But in the next breath I swallowed every word.

There was no point explaining anymore.

I turned and walked into the kitchen.

Without a sound, I set the pan back on the heat and started over.

I made three versions, each a different flavor, so she'd have nothing to pick at.

But when I carried the plates out, Virginia only gave them a faint glance before sinking lazily into Quinn's arms.

"I don't feel like eating after all. Quinn, I'm a little sleepy. I want to lie down."

His expression softened.

That tenderness in his eyes was something I hadn't seen in a long time.

He reached down and lifted her steadily into his arms.

"All right. I'll take you to bed."

With that, he turned and carried her toward the master bedroom.

Not once did he spare me a glance.

I stood where I was, watching their backs recede, my heart still as dead water.

My heart had already died a few hundred times over.

There was nothing left in me now that could stir.

I cleared the table in silence, then went into the guest room and packed up the few things I owned.

I had just finished when Quinn's voice came from the doorway.

"Narelle. Come here."

I set down what was in my hands and went into the master bedroom.

The room was a wreck.

Quinn's clothes and Virginia's lay scattered across the floor.

What they'd done was obvious at a glance.

It stung to look at.

Quinn stood by the bed and tossed a stack of cash down in front of me.

"We're out of condoms. Go downstairs and buy some."

My body stalled for a moment. I looked down at the money on the floor.

My eyes burned.

After two seconds of silence, I still bent down, picked it up, and turned for the door.

Behind me came Quinn's cold laugh.

"You've gotten more dutiful by the day. Obedient about everything. Not a trace of temper left."

There was an anger in those words that even he hadn't noticed.

Everything he'd done was meant to make me obey.

But now that I obeyed, he found it unbearable.

I kept my eyes lowered, nothing moving inside me.

The heart that had once burned for him had gone numb through disappointment after disappointment.

Quinn thought I was giving in. What he didn't know was this.

I had made a deal with the System.

For every point my Heartbreak Value and my Good-Wife Value climbed, I could redeem a hundred points.

The System's voice sounded in my head.

【Cooking reward, 50 points.】

I smiled.

Two hundred points to go.

Once I had enough, I could take my son and leave this world.

I walked out of the mansion with the money in my hand.

Only then did I notice the rain pouring down.

The cold bit into me.

I felt none of it.

There had been a time when Quinn took me up to the old hilltop chapel to pray for blessings.

On the way back, the rain came down hard and a flash flood broke loose.

We had no time to take cover, and a slide of boulders pinned us in.

One of them, easily half a ton, came down hard on Quinn and held him there.

His face twisted, blood at the corner of his mouth.

The sight of it terrified me. I shoved at him with everything I had, screaming.

"Go. Leave me!"

But Quinn forced himself to hold that boulder up by sheer strength.

His back stayed rigid and straight, and even with blood soaking through his clothes, he wouldn't give up.

His eyes on me were absolutely steady, every word scalding.

"Nare, I will never give up on you."

"We live together or we die together. In this life I'll marry no one but you."

Back then it moved me to pieces, and I believed his lies.

"Miss, the rain's coming down hard and you don't even have an umbrella. You're soaked through."

The convenience store clerk's voice pulled me back to reality.

Only then did I realize I had walked into the store without noticing.

Soaked to the bone.

I pushed down the bitterness churning inside me and quietly picked up two boxes.

After I paid, I turned and headed back to the mansion.

I pushed the door open, and the warmth inside rushed at me.

Quinn looked up. His eyes traveled over my dripping hair and my soaked clothes.

His brow creased, and for once something close to real concern crossed his face.

"Go take a hot shower first, before you catch a cold."

The cold had gone out of his voice, replaced by a kind of gentleness.

"There's brown sugar on the lower shelf in the kitchen. Make yourself some warm honey tea after to take the chill off."

Nothing in me stirred. I only answered flatly.

I knew exactly how hollow this gentleness of his was.

Gone in a breath.

I had no use for the scraps he handed out.

Just then the System's cold prompt sounded in my head.

【Reward for shopping in the storm: 100 points.】

A flicker of light crossed my eyes.

Perfect. I was only a hundred points short of the end.

Then I could take my son and leave.

The thought filled me with drive, and I changed into dry clothes.

But it didn't take long for me to notice something was off.

Ever since I'd come in, the house had been far too quiet.

I frowned, every nerve drawn tight, and went to find Quinn.

"Where's Wyatt Delgado? Why haven't I seen him?"

The gentleness Quinn had worn a moment ago vanished. His face went dark in an instant.

The temperature around him dropped to freezing.

"Ginny's been in a bad mood lately. The kid bothers her. I sent him over to the other house."

The blood ran backward in my veins, and my chest clenched all at once.

A chill shot straight through me, into every limb.

No one knew better than I did that my son had severe congenital night blindness.

The moment night fell, his world went black, and he couldn't be left alone for a single step.

I couldn't even imagine how he was supposed to manage on his own in a strange place.

I forced down the fury rising in me, my voice shaking.

"He's still so little, he can't be left alone. How could you just send him off by himself?"

