My CEO boyfriend, Dylan Abbott, has a phobia of getting married. Because of that, he sets up a weird rule that requires me to pass all 99 trials set up by his secretary, Lynette Woods, before finally agreeing to marry me.

The first time we're about to get married, I wait for Dylan at the marriage registration department for three hours. But that's when I'm informed that Lynette has lost Dylan's ID, causing our registration to get delayed.

The second time we're about to get married, Lynette happens to be driving around in my car. She stages a brake failure and hits a passerby on purpose. By the time I'm done dealing with the accident and rush to the City Hall with Dylan, it's already closed for the day.

The 98th time we're about to get married, Lynette laces my glass of water with rat poison. Because of that, I'm taken to the hospital immediately to have my stomach pumped out, hence missing out on the marriage registration.

When it's the 99th time for us to get married, I'm under the impression that I've passed Lynette's trials, which means Dylan won't flake out on me anymore.

But I spend the day waiting for Dylan at the City Hall till nightfall. I've spammed so many phone calls and text messages to him, and yet he never shows up.

In the end, I come across a post Lynette has made on her social media feed about her and Dylan being officially married.

"My boss loves me far too much! All I said was that I wanted to get married as well, and he was quick to marry me at the City Hall! I love him so much!"

I just leave a like on the post without losing my temper or kicking up a ruckus.

That's when Dylan calls me on the phone all of a sudden.

"Don't misunderstand the whole thing, Felicia. This marriage is just a joke. Lynette is a graduate hailing from an overseas university. I merely married her because I want her to keep working for my company without any complaints.

"Once the divorce procedures are over, I'll marry you immediately before throwing you the grandest wedding ever, okay?"

What Dylan doesn't know is that I've already signed an agreement with the system. If I can't get married with Dylan in five years, that means I've lost the bet.

My time will be up in three days. By then, I'll get annihilated by the system. There will no longer be a future for me and Dylan.

[Your five years are up. You've failed your mission. You have 72 hours until your elimination.]

I heard the system's cold voice echoing in my head and laughed bitterly as I rejected my boyfriend, Dylan Abbott, who was making empty promises to me again.

"No, thank you!"

I was going to die. We weren't going to have a future together anymore.

A short bout of silence later, he sent me a video.

"Is this the reason why you're rejecting me, Felicia Cooper? Because you're planning to continue bullying Lynette behind my back?

"I can't believe that you actually broke into her home and forced her to drink! Wanna bet that I won't even consider the years we spent together and just sue you for trespassing?"

I listened to his increasingly accusatory voice and tapped the play button on the screen to watch it out of curiosity.

The video showed me holding a glass of wine as I poured it down his secretary, Lynette Woods' throat.

I was shocked.

I had indeed gone over to her place today, but it was only because today had been the final day of the five-year deadline. I had been worried sick that she would ruin my chances of getting Dylan to marry me again today, which would make me lose my life.

So, I had gone looking for her to beg her, beseechingly, to finally grant me my wish.

When I arrived at her place, she had been drinking with her friends, and she easily agreed to my request, saying that she wouldn't cause trouble for me again today.

However, when I saw that she was mixing all kinds of alcohol in her glass, I advised her against it out of the kindness of my heart.

In the end, she went back on her word and even took the video out of context, sending Dylan an edited, reversed video before accusing me of forcing her to drink.

Even with such an obvious reversal, Dylan still believed her wholly and berated me loudly.

"Don't you know that alcohol is literally a slow poison? Drinking too much can actually cause death! You're killing her on purpose!"

At first, I wanted to defend myself and explain. However, I suddenly realized that it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.

Every time we attended a socializing drinking party, he would force me, someone with a slight alcohol allergy, to take part in drinking games under the guise of networking with our suppliers, business partners, and potential customers.

I had been hospitalized multiple times due to stomach perforation from drinking so much. And although he would care for me afterward, he never told me that I should stop drinking.

In fact, in regard to the issue, he would just say nonchalantly, "You're only like this because you're not exposed to alcohol often enough. Just keep training until your body gets used to it, and you won't get sick like this again."

I used to think that Dylan was naive and innocent, unaware of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption. But now, I finally knew that it wasn't because he wasn't aware of it.

He just didn't care about me.

Lynette suddenly began coughing slightly on the other end of the phone, feigning gagging twice. Then, she said aggrievedly, "Don't blame her for it anymore, Dylan. It's my fault for making the marriage tests too hard for her.

"It's only natural that she hates me and wants to get revenge on me like this. But you also know that I'm only doing this for your own good. After all, you're handsome and capable, and only a flawless woman is ever worthy of you."

At that, Dylan flew into a rage. "I was the one who instructed Lynette to give you the tests, Felicia! You should have just taken your anger out on me instead! What's the point of taking it out on an innocent person like her?

"Apologize to her this instant!"

"Apologize to her?" I echoed. "Over my dead body."

I chuckled coldly and hung up, ignoring him completely afterward.

Dylan was furious. He then angrily posted a disciplinary notice in the work group.

"Felicia Cooper has been found guilty of abusing her power to bully Lynette Woods. Therefore, Felicia is hereby suspended for three days, and her salary will also be halved as a warning to other people."

The notice was issued immediately.

The other colleagues who usually followed me around and had a fairly close relationship with me all turned on me when they realized that I was being shunned, and that Lynette was in favor after all. They began attacking me relentlessly.

"Mr. Abbott! You're too biased toward her! Don't you think that your punishment toward Felicia for workplace bullying and harassment is too lenient?"

