For every surge of love my husband felt for me, the System answered with a jolt of electricity. He’d been shocked nine hundred and ninety million times, and still, he never regretted a moment of our love. I was just about to tell him I was finally pregnant with our child when they came for me. I was taken by a terrorist cell, thrown into a dark room, and handed over to ten of their men. In my deepest despair, I heard a voice in my head—a link I didn't know was open. It was my husband, Liam, speaking with the System. “Host, how could you make a deal with these animals? How could you let them treat your wife this way?” Liam’s voice was a shard of ice. “Grace has plot armor. A hundred men couldn't kill her. But Fay can die. Once Grace has taken Fay’s bullet, I’ll make it up to her.” The words sliced through me, and my heart bled out on the floor of my soul. As the men lunged, I simply gave up. “Damn, this one’s a real prize,” one of them grunted, and the small, suffocating room was suddenly packed with bodies. Long nails had been driven through my wrists and ankles, pinning me to the bed. The slightest tremor sent fire racing up my limbs, but now the whole frame was shaking violently. The stench of unwashed men and stale sweat flooded my senses, a choking cloud of grunts and heavy, ragged breaths. Through the haze of pain, I heard Liam’s voice again, crackling in my mind. “How many?” The System’s synthesized voice wavered. “That was the eighth, Host. Grace’s condition is… unstable. Perhaps you should tell them to stop.” “No,” Liam snapped, his voice a bomb detonating in my ear. “In the book, Fay was violated ten times. If Grace is to take her place, she will suffer all of it. Not one less.” His words plunged me into an abyss of ice. Two months ago, a terrifying virus had torn through a war-torn nation in the Middle East. The infection rate was staggering, the mortality rate near-total; no one survived past the third day. As an infectious disease specialist, I was sent to provide medical aid. Liam had insisted on coming with me, claiming he couldn't bear the thought of me being in danger. I’d actually believed he was worried about me. Now I knew the truth. He’d been planning this for two months. Another man entered. I was numb, a spectator to my own violation. Suddenly, a sharp, clenching pain ripped through my lower abdomen, a new agony that eclipsed everything else. Before I could even process it, the man on top of me cursed. “The hell? What is this?” Another leaned over. “It’s… a baby.” “God have mercy. She’s pregnant.” The room fell silent. The man scrambled off me. Even these beasts, it seemed, had a line they wouldn’t cross. My mind went blank. The words ‘the baby’ echoed in the sudden quiet, and tears began to stream from my eyes, hot and silent. As a doctor, of course, I knew. How could I not? Liam and I had been married for three years. He wanted me every night. Whenever I was too exhausted, he’d wrap his arms around my waist and plead softly, telling me how he’d grown up an orphan, how his greatest dream was to have a wife and a child of his own. He had the wife; now, he only had one dream left. For him, I had meticulously prepared my body, nurturing it into the perfect state to conceive. Three months ago, it had happened. But I never got the chance to tell him. “Host, that was nine. No one else will touch her,” the System’s voice cut through my daze. The connection was still open. “Why?” Liam demanded. The System’s mechanical tone was now tinged with something like pity. “Because during the ninth… Grace… she…” “Don’t tell me the details!” Liam roared. “I can’t bear it!” “I can only say her condition is critical.” Liam was silent. For a fleeting, foolish moment, I thought he might feel a flicker of remorse. Then his voice, colder than ever, shattered my heart for the last time. “If no man will touch her, then find me a dog.” The System’s internal fans whirred, a sound like a sharp intake of breath. “Host, this is too much. Grace has done nothing wrong. Why must she suffer this for Fay?” “You think she’s the only one suffering? My heart is being torn apart,” Liam’s voice was thick with a pain that felt like a performance. “But what choice do I have? If Fay doesn't survive, I cease to exist in this world.” “One last time,” he whispered, his voice a ghost fading in my mind. “After this last violation, they’ll inject her with the virus, and then I can go in and save her.” The door creaked open. A massive, snarling dog was led inside. I closed my eyes, surrendering to the final wave of despair. Everything unfolded just as Liam had planned. When the weight was finally gone, the room returned to a fragile quiet. I forced my broken body to move, to look at the tiny, blood-streaked form on the filthy sheets. I crawled toward it, a shattered thing reaching for the only piece of my soul that was left. My child. This was my child. A tidal wave of grief crashed over me, threatening to drown me completely. Just then, a man entered holding a syringe. The needle pierced my skin, and as the fluid flooded my veins, a chilling cold spread through me. I knew what it was. I had been studying it for three months. It was the pure, concentrated viral strain, likely drawn from a corpse. At this concentration, I would be dead in 24 hours without the cure. The cure I had just finished developing. The cure we hadn't announced to the world yet. I had always assumed the terrorists wanted me for the cure. Now I saw how naive I’d been. This was all Liam. All for Fay. He had told me, long ago, that he came to this world to save Fay. Only if she lived could he stay. That’s why, after we were married, he was always helping her, always trying to alter her fate. I’d fought with him over it, so many times. And every time, he’d hold me and sigh. “Grace, darling, I don’t have feelings for her. I’m just doing what I have to for us.” I never imagined he could do something like this. He hadn't just helped her. He'd fed me to the wolves in her place. The pain in my chest was so immense it turned to numbness. The moment the injection was done, the door was kicked open. In the next second, I was swept into a tight embrace. The familiar scent of Liam's cologne filled the air—a scent that once meant safety, but now only smelled of my own personal monster. He was trembling. “Grace, I'm here,” he choked out. “Oh