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!"

"Felix is just a student! You didn't pay a single cent for his tuition or living expenses, forcing him to work three jobs a day on top of classes, and he doesn't even have enough to eat or much to wear!" the man continued yelling at me.

"He's got stomach cancer now and can't even afford the hospital fees anymore! Are you finally happy now?"

I was shocked.

How could this be? I had given Dylan all of my salary every month, and he'd promised me that he would regularly send Felix pocket money and living expenses. He even vowed to take care of him on my behalf!

I hurriedly pressed the man for more details. I learned that his name was Troy Brennan, and he was one of Felix's classmates.

As it turned out, Dylan told Felix that the company had been doing extremely poorly, and therefore, he wasn't able to give him any money regularly.

Felix was worried that I would be put in a tough spot if he brought it up with me, so he didn't ask me for money. Instead, he worked odd jobs and saved up enough to even give Dylan 1,000 dollars a month to help him with the company.

And now, he was overworked to the point he'd gotten stomach cancer. He didn't want to be a burden to me and decided to hide it. He'd even planned to give up on the treatment without telling me.

I looked at Felix lying helplessly in the hospital on the verge of death and felt my heart being sliced to shreds. I couldn't hold back anymore and sobbed hard, tears and snot covering my face.

Yet, I didn't have the luxury of time to continue feeling sorry for him.

I wiped my tears away and thought of a way to come up with money urgently.

For the past five years, my life had revolved completely around Dylan, and I'd already distanced myself from my old friends. My colleagues were all eager to watch my downfall, so it was obvious that I didn't even have to bother considering borrowing any money from them.

Left with no other choice, I felt for a ring box in my pocket.

There was a pair of wedding bands inside this box, worth 15,000 dollars in total. I'd bought it with five years' worth of my savings without Dylan's knowledge, thinking of surprising him with it when the time came.

But now, I couldn't wait for that timing anymore.

As of now, these rings were the only things still of value that I had left.

I brought them to the pawnshop and was told they would only give me 6,000 dollars for the pair.

"Sorry, miss, but tiny diamonds like these aren't worth much. Given how urgently you need the money, 6,000 dollars is the best price I can offer for these.

"If you want your jewelry to keep its value, you should have just bought gemstones from those luxury fine jewelry stores instead," the pawnshop owner said disdainfully, pointing opposite the road.

I looked in the direction that he was pointing. Just as I was about to look back at him, I caught sight of Dylan inside the fine jewelry store, shopping with Lynette.

She looked as if she were hesitating between two pieces of jewelry.

"Other people's wedding bands are plain and boring. Don't you think it's too much for you to be buying an emerald one for me?"

Dylan didn't think much about it as he said, "Occasions like these only happen once in your lifetime. Of course, I need to make a big deal about it!"

The salesperson said respectfully, "Sir, these rings aren't sold individually. They are only sold in a full set, and the cost is 20 million dollars."

Lynette was shocked. "What? That's too much! I like this ring, but I don't like the necklace or earrings in the set. It's such a waste to buy the whole set!"

Although she said it like that, she still held on tightly to the emerald ring until her knuckles went white, not looking like she was going to set it down anytime soon.

When Dylan noticed it, he smiled affectionately at her and said, "That's not a lot of money. Just buy it if you like it that much. We can always give the other jewelry to your mom instead. It would be a good gift for her anyway."

I lowered my gaze and dug my nails deeply into the flesh of my palms, feeling desolate and pathetic.

Dylan told Felix that the company hadn't been doing well and didn't have enough cash flow. Dylan also forcibly reduced my daily spending to five dollars. I could barely even afford a drink with my meal at times.

He was even more ruthless toward Felix, asking him for money rather than paying for Felix's living expenses.

And yet, there Dylan was, casually spending 20 million dollars on Lynette like it was no big deal.

So, was this what he meant by them just being regular colleagues at work?

Had this been in the past, I would have rushed up to him at once to confront him and make a huge fuss. But now, I just pretended that I never saw him after all and went back after pawning off my rings.

I didn't have much time left, and I was still trying to raise enough money to cover Felix's hospital expenses. I didn't have the time to settle scores with Dylan anymore.

Dylan never came home for the rest of the day. But when he saw that I had never even reached out once to ask where he was, he surprisingly took the initiative to tell me. It was a very rare occasion indeed.