"Exactly! She must be fired at once! Then, her position and salary should be compensated to Lynette instead. Now that's what we'd call fair!"

Lynette waited for everyone to have a go at cursing me out before popping up in the company chat.

"Thank you for standing up for me, everyone, but I still think it's more appropriate for Felicia to be given a second chance. After all, she's been around for a long time.

"If you ask me, I do think that a dismissal is adequate. I will reluctantly accept her salary and commissions in the meantime. Let's just leave it at that now."

As soon as she sent out that statement, Dylan already executed it on her behalf. It felt more as though he was her secretary instead of the other way around.

Seeing this, my gaze darkened, but that was all. I couldn't be bothered to explain myself any further.

I just reacted to her message with a "thumb-up" emoji before leaving the group chat.

Dylan was somewhat surprised that I didn't make a fuss about anything. He then forwarded me a coupon that would entitle me to a free cup of coffee.

"I got this coupon after buying from this cafe for half a month. You'll just have to pay ten cents for a large cup of coffee. That's a bargain for you.

"You know that Lynette is a PhD graduate from overseas. The company can only rely on highly intelligent and talented people like her if it wants to go further.

"But you don't have to worry about anything. I may seem on the surface like I'm taking her side, but I'm really just rewarding her now so that she's more willing to give her all to the company. You know that you're the only person in my heart.

"It might look like I suspended you from work at the company, but I'm really just giving you three days of time off, just with a more unconventional method. Other people can only dream about receiving time off like this.

"Once the time is up, I'll personally bring you back and even book an entire hotel to celebrate your birthday with you."

I didn't bother replying to him. While it was indeed my birthday in three days, it was also the day I'd die.

As for him saying that he was only taking advantage of Lynette's "intelligence", it was nothing but utter nonsense. She might seem highly educated on the outside, but she always made relentless mistakes at work.

She would keep getting the same things wrong, such as entering the wrong amount or using the wrong office stamps on documents.

It always meant the rest of the department and I had to clean up after her shit.

And yet, Dylan still told me, "Lynette is very highly educated and well-learned. She's only making these mistakes because she's inexperienced at work. However, she has immense potential."

He didn't appreciate my efforts at all, after everything I'd done for him. Instead, he was personally pushing me toward my doom.

Dylan's parents died in a car crash five years ago. His family business went bankrupt, and he was suddenly saddled with immense debt overnight.

He wasn't able to take the blow, so he swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, intending to follow his parents in death.

Just then, a system popped out of nowhere and told me that it could give me 100 million dollars and help Dylan regain his former glory from rock bottom. The only catch was that I had to make it a mission to register our marriage within the next five years.

If we failed to get married by the deadline, I would pay with my life.

At the time, I had a very close, intimate relationship with Dylan, and I thought my mission sounded simple enough. I couldn't possibly say no to free money and such an easy trade in my opinion, so I signed the contract with the system without any hesitation.

However, I never thought Dylan would frown when I proposed to him and brought up marriage.

"I have a marriage phobia. Please don't force me into doing this and give me some more time to think."

I panicked.

I worked my ass off during the day and went home to keep up with the household chores to make him feel secure and at ease. I barely talked to people of the opposite gender and even gave him all of my salary while remaining loyal, obedient, and submissive to him, listening to his every word.

However, he still couldn't make up his mind about marriage.

Just then, Lynette barged into our lives and brought up the whole "pre-marriage test" with him, saying that I would be able to marry him only if I passed all of them.

Ever since she suggested that, Dylan began to loosen up about the idea of marriage.

At first, I was grateful to Lynette for it. However, after experiencing her "tests" where she would just degrade and humiliate me and make sure that I never made it to the town hall for the registration, it finally all dawned on me.

Lynette wasn't helping me. She was simply making things hard for me on purpose.

I told Dylan, "Lynette's a malicious person. She's deliberately trying to sabotage our relationship."

However, Dylan would have none of that.

"She might have been wrong, but she's only doing this for our sake. You should be grateful and thank her instead of badmouthing her to me."

I looked into his cold eyes and realized that Dylan had had a change of heart.

But I didn't have the time to get mad at him. I felt the threat of death knocking at my door, and it was making it hard for me to breathe.

I dropped to my knees before him and begged in a pitiful voice, "Dylan, I signed a deal with a system to help you regain your glory. I will die if I don't successfully register our marriage within five years.

"I don't care what you do with Lynette after the marriage. I'm just begging for you to give me a way out of this and let me live!"

Dylan was beyond touched when he heard what I said. His tone softened.

"You're mistaken. Lynette and I are only regular colleagues. Also, everything I'm doing is for the company and for our home. I will never marry anyone other than you.

"You don't have to worry about anything, Felicia. I will definitely still make it even if they threaten me with a knife!"

I felt relieved after getting his verbal promise. I even purposely requested a day off work and arrived at the town hall bright and early.

But after waiting eagerly all day, from dawn to dusk, the only response I got was news that he had registered his marriage with Lynette instead.

I watched the countdown clock ticking away before my eyes and felt like my entire life had been nothing but a sick joke.

The love that I'd sought after so hard and so bitterly was just as much of a joke as it was for my life.

I composed myself and stopped myself from overthinking. Instead, I pulled out my phone and made a call.

As I lay dying, the only person I wanted to properly say goodbye to was my younger brother, Felix Cooper, who was studying in Alborough, a different city.

I was still hesitating, struggling to string my words together to tactfully tell him that I was dying.

However, when the call finally connected, I heard another man's angry voice on the line instead.

"You're Felix's sister? Really? And I thought all the rest of his family were already dead!"