God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry they put you through this.” I let him hold me, my eyes fixed on the empty space ahead, my heart a frozen stone of hatred. It took all my strength to make my voice sound remotely normal. “Liam,” I said, my voice a raw whisper. “You have the System. What took you so long to find me?” His body went rigid. “The System glitched. It’s all my fault, Grace. But listen to me, I don't care what they did to you. You’re not dirty to me. I’ll get you healed. We’re going to the hospital right now.” He draped his suit jacket over my ravaged body, lifted me into his arms, and growled an order over his shoulder. “Leave no one alive.” At the hospital, my colleagues rushed to my side. Even these seasoned professionals, accustomed to the horrors of this place, drew sharp breaths when they saw the state I was in. They pulled more than twenty long, rusted nails from my flesh. After surgery, I was moved to a private room. I have a high tolerance for anesthetics, so I wasn't asleep. But I couldn't bear to look at Liam, so I kept my eyes closed. I heard a nurse recount the details of my injuries to him. Liam’s voice was thick with manufactured pain as he stroked my face. “Grace, my love. I’ll never let you suffer like this again.” Before, those words would have made me weep with relief. Now, they just made me sick. Soon, the door opened again. A voice I never wanted to hear again chirped, “Liam, I’m here.” Fay. “Give her the injection now,” Liam said to her, his tone urgent. “The jet is ready. You can be back home in two hours.” “Liam,” Fay purred, grabbing his hand. “Come back with me.” “I need to stay here and take care of Grace.” “But I’ll be scared,” she whined. “It’s so chaotic here.” Liam hesitated for only a second before agreeing. He never said no to Fay. He always told me he had no feelings for her, yet he never refused her anything, always speaking to her with that gentle tone he reserved just for her… and for me. I used to tell myself it was just part of his ‘mission.’ I couldn't lie to myself anymore. Liam stepped out to finalize the flight plans, leaving Fay and me alone. She walked to my bedside and jabbed a finger directly into one of my surgical wounds. “Stop pretending,” she hissed. My eyes snapped open. Fay smirked, her voice dripping with scorn. “Look at the state of you. I heard ten men had their fun with you. Honestly, I’m surprised you still have the nerve to be alive.” A cold laugh escaped my lips. “Even so, Liam won’t divorce me to marry you.” I knew she was in love with him, desperate to be his wife. As expected, her face twisted in fury. “So what? He’s disgusted by you now. Do you know why he sent me in here?” she leaned in close. “He knows you’re resistant to normal sedatives. He had me bring a special sleeping drug, something to knock you out cold. That way, when my team announces that we developed the cure, you won’t be able to say a word.” “What?” I was stunned. That cure was the culmination of two months of sleepless work by my twenty-person team. It was a world-changing breakthrough. It was supposed to be the achievement that would launch the careers of so many brilliant, unknown doctors on my staff. How could Liam just give it to her? “You can’t steal our work!” I tried to push myself up, but Fay had already pulled a syringe from her purse. She plunged it into my IV line without another word. “From now on, Grace, everything that was yours is mine,” she whispered, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “Including Liam.” Fay’s drug didn’t work as intended. Less than an hour later, I woke up, burning with a fever. Liam and Fay were gone. My colleague, Maya, was by my side. “They’ve already left for the airport,” she told me. I nodded, then managed a weak smile at her full-body protective gear. “What’s with the getup? Is the virus making a comeback?” Maya bit her lip, her expression grim. “Dr. Grace… we just got your test results. You’ve been infected.” I knew. I had assumed they’d given me the cure immediately upon my arrival. It seemed Liam had ‘forgotten.’ “The terrorists injected me,” I said, my voice steady. “Just give me a dose of the cure now. There’s still time.” Her face fell. “There’s no cure left in the hospital.” After our last patient had been cleared, the entire stock had been packaged and shipped to the next outbreak zone. There wasn't a single dose left. The world went white. Without the cure, I was going to die. But there was a sliver of hope. Someone found a flight leaving in an hour for the city where the cure was. A few colleagues bundled me into a car. At the airport, however, officials took one look at my condition and refused to let me board. They wouldn't take the risk. As despair began to set in, Maya spotted Liam. She knew he had a private jet. She ran to him, quickly explaining the situation, begging him to fly me to the neighboring city for the life-saving injection. Liam glanced over at me, his face an unreadable mask. “I’m taking Fay home now. I don’t have time.” Maya was stunned. “But… her life is on the line! Without the cure, she will die! Liam, she’s your wife!” He scowled. “Stop the drama. I had Fay give her the cure at the hospital.” He looked past the crowd, his eyes meeting mine. “Grace, I know you’re jealous, but this isn't the time for games. I’ll come back for you after I get Fay home. Just wait for me.” With that, he turned and walked toward his jet with Fay in tow. His retreating back was a blade in my heart. He thought this was a game. He thought I was faking. But I wasn't. I was really going to die. A primal need for survival forced my mouth open. “Liam!” I screamed his name. He turned back. “Please,” I sobbed, tears blurring his distant figure. “Please, just take me with you. I want to live. I don’t want to die.” For a second, I saw a flicker of pain in his eyes. He took two involuntary steps toward me. Then, Fay shrieked and collapsed to the ground. Liam’s body moved before his brain could. In a flash, he had scooped her into his arms and was sprinting up the stairs of the jet. The last words I heard from him were, “You won’t die, Grace! I promise I’ll be back!” I don’t want you to come back. I want to live. Please, I want to live. The plane took off, and with it, my last sliver of hope vanished into the sky.
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