He scrubbed himself spotless afterward, as if I were some filthy contaminant he had to wash off.

Yet with Felicity Fox, his obsession with cleanliness never once kicked in.

He could hold her without a second thought, press close to soothe her,

let her lean against him with not a flicker of distaste.

I had meant to turn quietly back to my room, to not disturb their cozy little scene.

But Felicity saw me first. The smile vanished instantly, replaced by a wounded, fragile expression as she hurried toward me.

"Belinda, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault, my body's just too weak. I got into the accident and took the only emergency slot too."

Her eyes reddened, and she pressed the point on purpose.

"Nathan and John were just so worried about my health that they insisted on staying with me. Please don't be angry."

That two-faced little act turned my stomach.

I didn't even have it in me to humor her with a reply. I only looked at her, blank.

At her side, John immediately planted himself in front of her, his voice soft and childish as he comforted her.

"Aunt Felicity already has a bad heart. It's not her fault. Mommy shouldn't blame her."

Even the nurse who'd come with me couldn't stomach it, and spoke up for me.

"You're her husband? Fine, any other time, whatever. But right now Dr. Pruitt's under observation in the ICU and you're still circling another woman? Don't you think that's going too far?"

Only then did Nathan snap out of it, a flicker of shock crossing his face as he looked at me.

"You're in the ICU? Why didn't you tell me?"

Tell you?

I laughed. As if he ever had time to listen.

Just then the attending physician from the department walked over, his expression grave.

"The injuries are critical. We need a family member to sign off on a second surgery."

But I only spoke quietly, my tone distant and calm.

"I have no family. I'm single. I'll sign it myself."

I took the form.

Nathan and I had never legally married, after all.

——The day we'd agreed to get our marriage license, Felicity happened to fall into the water. He rushed off to save her without a backward glance, and afterward brushed it aside with a careless, "The formality doesn't matter."

I'd believed it, foolish, for all these years. Looking back now, the truth was simple: he had never once intended to give me a title.

Nathan's face darkened slightly, and on reflex he reached to take the chart from my hand.

But the moment his fingertips brushed mine, his mysophobia flared. His fingers curled back on instinct, and he hesitated, then withdrew his hand.

I caught the small motion, every bit of it, and gave a soft laugh, my eyes gone cold.

"If it disgusts you, don't force yourself."

The old me would only have clung to him, wheedling,

clawing on even when he found me repulsive.

Nathan froze where he stood, watching the distance in my eyes, an inexplicable agitation rising in his chest.

He was about to say something

when Felicity suddenly clutched her stomach, her face going pale, her brow knotting with pain.

She sagged weakly against him. "Nathan, my stomach hurts so much all of a sudden……"

Every ounce of his attention snapped to her, every reservation flung aside as he hurried to steady her,

his face all tenderness. "Don't be scared. I'll take you to get checked."

He turned and glanced at me in a rush, leaving behind one perfunctory promise.

"Get some rest. I'll come back to see you later."

And with that he wrapped an arm around Felicity and turned to leave, holding his son's hand, without a trace of reluctance.

I stood where I was, watching their backs recede, and felt nothing at all.

Before long, the nurse came in to change my dressing, and in the small talk she couldn't help marveling.

"Room A201 is just so romantic. It's filled with 999 red roses."

Something stirred in me. A201, that was Felicity's room.

——He once told me that women loving flowers was nothing but a waste.

In my mind, the system's cold electronic voice chimed right on schedule：

【Host mission countdown：12 hours.】

Hearing the prompt, I simply leaned quietly against the headboard,

There are no wasted flowers, really. Only wasted people.

A faint daze settled over me, and oddly enough, it gave way to the calm of something finally laid to rest.

Memories surged up on their own, all those fragments of the past, the days I'd debased myself, forcing my way close to him.

For the mission, even though his cleanliness obsession ran bone-deep, I'd offered my warm face to his cold shoulder.

Our son inherited the same fixation, recoiling because I wasn't clean enough,

yet I never got angry. Every day I still smiled and held him, coaxing him to eat, to sleep.

I bent to his obsession, made room for his favoritism, endured the fact that his heart was forever filled with Felicity Fox,

believing that as long as I held on, one day I'd thaw his heart.

Now I see it for what it was. Nothing but lying to myself.

Just then a nurse came in carrying the pre-op forms, and seeing how pale I was, she couldn't help asking softly：

「Dr. Pruitt, the second major surgery is coming up soon. The risk is very high, and you might……you might not come off the operating table. Are you sure you don't want a family member or friend here with you? Even just someone waiting outside would be better.」

I shook my head, a faint smile curving my lips：

「No need. One person is enough.」

At that moment, a voice message suddenly popped up on my phone, the sender still tagged as Nathan Delgado.

I opened it, but what came through was Felicity Fox's delicate voice, laced with a deliberate little lilt of excitement：

「Sis, today's a big happy day. Remember to look out your window.」

I looked up without thinking, toward the window of my hospital room.

