My mother was a player in a quest.

Once her mission was a success, she exited this world, leaving me behind with four fathers.

The first was a billionaire CEO.

The second was a famous movie star.

The third was a world-renowned doctor, while the fourth was incredibly powerful and influential.

My four fathers spoiled me rotten for sixteen years, giving me everything I ever wanted.

That was until three years ago when Sadie, the daughter of the one that got away, returned.

Since then, my four fathers believed her over me.

Sadie claimed that my mouth was filthier than a dog’s, so they threw me in the dog kennel and fed me dog food.

When she accused me of rallying the other students and bullying her in school, my fathers got me expelled and hired three street gangsters to beat me up for months.

Once again, Sadie insisted that I pushed her, and as a consequence, my fathers locked me in a cage for three whole days in the name of teaching me a lesson.

As I lay there in hunger, my mother’s voice rang in my ear.

“Niamh, do you want to come back to Mommy?”

I snapped awake right away.

It quickly hit me that it wasn’t my mother, Kylee Seville, talking to me. It was the System.

The System told me that Kylee had left an opportunity for me before disappearing from this world. If I wanted to, I had the option to travel to her world.

Of course, I did.

However, I swallowed my answer before the words rolled off my tongue.

I asked the System, “Will things be better with Mom than right now? If she loved me, why didn’t she take me with her back then?”

The System explained that Kylee accepted the quest because her mother was gravely ill. She came into this world to save her mother.

Back in her world, Kylee was only a college student in her second year. It took all her savings to save her mother, and still, she was buried in debt.

At the time, my four fathers had promised that they would treat me as their own, regardless of who my father was. All they asked was for Kylee to have something to remember her by.

Parents who loved their children would always think long-term for them.

The last thing Kylee wanted was for me to suffer with her, so she left me behind in this world.

“Niamh.” The System’s voice was gentle like a caress. “Your mother has been waiting for you all these years. She never dated or married anyone. She bought a quaint home in hopes you might one day come back to her. Are you willing to go to her?”

I nodded.

Relieved, the System expressed that I would only reunite with Kylee once my physical body stopped breathing.

With that, I took my clothes off and tied them into a knot against the cage.

I had seen a scene on TV before. If I slipped my head through the loop, gravity would take care of the rest.

It was a good thing that the cage was large enough, and I was short enough.

As soon as I placed my head into the knot, the suffocating darkness gripped my neck.

Despite my consciousness slipping, I was glad.

It wouldn’t be long before I would see Kylee again.

I barely had two seconds to enjoy my happiness before someone called my name.

The dog cage was flung open, and I was pulled down.

As air filled my lungs, I looked up and met a pair of panicked eyes.

“Dad Ethan,” before I knew it, I blurted right out.

It didn’t take long for me to kick myself.

The terror in Ethan Longham’s eyes was replaced by disgust.

“Don’t call me that! You’re not worthy!”

Ethan was my CEO father.

Out of my four daddies, he spoiled me the most.

Many assumed that Ethan was my biological father.

I had his eyes.

For years, I lived in Ethan’s mansion.

Ethan brought me everything my heart desired.

He said that even if I wanted the stars in the sky, he’d find a way to bring them to earth for me.

However, that unconditional love came to a halt three years ago.

That was when Ethan brought Sadie Cook back from abroad.

I learned then that apart from Kylee, there was one woman who held a special place in my four fathers’ hearts.

Back then, the woman had sold the four of them out and fled abroad after securing a massive payout.

Kylee showed up and was there for them, pulling them out of the shadows of betrayal bit by bit.

Later, the woman on her deathbed gave Ethan a call to apologize, and her last wish was for him to take her daughter, Sadie, in.

Since Sadie was a little younger than me, my four dads expected me to play nice with her.

I tried to be a good sister to Sadie.

Yet, Sadie’s intention was to hog all my fathers’ love for herself.

She would have random injuries all over her body, claiming that I hit her.

Out of nowhere, she would roll down the stairs and point her finger at me.

As the accusations against me grew, so did my fathers’ disappointment.

It all came to a head when Sadie was violated by a group of punks in a street alley.

Once the attackers were caught, they named me the mastermind.

There was nothing I could say to prove my innocence.

From then on, I was the one they saw as guilty in this family.

I was no longer allowed to call them my dads.

My room was downgraded from a princess suite to a dog crate.

The household staff labeled me a murderer.

Physical and verbal abuse, along with starvation, became my new norm.

With that in mind, I hung my head low and apologized, “I’m sorry, Mr. Longham.”

Even so, Ethan wouldn’t drop the matter. “What are you trying to pull, Niamh? Is this a loud cry for attention?

“Aren’t you silly to stage a suicide here? It reeks here. No one would notice even if your body was rotting.”

Oh, Ethan thought I was putting on an act.

Not refuting one bit, I expressed my confusion. “Why are you here, Mr. Longham? Aren’t you obsessed with cleanliness?”

Ethan furrowed his brows, “This is my home. I’m free to go anywhere I want. I’m only here to give you a warning. It’s Sadie’s birthday today, so don’t start anything. At the very least, don’t die on my property.”