Quinn's face turned colder still.

His gaze cut at me like a blade, fixed and unblinking.

"In your eyes, is there nothing but that child?"

When I heard it, all I felt was how absurd it was.

I didn't understand what he was raving about now.

I gave a cold laugh on the spot.

"What else would there be?"

Three simple words, and they pushed Quinn over the edge.

His jaw went tight, his teeth clenched.

"Narelle, if you want to see the kid, you'll behave yourself and do as you're told."

I lifted my eyes and looked straight at him, the cold in them going to the bone.

"Quinn, you're using my son to threaten me again?"

He felt no guilt at all. If anything, his face said he couldn't care less.

"If you don't want to be threatened, that works too. Just harden your heart, forget about the kid, and you're free."

He knew better than anyone that my son was my one weak spot.

I knew he was an animal, but I'd never thought he could be this heartless toward his own son.

I drew a deep breath and clenched my fists.

Slowly I pressed down the tide of hatred at the bottom of my heart.

I knew every act of resistance was meaningless.

All I wanted now was to take my son and leave.

I lowered my eyes, my voice calm.

"Quinn, what do I have to do to see my son?"

Quinn looked down at me sideways, his fist clenched so hard it creaked.

Something I couldn't read churned in his eyes.

After a moment, his thin lips parted.

"Kneel and beg me."

I didn't hesitate. I knelt straight down in front of him.

In front of my son, what did dignity matter?

Just a little longer, and I could leave for good.

Quinn looked down at me from above, the emotion in his black eyes thick and heavy.

He ground out the words through his teeth, furious.

"Narelle, you really are cheap."

I said nothing. I only listened in silence.

I didn't understand what he was so angry about.

Or to understand him.

All I wanted was to see my son.

After a brief silence, Quinn relented.

"Get up. I'll take you to the boy tomorrow morning."

I pushed myself up off the floor.

My knees were numb and stiff.

Inside, I felt nothing at all.

I turned without a word and went back to my room.

The moment I pushed the door open, something struck me.

It grazed my shoulder and dropped to the floor.

It was the wedding photo of Quinn and me.

On our wedding night, I had confessed every secret to him.

I told him I wasn't from this world.

That I'd only approached him in the beginning to complete the System's tasks, to bank enough points to go home.

Back then, his eyes had been full of nothing but love.

He held me tight, his voice certain.

"I don't care who you are or why you came. The one I love has always been you."

"I only want you to stay by my side forever."

That was the moment my heart turned.

I went and bargained with the System.

I gave up going home.

Even when the System warned me that staying in this world by choice would cost me twenty years of my life, I accepted it gladly.

I thought I'd bet right.

But in the end, it all came to nothing.

The glass over the photo had shattered.

Just like the love between us, rotted through long ago.

That night, I lay awake until dawn.

Early the next morning, I washed and dressed and waited downstairs.

But when Quinn came down, he took Virginia's hand and walked straight past, his face calm as he spoke.

"I'm accompanying Ginny to a gala today. Seeing the boy will have to wait for another day."

He didn't wait for me to answer. He turned and left with Virginia.

I stood frozen where I was, cold all the way through.

Unease swept over me.

Just then, my phone rang.

It was Stacy Lambert, the nanny who used to look after my son.

"Ma'am, it's bad!"

"The young master's been taken ill! It came on suddenly, they've rushed him into the emergency room!"

My mind went blank. I flagged down a cab and raced to the hospital, heedless of everything.

The doctor's face was grave.

"The child has been diagnosed with acute kidney failure. His condition is critical. He needs a kidney transplant immediately, and immediate family are first in line for a match."

When he finished, it felt like the sky had caved in.

Every ounce of strength drained out of me.

I sank to the floor, unable even to cry.

The next instant I came to myself and, with shaking hands, called Quinn.

"Quinn, something's happened to our son. The doctor says he needs a kidney transplant."

"I'm begging you, save him. He's your son too!"

My voice broke and choked, lowered to the very depths.

But the next moment, Quinn's voice came down the line, cold to the bone.

"I won't donate."

That sentence broke every defense I had.

I collapsed into sobs, every word wrung out of me like blood.

"Quinn! He's your own flesh and blood too!"

Quinn let out a cold laugh, then a sharp snarl.

"Narelle, how much longer are you going to keep lying to me?"

My whole body went weak. I didn't even have the strength to argue back.

Years ago, Virginia had set out to harm me and slipped a drug into me in secret.

She arranged to have me taken to a strange man's room.

Then deliberately led Quinn there to catch me in the act.

To protect my innocence, I took a blade and cut my own wrist to force myself sober.

By the time Quinn arrived, I was drenched in blood, barely conscious.

The next month, I found out I was pregnant.

Quinn's eyes were ice, and his first words were to tell me to abort the child.

I was torn.

The doctor had told me plainly that my uterine wall was too thin by nature.

If I ever miscarried, I would never be able to bear a child again.

I fought with everything I had to keep the baby in my womb, and explained to him countless times.

That night I was innocent. Nothing had happened.