Chapter 1

On the eve of the wedding, Gabriel came clean with me.

"Zoe and I slept together. Right here."

He patted our wedding bed. "I kept myself pure for you for three years, and only now did I finally get some release."

I stood frozen in place, unable to come back to myself for the longest time, while he just smiled like none of it mattered.

"Don't make such a big deal out of it. Didn't your ex-husband in that other world have five concubines? I only cheated once."

Three years ago, my husband took five concubines into the household. In utter despair, I threw myself into the river, and when I woke, I was here.

It was Gabriel who saved me. He taught me the modern language, showed me everything I didn't know.

He said that here everyone practiced monogamy, and that he would never betray me.

But our wedding was three days away, and now he was telling me he'd slept with the only friend I had in this world.

It took me a long time before I could speak, my voice trembling. "Have you forgotten what the System said? If you betray me, I'll disappear completely."

Gabriel's tone was impatient. "Stop spinning that nonsense. The doctor said there's nothing wrong with you at all. How long are you going to keep milking this for attention?"

I lowered my eyes. Attention?

There was no need to keep at it anymore. The System had just alerted me: I hadn't found a man who was devoted to me within the time I was given.

In three days, the System would erase every trace of me in this world.

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After a long silence, Gabriel finally spoke, slow and deliberate. "Alright, I've owned up to it on my own, so let it go."

Tears welled up before I could stop them. "But you once said it would be the two of us, together, for the rest of our lives."

I really thought I'd found the right person, that I was about to break free of the System's hold and stay here forever.

Three days. I was only three days from finishing the quest.

Gabriel rubbed his brow, irritated. "You can sleep with two men, your ex-husband can take five concubines, but when it's my turn, suddenly it's betrayal?"

"You're so old-fashioned. I never get enough with you. Zoe's different. She always finds ways to surprise me."

"That's one thing where you just can't measure up to her."

At the mention of my ex-husband, I flinched back hard.

I never imagined he'd rub salt into my deepest wound just to excuse his own cheating.

Three years ago, I didn't belong here. In that world, the husband who had promised himself to me alone took five concubines, one after another, at the very moment I loved him most.

Faced with my crying and my questions, all he said, coldly, was, "I'm tired of you."

At the worst of it, he stripped the clothes off me in front of everyone, made me endure the shame and the jeering.

Unable to bear it, I threw myself into the river, and when I woke, I had already arrived in this world.

And out of nowhere I was given a quest by the System: as long as I found a man who was devoted to me within three years, I could stay here forever.

It was around then that I, so out of place in this world, met Gabriel.

He said I was special. He patiently taught me the language here and everything I didn't understand. He became my salvation.

He even swore it would be me and me alone, for the rest of his life.

I truly believed I would be able to finish the quest the System had given me.

Until today, when he confessed he'd been fooling around with my only friend.

Two lives, the same ending. I was too foolish, believing their lies about loving me forever.

The tears fell despite myself, but Gabriel only watched, indifferent, not tenderly wiping them away the way he used to.

"You're secondhand goods, and I slept with someone else, so by rights we're even."

"Even?"

I practically screamed it. "If you care so much about my past, then what gave you the right to make that promise in the first place?"

"And I was stupid enough to think I was about to be free of the System."

"Don't bring up the System with me anymore. I played along with you for three years. I'm honestly done."

I lifted my head and looked at him, lost. Somewhere along the way, he'd stopped believing a word I said.

"So even if I disappear, you won't care. Is that it?"

Before he could answer, his phone rang.

He put it on speaker, and a familiar voice came through.

"I got the large-sized ones. How about we do it in the car tonight?"

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at me and answered her.

"You heard that. I've got plans tonight. It'll be exciting."

He grabbed his coat to go. Before he left, as if to soothe me, he said,

"It's just a little fun before the wedding. Once we're married, I'll settle down and come back to you, alright?"

Watching his retreating back, and the room decked out with wedding decorations, I closed my eyes in despair.

I wouldn't make it to the wedding. Three days from now, there would be no trace left of me in this world.