Chapter 3

I stared into Hallie's reddened eyes, unable to believe how absurd she was being.

Four years ago, the system had given me a chance to return home.

At the time, I had just been promoted in my original world. I was financially comfortable, my parents were healthy, and they were waiting for me to come home.

So, I chose to return to the world I came from. The moment I made that choice, this body began rapidly deteriorating. Doctors ran test after test, but none of them could figure out what was wrong with me.

The woman who was always so proud in the business world humbled herself and begged every renowned specialist she could find to save me.

Every night, she would hold my thin, skeletal hand and secretly cry.

She could never sleep peacefully. Whenever she woke in the middle of the night, the first thing she would do was press her ear against my sunken chest, trembling as she listened for my heartbeat.

It was unbearable to watch her suffer like that because, somewhere along the way, I had genuinely fallen in love with Hallie. But my family in my original world mattered just as much to me.

When she had exhausted every other option, she went to an ancient abbey that had stood for thousands of years and begged the gods for help.

In the sweltering summer heat, she climbed thousands of stone steps, whispering prayers with every step.

She went for days without food or water and even fainted several times along the way. But every time, she would order her attendants to splash water on her until she woke up. Then she would grit her teeth and keep climbing.

In the end, she returned with a string of prayer beads for me.

When she slipped them onto my wrist, every bead was stained with blood from the wounds on her palms that she'd suffered when she fainted.

Yet she acted as though she couldn't feel the pain.

Kneeling beside my bed, she begged me over and over. "Sebastian, please wake up. Please get better…"

My heart softened. I asked the system if I could postpone my return home, and it agreed.

But now, as I looked at those same beads, still carrying traces of her blood, all I could feel was bitter irony.

For years, I had been tormented by the thought of my family in my original world, still waiting for me to return.

And yet, less than a year after I chose to stay for Hallie, she cheated on me.

That was why I had broken down. Why I had lost control and become hysterical.

I had started to wonder if choosing her had been the biggest mistake of my life.

I looked at Hallie and spoke through my dry throat. "You gave them to me. That makes them mine. I can do whatever I want with them, can't I?"

Hallie froze. Her expression immediately twisted with anger.

I held the bracelet out to Wyatt again.

"Didn't you want my things? Go ahead. Take them."

Wyatt glanced at Hallie's furious expression and immediately shrank back.

"Forget it. How could I take something that represents your relationship?"

I let out a quiet laugh, the sound filled with nothing but mockery. "Once there's no love left, they're nothing more than lifeless objects."

Hallie finally snapped.

She snatched the bracelet from my hand and yanked it hard, snapping the cord. The beads scattered across the floor, bouncing and rolling in every direction.

She stared at me coldly. "If you don't want them that badly, then you don't get to have them."

She grabbed Wyatt and stormed out, slamming the door behind them.

It felt as though someone had carved a piece of my heart straight out of my chest.

I crouched down and began gathering the scattered beads, my eyes burning with tears.

One by one, I picked up each bead stained with traces of dried blood and carefully placed them back into the box.

Then I tore the farewell letter I had just written from my diary and slipped it inside.

I found the butler, William Gomez, and gave him one quiet instruction. "Give this to her seven days from now."

Once everything was taken care of, exhaustion finally caught up with me.

I collapsed onto the bed.

Somewhere between sleep and consciousness, I heard the bedroom door open.

Someone sat down beside me. Still half-asleep, I thought I was dreaming.

Out of habit, I reached for that familiar hand and held it, mumbling groggily, "Why did you get home so late?"

I pulled her closer. "Honey, I don't feel so good."

The next second, my hand was violently slapped away.

Hallie let out a mocking laugh.

"What are you trying to pull now?"

I jolted awake, only to find myself staring straight into the disgust in her eyes.

"Sebastian, haven't you caused enough trouble already?" she snapped. "Just because Wyatt wore your suit, you've convinced yourself that I'm cheating on you—that I'm having an affair with him?"

Her voice rose with every word.

"You hired people online to harass him. You dug into his private life. You even paid some thugs to drag him into an alley and humiliate him. How much further are you planning to take this?"

She leaned over me, trembling with anger.

"When I got there, he was on his knees, begging them to stop. If I hadn't arrived in time, who knows what you would've done?"

Her eyes burned with fury.

"Are you really so jealous that you can't even tolerate your own son?"

She stared down at me, her expression filled with contempt.

"Sebastian, do you have any idea how low you've sunk?"