Chapter 4

On the way home, grief surged up and swallowed my entire heart. It spread through every inch of my body, leaving me so breathless I could hardly breathe.

I didn’t understand how Evelyn had suddenly become like this.

She had clearly loved me once.

Actually, when I began trying to win Evelyn over, she and Ethan had already been together for four years and were preparing to get married. They had been high school sweethearts who continued dating into college, but then Ethan turned around and married someone else. Evelyn had attempted suicide several times.

The system told me that Evelyn was a designated target who needed to be saved, so saving her naturally became my mission.

Evelyn had been hurt deeply. I did everything I could to enter her heart and gradually take Ethan’s place.

As I spent more time with her, I discovered that Evelyn was adorable and incredibly charming. Her life should have been filled with flowers at every turn.

When Evelyn and I introduced each other to our parents and began discussing marriage, the system told me that the mission was about to end and that I could leave this world.

I hesitated.

Because somewhere along the way, I had fallen in love with Evelyn.

When I saw the anticipation on her face as she looked forward to building a future with me, I couldn’t bear to let her suffer again. I gave up my chance to leave this small world and chose to continue walking forward with her.

I begged the system to extend the mission, confident that Evelyn loved me deeply.

During those few months when we were discussing marriage, I thought everything would continue smoothly. I thought Evelyn and I would love each other for the rest of our lives, until death separated us.

But just as I was meeting Evelyn’s parents, Ethan suddenly divorced his wife and walked away from the marriage with nothing.

After that, everything changed.

The love between Evelyn and me became a complete joke. Now she was even calling off our engagement for Ethan.

I finally understood. All those years I had spent painstakingly pulling her out of the abyss meant that she had only ever treated me as Ethan’s replacement.

Evelyn had never loved me.