on catching a red-eye flight back to surprise me, then flew right back to work.

Whenever she was in town, she came home every day to be with me, giving me sweet good morning kisses and goodnight kisses.

Even though she was at the peak of her career, she insisted on having my child, saying she wanted our lives to continue together.

The day she gave birth to Peyton Gatlin, she nearly died from hemorrhaging, yet still pulled my hand with tears in her eyes and said, "Harry, meeting you was the luckiest event in my life. Even if I die, I have no regrets."

What did I do to deserve a wife who loved me so much?

Back then, I truly felt I was the happiest man in the world.

After our Peyton was born, she was as smart and adorable as her mother, and just as clingy.

Every day after school, she would shout "Daddy!" and throw herself into my arms, planting a big kiss on my face.

She would cling to me to tell her stories, sweetly beg me to take her to the amusement park, and proudly brag to her classmates, "I have the best daddy in the whole world."

They clearly loved me so much, yet in the seventh year of our marriage, they started another family behind my back with a young male assistant.

My wife gave Avery Kent, fresh out of college, a 4,000-square-foot luxury apartment downtown.

My daughter would hug Avery's legs and sweetly call out, "I love you the most, Avery!"

They started making up excuses not to come home, even sneaking out while I was asleep to go be with Avery.

In the end, I did not escape the seven-year itch.

Perhaps staying here was a mistake from the start. Now, that mistake needed to be corrected.

I was done with both of them.

My phone buzzed, interrupting my thoughts.

I opened it to see a message from Naomi.

"I'm taking Peyton to Mr. Hartley's casting session tonight. We'll probably be back really late, so don't wait for us. Love you."

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. A feeling of sourness spread through my chest.

Mr. Hartley's casting session? He just called saying that he could not reach Naomi and asked me to tell her that the casting session was rescheduled to the day after tomorrow.

Tonight, she was probably going to meet her lover again.

I finally stopped hesitating. I deleted every family photo from my phone's gallery, changed my lock screen, stood up, and went back to my room.