By my fourth year bound to the System, I was finally carrying a child for the heir of the Capital’s most powerful family.

The System had informed me that the Ellie family’s young master had a congenital condition—conceiving an heir would be difficult. My task was simple: successfully deliver a child worthy of the family’s legacy, one capable of continuing its fortune, and I could go home.

But on the very day I struggled into labor, Lu Alan walked into my delivery room with the woman he truly loved.

“Ellie, Janet graduated at the top of her class from medical school. You don’t mind if she observes, do you?”

Trembling with pain, I couldn’t form a reply. I could only lift a hand, begging the doctor for a C-section.

His precious Janet offered a slight, curling smile. “Sister Ellie, other women manage a natural birth. Why can’t you? It’s better for the baby, anyway.”

Lu Alan’s expression turned cold. “We’ll do as Janet says. Natural birth. She’s only here to have a baby—what gives her the right to be picky?”

I wanted to rise and slap them both, but pain held me down, drenched in cold sweat and powerless.

I finally snapped. “This is your only child! Are you going to stand there and watch him die?”

...

My nails dug deep into my palms. That sharp sting was all that kept me conscious.

“Lu Alan,” I said through gritted teeth, each word deliberate, “this is *my* delivery room. Please ask all non-essential personnel to leave.”

Janet stood there in a spotless white coat, an innocent smile on her face. She shrank timidly behind Lu Alan, her voice barely a whisper. “Alan, perhaps I should go. Miss Ellie doesn’t seem to want me here.”

Immediately, Lu Alan’s brow furrowed. His gaze swept over me, brimming with impatience and reproach.

“Ellie, what are you making a scene about now? Janet only wants to help. You’re not the only woman in the world to give birth. Don’t be so fragile.”

His words struck like a poisoned blade, right where it hurt most.

For four years, I had given up everything for this child.

No makeup, none of my favorite foods. Every day monitored like a penned animal by nutritionists and physicians.

And Lu Alan, the child’s so-called father, had contributed nothing but a name.

He still went everywhere with his precious Janet. The whole city knew she was the one in Young Master Ellie’s heart.

I, Ellie, was merely a wife in name. A breeding tool.

Watching him defend her, I suddenly laughed. I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

“Fine. I won’t be fragile.”

Gasping, I turned to the doctor beside me. “Doctor, I can’t bear the pain any longer. I want a C-section.”

The lead surgeon, Dr Jeffrey, had overseen my entire pregnancy—a professional, responsible man.

He checked my vitals and nodded at once. “Mrs Ellie, your condition does justify a C-section. I’ll prepare immediately.”

But as he turned to leave, Janet spoke up.

“Dr Jeffrey, wait.”

She stepped toward the monitors, pretending to study the data, then adopted a clinical tone. “I believe Miss Ellie’s condition is perfectly suited for a natural delivery. And it *is* better for the baby. Don’t you agree, Alan?”

Her eyes, seemingly pure and harmless, now held a venomous hook as she fixed them on Lu Alan.

He seized her words like a lifeline. Without hesitation, he told Dr Jeffrey, “We’ll do as Janet says. Natural birth.”

Dr Jeffrey was stunned. “Mr Ellie, but your wife—”

“No ‘buts.’”

Lu Alan’s voice was cold, hard as iron. “She’s here to have a baby, nothing more. What right does she have to choose? The child’s welfare is the only consideration.”

In that moment, my world shattered completely.

I looked at this man—my husband in name, the father of my child—and saw how easily he dismissed my agony and my will for the sake of another woman.

So I wasn’t just a tool. I was a disposable one. To be used and cast aside at will.

“Lu Alan,” my voice trembled with despair, “you’ll regret this.”

He answered with a cold laugh, utterly indifferent. “In all my life, I’ve never learned the meaning of ‘regret.’”

The contractions came faster, harder—each one tearing through me as if my body were being ripped in two.

