Chapter 2

Seeing the wine glass filled to the brim, I stared at Kyle and felt my lips curl into a mocking smile.

Let bygones be bygones? Yeah, right. They'd pay back all they owed me sooner or later.

When I still didn't reach for the glass, Caroline's gorgeous face turned frosty.

"Dominic, don't be difficult," she said icily. "Kyle is showing you respect by toasting you. After this, neither of you will owe the other anything."

Even though my heart was already riddled with holes, hearing Caroline's words still made me tremble uncontrollably.

I was allergic to alcohol, and she knew that. Yet, just to make her first love happy, she was willing to completely disregard my life and force me to drink a full glass of wine.

I closed my eyes, opened them again, then resignedly took the glass from Kyle's hand.

The people around us, ready for some juicy drama, fell completely silent the moment they saw the index finger missing from my hand. The irritation on Caroline's face vanished, replaced by wide-eyed shock.

My bloodshot eyes locked onto hers. "Caroline, once I finish this glass, we're done," I said, enunciating each word clearly.

Ignoring the stunned look on her face, I threw my head back and downed the glass. The alcohol had barely hit my stomach when my entire body began to burn, and red hives broke out across my arms. My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor.

Screams erupted around the room. Then came Caroline's sharp reprimand.

"Dominic Holden, three years in prison, and you don't even know how to behave anymore? You're pulling a stunt like that now? Here?"

My throat burned and itched so badly that I couldn't answer her.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard someone say, "Hard to believe that the once-brilliant Dr. Holden, whose patients lined up just to get appointments with him, would end up like this. With how beautiful and successful Caroline is, can she really stay with a loser like him?"

…

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the cold, sterile ceiling of a hospital. An IV drip was still connected to my hand, but the room was empty except for me.

Ever since I came to this world, the only moments that ever made me feel any warmth were when I saved patients and saw them regain hope for living. Everything else had brought me nothing but humiliation and suffering.

All the inhumane torture I'd suffered in prison, and the humiliation at that welcome-back dinner, had been because of Caroline enabling Kyle's behavior.

Unable to hold it back anymore, I lashed out at the system.

"What kind of garbage are you? And you call yourself a Survival System? A Sadistic System is more like it! I'm a doctor who saves lives, yet instead of building my career, you force me to simp after some woman. I'm done with this mission! I'm just going to kill myself—"

A beeping interrupted me.

"No, don't kill yourself!"

The electronic voice, which had always been cold and detached, now sounded incredibly panicked the moment I mentioned suicide.

I had guessed right. The system was bound to me. If I died, it would cease to exist too.

"Why can't you just look on the bright side? If you just hold on a little longer, maybe Caroline will fall head over heels in love with you. Besides, you chose her yourself!"

I let out a self-deprecating laugh and shook my head.

"Even if Caroline fell in love with me now, I don't love her anymore."

I had indeed chosen Caroline myself. Back in the real world, I'd been too busy with my studies and career to ever date anyone.

After getting bound to the Survival System, it had asked me to choose my own target. Out of all the profiles it showed me, I had fallen for Caroline at first sight.

The first time we met had been at the hospital. Her arm was in a cast, and a young boy running down the hallway slammed right into it.

Seeing her break out in cold sweat from the pain, I rushed over to check on her.

The moment our eyes met, I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest. Her eyes were beautiful. When she looked at me, she looked dazed for a moment.

Even though Caroline was a woman, she was the successor to the Davis family empire. To outsiders, she was the cold, ruthless CEO of Davis Group. But when she was with me, she was gentle and polite, and sometimes, she'd even act cute to get her way.

I pursued her for five years, eventually going from her boyfriend to her husband. I gave her my whole heart, and I truly fell in love with her.

I asked the system, "Does marrying her count as a mission complete?"

But the system always gave me the same cold response. "She hasn't truly fallen in love with you yet."

It wasn't until Kyle came back to the country and I repeatedly saw headlines of them out together that I realized the truth—her dazed look when she first saw me was because I resembled him a lot.

Caroline loved Kyle. In her eyes, I was nothing more than his stand-in. There was never any chance she would actually fall in love with me.

Thus, when Kyle committed medical malpractice, she didn't hesitate. She forced me—the stand-in—to go to prison for him.

Every time I was beaten within an inch of my life in prison, my hatred for her grew a little stronger.

The light in the hospital room gradually dimmed. The past was like a heavy boulder, crushing me and making it hard to breathe.

My voice rang out through the room, steady and firm. "I'm never going to hope for her love again. Either change the mission, or I'm killing myself. I'd rather die than grovel so pathetically after a woman who doesn't love me."