The little garden below had been decorated to the point of pure romance,

a sky full of balloons crowding a red carpet, flowers blanketing the path, the lighting soft and dazzling.

Nathan Delgado stood in a custom-tailored suit, tall and straight, down on one knee,

a brilliant diamond ring cradled in his hands, gazing at Felicity Fox with eyes tender enough to drown in.

Our son, John Delgado, stood off to the side holding flowers,

his face bright with joy, clapping hard, as if he truly blessed them.

A grand proposal, sweeping and extravagant, drawing crowds from all over the hospital to watch and snap photos, a spectacle.

I watched that glaring scene beyond the glass, and not a single ripple stirred in my chest. It only struck me as absurd, laughable.

All these years, I'd suffered beside him, borne his child, day after day bending to his obsession and his favoritism,

and never once a proper confession, let alone a proposal. He wouldn't even give me a marriage license,

brushing it all off with a single line about how the formalities didn't matter.

Yet now he was willing to give Felicity Fox a proposal the whole world could watch,

to give her all his tenderness and every bit of the ceremony.

I slowly drew my gaze back, expressionless, and said nothing in reply. I only murmured to the nurse who had come in：

「I'm ready. Take me to the operating room.」

Before long my phone buzzed again, another long voice message from Nathan, explaining.

His voice carried a trace of panic and a guilt he couldn't quite hide：

「Belinda, don't misunderstand. That proposal just now was an act. Felicity's parents don't have much time left,

and their one dying wish is to see her engagement settled. I was just helping out, playing along, that's all. Don't read too much into it.」

Then another message：「That voice message was just Felicity sending it carelessly. Don't take it to heart.」

Message after message,

until the last one, when he seemed to lose all patience：

「Why aren't you……angry anymore?」

I stared at the words on the screen, my eyes distant, my fingertip hovering above the glass,

In the end, I didn't type a single word. I sent no reply.

There was nothing left to explain. And I no longer wanted to listen.

Just then, the system's chime sounded once more in my mind:【Task nearing completion. Host, prepare to pass on.】

Hearing it, something inside me finally loosened, as if a weight had lifted.

I didn't answer any of Nathan's messages. I simply reached up and pressed the power button, sealing myself off from every last intrusion of the outside world.

The nurses wheeled my bed, easing me slowly toward the operating room.

The lead surgeon was my mentor, and the whole way there he kept trying to comfort me:

"Belinda, don't be afraid. Our entire team is going to give it everything we have. We will bring you back from that table."

I managed a weak smile and gave a small shake of my head.

"Don't put so much pressure on yourselves. Just let it run its course."

Life and death had been settled long ago. There was no use fighting it.

Lying on the table, the lights glaring overhead, I felt the anesthetic slide slowly into my veins, my awareness blurring at the edges.

Before my eyes, the past flickered past like a spinning lantern.

I remembered the first time I met Nathan. I had planned it for so long, confessed first, and even when he was cold and distant, I refused to give up.

I remembered ignoring his mysophobia, throwing my arms around him again and again,

watching that look of helpless disgust on his face, and quietly, secretly, treasuring it.

I remembered after our son was born, how the boy was taught to scorn me, to refuse my touch,

and how I bore that loneliness alone, forcing myself to act like none of it mattered.

I remembered the countless deep nights I spent guarding that empty mansion,

waiting for him to come home, only to get word that he was with Felicity instead.

I remembered the crash site, how without a moment's hesitation he gave the only chance of survival to someone else,

watching me sink into hopelessness without a single flicker of pity.

Scene after scene, one after another, all that accumulated disappointment finally came to its end in this moment.

In the last second before my mind sank under for good, every sensation slipped away from me, and my heartbeat eased into stillness.

Outside the operating room, the surgeon's eyes were rimmed red. Facing the empty corridor, he shook his head slowly and choked out under his breath:

"I'm sorry. We did everything we could……"

The lights in the operating room went dark, announcing my death.

Meanwhile, downstairs, the proposal was still going on.

Nathan was about to slide the diamond ring onto Felicity's finger when a panic surged through his chest out of nowhere,

as if something of immense importance had vanished completely, leaving a dull, aching pressure behind.

His brow knotted tight. He hadn't the slightest will to stay, and ignoring Felicity's startled attempt to stop him,"What are you doing?!"

he shoved through the crowd and broke into a run toward the hospital wing.

The dread inside him grew stronger and stronger, his steps turning frantic.

He tore all the way to my room and threw the door open.

"Belinda, you've been ignoring my messages this whole time. What exactly are you trying to——"

The words cut off, lodging in his throat, refusing to come.

He stared at the empty bed, at the grave, grieving faces of the staff beside it,

and froze on the spot, every drop of blood in him seeming to ice over in that instant, his pupils shrinking, his face full of disbelief.

In that moment, he was seized by a terror beyond anything he could name, a panic he had never known sweeping through his entire body.