I nodded compliantly.

As it turned out, he only saved my life to stop me from ruining things for Sadie.

In that case, I could just end my life somewhere else.

Once Ethan walked away from the kennel, I slipped out of the estate.

After getting a bottle of pills, I went to the place where Kylee used to live.

With a picture of Kylee in my hands, I lay in bed, ready to chug the pills, when I paused.

Given the circumstances of my death, the discovery would be a burden to the police.

Hence, I wrote a letter to clarify that I was taking my own life.

The pills tasted bitter, burning through my throat like fire.

It didn’t take long before darkness devoured my consciousness.

‘Here I come, Mom!’

Time passed in a blur, and I felt my stomach churning.

I threw up violently and woke up in sheer agony.

Staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, I jolted up in joy. Before crying out for my mother, I met Lee Davies’ eyes.

Lee stood before me in a white doctor’s coat, his hand clutching my suicide note.

His fingers shook from the force of his grip.

In the end, he hurled the letter right in my face.

“Niamh, you’re something else to get attention, playing the victim.

“Couldn’t you die somewhere far away? Why did it have to be there? You have defiled your mother’s home!”

Lee’s screaming threw me for a loop.

In fact, out of my four fathers, my favorite was Lee, the doctor.

He was a medical expert, well-versed in both modern and holistic medicine.

Lee was the one who showed me the basics of medicine.

He was kind and fun, spending the most time with me.

For a moment, I was convinced that he was my biological father.

Even when Sadie came into the picture, Lee didn’t put all his attention on her like the rest.

He told me, “Niamh, you’re my only daughter. No one can take your place away.”

That changed when Sadie passed out in front of everyone.

Lee discovered a fresh needle mark from a syringe on the back of her head.

When Lee asked Sadie what had happened, she fell to her knees before me.

“I’m sorry, Niamh! I didn’t say anything to Dad Lee. He found out on his own. You can do it again.”

That was the first time Lee lost his temper at me.

With a look of disappointment, he said, “Niamh, I taught you medicine to help others, not kill them!”

Nothing I said could make him believe me.

No one in the family besides him and me could have used a syringe.

“Easy there, Lee.” It dawned on me that Ethan, his face grimacing, was in the ward too. “Something seems wrong with Niamh. She tried to commit suicide at home, and she consumed pills at Kylee’s home. I suspect—”

Lee cut him off. “Ethan, are you feeling bad for her? Have you forgotten how manipulative she is?

“She’s too obsessed with our wealth to leave us. She’s putting on a show to get our attention since it’s Sadie’s birthday today.”

The doubt across Ethan’s face was gone. “You’re right.”

Just then, both their phones beeped in notification.

They took out their phones and tapped on the voice message.

“Dad Ethan, Dad Lee, when are you coming home? The other dads are here, waiting to start.

“It’s my eighteenth birthday today. I’m going to be upset if you don’t come home now.”

Sadie’s sweet voice boomed in the ward.

Ethan and Lee grinned from ear to ear.

They cautiously held their phones up and responded via voice notes.

The scene was familiar to me.

This was the tone of voice they used with me once upon a time.

My fathers were still the same people. I was simply no longer the one they held closest to their hearts.

As they kept calling Sadie their little princess, I scooted to the window in dejection.

Terrified of the pain, I had been trying gentler ways to end my life.

However, I couldn’t wait a second more.

Right in front of Ethan and Lee, I climbed over the windowsill and jumped.

‘Goodbye, Dads.’

The pain I had anticipated never came.

A tree broke my fall.

Once I was pulled to safety, Lee slapped me in the face, his face pale.

“Enough is enough, Niamh!”

Ethan wasn’t looking any better either.

Shaking from head to toe, he approached and gave me a kick.

“What do you think you’re doing, Niamh?”

I was kicked to the ground.

Because I had just had my stomach pumped, the kick made my abdomen feel like someone had stabbed me and twisted the knife violently.

A sickening taste of copper rushed into my mouth.

I spat out a mouthful of blood, and my knees went weak before the two men.

“Mr. Longham, Dr. Davies, please let me be. I just want to die.”

Lee and Ethan were bewildered.

Ethan frowned. “Is this a new game? Guilt-tripping us with your life?”

“No,” I responded, my eyes bloodshot. “I met Mom’s System. I was told that I would join Mom when I died. Please, just let me die.

“You don’t ever have to worry about me competing with Sadie for your love. You don’t need to keep me around just to watch me.”

Since the incident with Sadie, Ryker Sand, trained in the military, handled my punishment.

He locked me in a dark room for five straight days.

Ryker blasted high-intensity light into my eyes, preventing me from sleeping.

Whenever sleep was about to take me, he would pump adrenaline into me.

The first thing I did upon my release five days later was to plead with my fathers to let me go.

However, they made it clear that I was not going anywhere.

“You can’t just walk free after pulling that stunt right under our noses. God knows what you’re going to do to Sadie.”

