Chapter 4

Sabrina, who was always swamped with work, sat quietly at Aiden's bedside holding a bowl of soup.

"Sabrina, it hurts so bad. Are you sure my leg isn't actually broken?" Aiden put on a face of pure agony.

Sabrina gave a resigned smile, blew on the soup to cool it, and carefully fed him a spoonful.

"Relax. I'm a doctor. I looked at your scans myself. It's just a sprained ankle and some scraped skin. You'll be back on your feet in no time."

Noelle was curled up against him too. "Uncle Aiden, you have to get better soon. You promised to take me to the aquarium, and you can't break a promise!"

My parents looked on at the two of them with real warmth in their eyes.

Watching the five of them together, so happy and at ease, felt like a knife twisting deeper into my chest all over again. Twenty years of a happiness that had never really been mine to keep.

A wave of numbness washed over me, and I pressed a hand to my own chest. The affection I'd worked myself to the bone trying to earn, it turned out, couldn't be traded for or won. Maybe I really was fated to end up alone. Everything happening now was just punishment for being greedy enough to want a little warmth of my own.

Aiden spotted our parents coming over and quickly plastered on an earnest, guileless smile, waving them down.

"Mom, Dad, what are you doing here? Did you come because you were worried about Alex?

"Ugh, honestly, it's my fault too. I ran into him on the street, and I don't know why, but he looked so angry at me. I was just trying to explain myself when the car hit us both..."

Aiden put on his most innocent face.

I clenched my jaw, wishing more than anything I could storm over and put my fist straight through it. But I was nothing more than a soul now.

The truth was, right as I'd stepped into the crosswalk, he'd come charging at me from behind, trying to shove me into the path of the car. I'd grabbed onto him on instinct, but he'd wrenched free, and the car had hit me square on while he walked away without a scratch.

Suddenly, a cold, mechanical voice cut through my thoughts. My heart lurched violently in my chest.

It was the System. It had been silent for so many years.

Ever since I'd spent every last Point I had helping Sabrina, the System had never once reached out to me again. And now, with me on the verge of death, it had finally decided to speak.

"Host, you regretting it now?"

I let out a bitter laugh. "I do."

"Considering your attitude, if you can fill your family's Regret Meter, there's a chance you can go back to your original world. Host, you up for this new mission?"

I listened to the System's flat, mechanical voice, hardly able to believe it. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought I caught the faintest trace of pity in that emotionless tone.

Did I really have a choice? I agreed without hesitation.

"Fine."

But I knew I was only fooling myself. People like them—when would they ever shed a single tear over me?

"Family of Alex Hale! Where's Alex Hale's family?"

A female doctor burst through the door in a hurry, cutting off my grief and shattering the warm, happy little tableau the five of them made.

"What is it? Can't you see we have a patient resting here?" my mother muttered, frowning in irritation.

The doctor's expression went cold in an instant.

"Are you all Alex Hale's family? He was the one in the ICU, and you're all out here laughing it up? Alex died five minutes ago. My condolences."