Chapter 2

Stephanie said it with such righteous conviction, as if all of this were my fault.

She seemed worried I would keep pestering her. "That's enough. I need to get back and take care of Grayson. Hurry up, sign it, and send it over."

With that, she left without sparing me another glance.

I sat on the couch, staring blankly into the distance.

Suddenly, a message notification snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked down and saw that it was from Grayson.

I opened it. It was a picture.

Grayson and a woman were holding each other sweetly, taking a selfie in front of a mirror.

The phone blocked the woman's face, but I still recognized Stephanie at a glance.

The moment I finished looking at it, the photo was unsent.

Right after came an apology from Grayson.

Grayson: [So sorry, Howard. I sent the wrong picture.]

Grayson had waited that long to unsend it. He definitely wanted me to see it.

I didn't reply. I just backed out of the chat, only to see a notification that Stephanie had made a new social media post.

I tapped into it. She had posted that very photo of the two of them, with a simple caption of just a few words.

Stephanie: [Finally found the one to spend the rest of my life with.]

Reading that line, I let out a scoff.

If Stephanie had only now found the one to spend her life with, then what had our five years together been?

The System's emotionless voice rang in my ears.

"Host, if you sign this divorce agreement, I'll have to punish you. There's still time to turn things around. I suggest you go find Stephanie."

I grabbed my jacket and headed to the hospital.

Going off memory, I found Grayson's room. It was a VIP suite, one Stephanie had specially arranged for him.

It suddenly reminded me of the time I had fallen ill and needed emergency surgery. The hospital needed a family member's signature before the operation.

But when I called Stephanie to come to the hospital, she answered with open impatience, "Can you stop being so dramatic? You're not dying. It's just some stupid surgery, and you need me there for it? From now on, don't bother me with stuff like this."

Only later did I learn that she had been out shopping with Grayson at the time.

Just because of a shopping trip, she couldn't be there for my surgery.

Now, though, Stephanie was pouring everything she had into taking care of Grayson.

"Stephanie, yesterday was your wedding anniversary with Howard, but you missed it because of my health. Why don't you spend more time with him today? I don't have much time left anyway. I shouldn't hold you back."

Grayson's gentle, frail voice drifted out of the room.

I stopped with my hand on the door and stood there, listening.

I couldn't tell what Stephanie was doing, but she sounded a little angry at that, her tone full of distaste. "You're finally feeling a bit better today. Don't bring him up. He's bad luck."

I shook my head with a bitter smile.

Stephanie was the one who had wanted to marry me in the first place. And now, somehow, I was the bad luck.

Grayson asked, "Stephanie, if you don't love Howard, why did you marry him back then?"

There was a brief silence in the room. Then Stephanie answered in a sugary voice, pretending to complain, "It's all because you went abroad. I married him out of spite. If I'd known how disgusting he'd turn out to be, I never would have married him."

My heart gave a violent lurch. It hurt terribly.

I had known all along that this was the truth, but hearing it from Stephanie's mouth still made my heart ache.

It felt like a needle stabbing into my heart over and over, riddling what was already rotting with even more holes.

Before Grayson could reply, Stephanie went on, "So, Grayson, you don't need to put so much pressure on yourself. I'm not marrying you out of pity. I really do want to marry you. We'll finally get to keep the promise we made when we were young."