“That’s right. We promised your mom that we would raise you right. You can’t just leave.”

Likely at the mention of Kylee, Ethan and Lee’s scowls eased, their faces reflecting a trace of their former affection for me.

“Niamh, are you sure you met your mother’s System? When?” Ethan pulled me up and asked.

I told him everything. The System showed up this morning when starvation nearly ended me.

The pair exchanged glances.

Lee said, “You might not know this, Niamh, but your mother mentioned before leaving that the System would disappear along with the completion of her quest. You might have been hallucinating.”

I shook my head. “N-No. I did talk to Mom’s System. Dr. Davies, just leave me alone. I want to die.”

With death being brought up, Lee's face tensed.

He pushed back his rising rage until he couldn’t anymore. “You don’t get to decide whether it was a hallucination. We’re taking you to a psychiatrist.”

Like before, Lee shuffled my hair.

He had a funny look, though. “It’s been three years. To be honest, we’ve talked about this. If you promise not to show your face to Sadie, we won’t—”

Tony Barker and Ryker showed up.

“Ethan, Lee, have you seen Sadie?”

Ethan and Lee were taken aback.

“Wasn’t Sadie with you?”

Tony was exasperated. “She went missing right after taking a call. She went out, saying that a friend wanted to give her a present. Don’t tell me…”

All my fathers grimaced hard.

Their minds wandered back to the incident three years ago on Sadie’s birthday. A friend of hers called and asked her to go out.

Then, she was vulnerable to those punks.

Ethan, Lee, Tony, and Ryker turned to me all at once.

Meeting their gazes, I shivered in fear.

Despite the silence, I knew what they were thinking. “N-No, it wasn’t me.”

“Who else could it be?” Thrown into a rage, Ethan grabbed me by the collar. “Niamh, you were distracting us with the attempts. What did you do to Sadie?”

I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t me.”

Ethan was knee-deep in his rage to listen to what I had to say.

“Niamh, you’ve not changed one bit. Didn’t you want to die? Fine, you got your wish.”

He raised his fist to strike me.

Stepping in just in time, Tony grabbed Ethan’s arm and warned, “Not here, Ethan. There are too many eyes on us.’

Ethan pulled his arm back and shot an angry look at me before murmuring, “Take her home.”

Tension hung heavily in the car.

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony kept making phone calls to locate Sadie.

Curled up in a corner, I shuddered violently.

I knew that hell was coming for me.

Once the car came to a stop, they yanked me out of the back seat.

I broke down the moment my eyes fell on the house.

It was where I once stayed.

My knees buckled with fear. “I have no idea where Sadie went. Please let me go.”

Lee grabbed a fist of my hair, his voice chilling. “Didn’t you want to die? We were your father for years. It’s only right for us to give you a send-off.”

I shook all over.

It was true that I wanted to end myself.

However, I couldn’t handle the pain.

Even at this point, they refused to spare me.

They dragged me into the house.

Several burly men stood inside the place.

Ryker slammed me to the floor, his brows furrowed. He uttered in contempt, “Set her straight.”

Dozens of hands reached for me.

My limbs were held down as a sharp pain spread across my body.

Every inch of my body screamed in pain.

I cried for help desperately.

The moment I called out for my fathers, Lee felt bad enough to shut the whole thing down before these men got serious.

Lee approached and said, “Niamh, so long as you tell us where Sadie is, we can overlook this matter, if only for your mother’s memory.”

I replied in tears, “I have no idea. It’s the truth. I didn’t do anything to her.”

Before Lee could say anything more, Ryker pulled him back. “Lee, haven’t you learned? She won’t talk unless we make her. Has she ever once admitted to the things she did to Sadie over the years?”

Something fleeted across Lee’s eyes.

In the end, he threw his hand back. “Proceed.”

I knew then that that was it for me.

Despite my intensifying agony, I no longer begged for mercy.

Amid my haziness, I could see Kylee’s face.

‘Go on.

‘Just hit me.

‘I’ll soon reunite with Mom.’

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony kept making calls.

Finally, a familiar number reached Ethan’s phone.

“Where are you, Sadie?”

Sadie’s voice filled the room. “Dad Ethan, I’m out having dinner with my friends. What’s with all the missed calls?”

The four men were shocked.

“Weren’t you kidnapped?”

Sadie chuckled. “What are you talking about? Why would I be abducted? Can’t talk now. I’ll be home in a bit.”

Meanwhile, the butler’s call came in.

The butler said that Sadie was right in front of him, safe and sound.

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony sighed in relief.

“That’s great. Sadie’s safe,” Lee expressed emotionally when his eyes bulged out of nowhere. “Niamh!”

My presence finally registered in their minds.

They quickly called off the beating.

My four fathers approached me and called my name, only to be met by silence.

“Drop the act, Niamh. Sadie’s been found.”

“I guess we were wrong this time.”

Ethan got down on one knee, giving me a nudge, but I showed no response.

Realization hit him that I had stopped screaming in pain for a while now.

With his heart sinking, he reached his hand under my nose.

It was a shame that I had stopped breathing.