Trembling with pain, I felt my consciousness fraying at the edges.

Alan was no longer someone I could rely on.

I had to save myself.

With the last shred of my strength, I fumbled under the pillow for my phone. Muscle memory took over; my fingers dialed my parents in this world.

As soon as the call connected, I screamed, my voice raw and breaking. "Dad! Mom! Help me! I'm at the hospital… Alan is going to kill me…"

Before I could finish, a hand snatched the phone from my grasp.

Janet held it up, a victor’s smile on her face. Right in front of me, she pressed *end*.

"Still calling for reinforcements, Miss Ellie? At a time like this?"

She leaned in, her voice a venomous whisper meant only for me. "Do you really think they’d even be allowed inside?"

Straightening up, she turned toward Alan in the doorway, her expression melting into fragile concern. "Alan, Miss Ellie seems… unwell. Probably just very anxious. I’ll go downstairs to see if her parents have arrived and try to calm them."

Alan believed her completely, his gaze softening. "You’re always so thoughtful. Go ahead. I’ll watch things here."

Then she was gone.

Only Alan, me, and a few frozen medical staff remained in the delivery room.

Pain washed over me like a black tide, threatening to pull me under. But I couldn’t let it.

Then—that icy, mechanical voice echoed in my mind.

**[WARNING! Host's vital signs are declining! Host must strive to complete the mission!]**

A bitter laugh caught in my throat.

The mission?

My mission was to give birth to this child.

But the system never said *how*.

It only said that once the child left my body—alive or dead—the mission would be complete.

How ironic.

All this time, I believed I had to fight with everything I had to protect this child, to bring it home.

Only now did I understand: maybe I’d been wrong from the very beginning.

"Alan." With every ounce of my strength, I turned my gaze to him. "Do you really... hate me that much?"

He stood by the window, his back to me, posture rigid. But his voice was pure ice. "I don't hate you. I just despise you for occupying a place that was never yours."

"A place that was never mine..." The words tasted like ash. "The title of Mrs Ellie. *You* begged me to take it. Have you forgotten? Your family's empire was on the brink. You needed a 'miracle baby' to save it all. And I was the only one who could give you that child."

His body went rigid.

That was the Ellie family's deepest secret—the only reason I'd held the name of Mrs Ellie for four years.

Behind its glittering façade, the Alan's Group was rotten, clinging to life by a single thread: this unborn child.

"So what?"

He turned. His eyes held nothing but deep, unyielding revulsion. "You think I care? For Janet, I'd abandon the Alan's Group without a second thought. I'd give my life."

How noble. How utterly devoted.

And something inside me finally snapped.

Just then, Janet returned.

Gliding to Alan's side, she slipped her arm through his. "Alan," she said, her voice soft, "I've calmed your parents down and sent them home. I told them Ellie is fine, that there's nothing to worry about."

I stared, my gaze burning. How could one person be so utterly, irredeemably cruel?

She didn't just want me dead. She wanted to sever every lifeline.

Perhaps my expression was too raw, too fierce. Janet flinched—but then her smile only grew sweeter.

"Alan, look," she said, false concern threading her tone. "Ellie's labor isn't progressing. It starts and stops. That's not good for the baby." She paused, a thoughtful look crossing her face. "You know, during my internship abroad, I worked with a brilliant obstetrics professor. He taught me a method to help women in labor... Perhaps I could try it?"

Her "try" meant nurses bringing ropes to tie my wrists and ankles to the delivery bed.

Then she picked up a long syringe and drove the needle into my arm.

"Janet! What are you giving me?"

My scream was pure terror.

"Don't be afraid," she purred, all sweetness and poison. "It's to stabilize the pregnancy. You don't want to give birth, do you? I'm helping you."

Cold fluid entered my veins. The excruciating, tearing pain that had consumed me vanished as if by magic.

In its place settled a deeper, colder despair.

She was going to drain the life from me. Slowly. Deliberately.