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.

Dylan texted me and said, "I took a half-day off work today, and there was too much of a backlog of work waiting for me when I got back. I've been working nonstop since this afternoon, but I haven't completed my work yet.

"I'm not coming home tonight and staying here at the company instead."

I didn't call him out on his lie.

Instead, I directly transferred the money I made from selling the rings to Felix's account.

His owed medical bills were soon paid off with the money. However, he was still going to require at least 50,000 dollars more for the rest of his treatment.

I looked around the place.

I'd bought this apartment myself before meeting Dylan. It had taken up all of my savings to pay off the loans. And after we got together, he withheld every cent of my salary for years.

This left me with no money to buy furniture or electrical appliances. The whole apartment was empty with absolutely nothing of value.

The only solution I had now was to sell off this apartment. It should fetch a price of around 400,000 dollars. That would be more than enough to pay for Felix's treatment, and the rest of the money could also be used for his livelihood.

I stopped hesitating and called the real estate agent straight away.

"I want to sell my apartment. I don't care what price you set for it as long as I can get the money within three days."

…

"I've found a buyer. They said that they're free to come in and sign the papers today for the handover," the agent called back later to say. "But Ms. Cooper, you're selling at a significant loss because of your hurry. Maybe you should think it over first."

"It's fine. Bring the buyer in for the handover. I'm home right now."

I didn't have much time left. I had to make sure to give Felix the money while I was still alive.

I simply owed him too much. I couldn't ever make it up to him again. The only thing I could do now was to try to save his life.

While lost in my thoughts, the doorbell suddenly rang, and I ran over eagerly to answer the door.

"That was quick—"

I stopped myself halfway through my sentence.

It wasn't the agent or the new buyer at the door. Rather, it was Dylan, with a dark, broody look on his face.

"You're selling this apartment?"

"This is my apartment. I can sell it if I want to. It's got nothing to do with you."

He'd already taken my salary for himself. And now, he was still trying to interfere in my business of selling my own apartment. He really was downright shameless.

Dylan noticed the hostility in my tone and brought Lynetee inside, cocking his eyebrow at me.

"Lynette told me that she saw you at the mall today. You've been stalking us, haven't you?"

I didn't answer him, and he didn't press. Instead, he continued in a dark, threatening tone, "Do you know what I hate about you the most, Felicia? The fact that you never ask for clarification and instead always jump to the worst possible conclusions.

"Look at this properly with your eyes. The person getting married is Lynette's brother, not her. Lynette is the star employee of the company. I was just fulfilling my duties as the company's CEO by buying her a ring so she'd be more presentable.

"It's bad enough that you misunderstood everything from the start, but you went too far by trying to sell off my apartment! If the agent wasn't my friend and told me about it, and I hadn't stopped him in time, you would have committed a devious act."

He then tossed a wedding invitation to me, but I didn't bother looking at it.

He had hundreds of employees working for him at the office. If anyone said they were getting married, he would throw even more work their way without even so much of a congratulatory word.

But when it came to Lynette, he spent 20 million dollars on luxurious jewelry for her without even a blink.

It was painfully obvious that he was biased toward her. It didn't matter anymore whether it was her or her "brother" getting married.

I ignored him. I was just about to kick them out of the place when I suddenly received a call from the hospital.

"Is this Ms. Cooper? Kindly pay your brother's medical expenses as soon as possible so that we can develop a treatment plan based on your financial situation."

"I'll pay up as soon as I can, doctor. Please save Felix no matter what."

I hung up after that. Just as I was about to call another property agent, Dylan suddenly grabbed my arm anxiously and asked, "Felix is sick? What's the matter with him?"

I flung his arm off.

"He has stomach cancer! You promised me that you would take good care of him, but you didn't give him a single penny and instead took money from him! And to think that I actually trusted you about it, Dylan Abbott!"