For ten years, my mission was Jerry Ewing, the city’s top business magnate. And for ten years, I failed. I once threw myself in front of a car to save him—costing me the hearing in my left ear. I thought that would finally complete my mission. That he’d marry me. Instead, his voice turned icy: “Marry into the Ewings? With a heart as toxic as yours, Julia? You tried to kill Lila. Get your head fixed first.” His sentence: “Letters of contrition. Ten thousand words a day. Write until you understand your depravity.” To complete the mission, I obeyed. He sent me to his private retreat for “treatment.” A year later, I returned broken. He greeted me coldly: “A year. Have you learned your lesson?” I nodded, hand resting on my slightly swollen belly as I knelt on the frozen ground. “Julia Vance knows her place now,” I whispered. “I will never presume to be worthy of the Ewings.” The moment I spoke, a cold voice echoed in my mind: [Host has abandoned the mission. Annihilation in eight days.] 1 After a year of being locked away in that remote retreat, he had finally decided to bring me home. “Hurry up. Don’t keep the master waiting.” The butler, Mr. Henderson, found me in a damp, dark room in the furthest corner of the facility, clad in rags. The air around me was thick with the stench of antiseptic and stale sweat. He waved a hand in front of his nose, his face twisting in disgust. “Really, Miss Vance. It’s only been a year. How could you let yourself fall into such a state?” he sneered. “You knew we were coming for you today. Or is this pathetic display meant to win the master’s pity?” I fought against a sharp, stabbing pain in my lower abdomen, struggling to my feet. I tugged at the tattered remnants of my dress, trying to cover my exposed skin. “You’re right, Mr. Henderson,” I mumbled, my head bowed. “I am a disgrace to the master.” I curled my swollen, frostbitten toes into my worn-out shoes and shuffled obediently behind him. The path was slick with snow and ice. The frozen ground tore open the half-healed sores on my feet, and I stumbled, a fresh wave of pain making me slow my pace. Mr. Henderson shot me a look of pure contempt. He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging in like claws. “Stop the act, or you can stay here and rot forever!” he hissed. “Don’t think I don’t know. The master provided you with a private therapist, gourmet meals, and luxury accommodations. This whole drama queen routine is because you heard you were coming home. It won’t work.” I bit my lip to stifle a cry and forced myself onward until I stood before Jerry Ewing. Through my one good eye, I took him in. He was exactly as I remembered: impossibly handsome, with an air of cold arrogance that kept the world at arm’s length. His gaze swept over my thin rags and bare feet standing in the snow, and his brow furrowed. He shot a questioning look at Mr. Henderson. The butler leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Jerry’s expression hardened into one of pure disgust. “So, she’s still the same manipulative creature,” he said, his voice dripping with scorn. “Does she really think this pathetic act will move me?” Everyone in the city knew the story: the heiress of the Vance family, obsessively in love with the great Jerry Ewing for a decade. I had spent a fortune, poured all my energy into becoming his wife. But they didn’t know the truth. It was all for the mission. And even with all my efforts, Jerry had never once acknowledged me as his fiancée. He was convinced I had used my family’s influence to pressure his parents, forcing him into an engagement he never wanted. I once believed my devotion could melt his frozen heart. But he never truly saw me. His eyes were always looking for someone else. I remember the tenderness in his gaze when he looked at Lila Gray. A warmth he had never, not once, shown me. I had been willing to die for him, yet his heart belonged completely to another woman. The irony was a bitter pill to swallow. After a year apart, there were a million things I wanted to say, but the words died in my throat. Jerry sighed, a sound of weary impatience. “Julia. Do you finally understand what you did wrong?” His voice was quiet, but each word was a shard of ice piercing my heart. The world started to spin, and my legs gave out from under me. For months, I had survived on scraps at the retreat. My body was a fragile wreck; I could barely stand for more than a few minutes. “Still with the theatrics?” He took an involuntary step toward me, his hand outstretched as if to help, but then he froze, a sneer twisting his lips. “You have a talent for drama. It’s a shame you’re not an actress. If it weren’t for Lila insisting I bring you back for our wedding, I wouldn’t even want to look at you.” A year ago. His beloved Lila had been in her perfume workshop when she’d accused me of knocking over a vial of volatile chemicals. She claimed the fumes had sent her to the ICU. Jerry’s face had been a storm cloud of fury. “Your heart is so toxic, Julia. How could you ever be fit to join my family? If you want to marry me, you’ll first do a stint at my private retreat in the countryside. They’ll help you reflect on what a monster you’ve become.” I was a Tasker. Ten years ago, a car accident had left me in a coma, a vegetable. A system chose me, transporting my consciousness into this world. My only way back to my real life, to my family, was to complete the mission: make Jerry Ewing agree to marry me. Now, after a year of torture, he was marrying his one true love. All my sacrifices, all my pain—it was all for nothing. In that moment, something inside me broke. Why should I keep fighting in this world that wasn't mine? I looked up at the cold, untouchable man before me and let out a soft, defeated sigh. “Julia Vance knows her place now. I will never again presume to be worthy of the Ewing family.” [Host has voluntarily abandoned the mission. All traces of Host in both worlds will be annihilated in eight days.] Even though I’d expected this, a sharp pain lanced through my heart. I forced a brittle smile to my lips. “Congratulations, Mr. Ewing. To you and Miss Gray. May you have a long and happy life together.” He stiffened, clearly thrown by my words. The old me would have screamed, raged, and thrown the tantrum of a lifetime. But that girl was gone. Nothing mattered anymore. He stared at me, his eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Since you love to perform so much,” he said coldly, “I have another stage for you.” At his command, his men dragged me roughly to the private garden. They shoved me toward the grand fountain, ignoring my struggles as they doused me with freezing water. Someone grabbed my hair, forcing me to my knees on the icy marble. The laughter of the staff echoed around me. I felt the collar of my dress being pulled tighter, the sensation of choking, of drowning. My last defense shattered. A wild, broken laugh escaped my lips. I surged to my feet, wrenching myself from their grasp, and staggered into the center of the fountain. I tore off my sodden, clinging rags. I grabbed the decorative watercolors left by the edge and, in a frenzy, smeared the vibrant pigments all over my skin. Naked and painted, I stood in the heart of the fountain, meeting their shocked stares. You want to humiliate me? You want to see me shamed? Here I am. I looked directly at a stunned Jerry Ewing and screamed, “Are you satisfied now?” My defiance must have enraged him. His next order was to have me thrown into an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. He wanted to break me, to force me to beg for his forgiveness. But I didn’t care anymore. I only had eight days left. The air in the factory was thick with the smell of damp and decay. Moss crawled up the crumbling walls, and the scuttling of rats was the only sound. I thought it was a fitting place to end this meaningless life. I drifted into a hazy sleep. My mind took me back to that first day, before he sent me away. “Julia. Do you know what you did wrong?” Back then, I was still naive enough to think I held some small place in his heart. My jealousy had made me reckless. “What did I do wrong? You’re just biased! You always take her side!” I had screamed. I hadn’t touched that vial. Lila had set me up. He didn’t listen. He slapped me, hard, across the face. “You’re a spoiled brat,” he’d said, turning his back on me. “Perhaps some time at my retreat will teach you some humility.” He didn’t know. He didn’t know that what awaited me wasn’t therapy. It was a pack of wolves in human clothing. They descended on me… Three months later, Jerry appeared before me again. I refused to answer his questions. His face contorted with rage. “A few months in here and you’ve decided to play deaf and dumb? Still so stubborn?” He didn’t know that after he’d left the first time, the torment had begun. Day and night. My screams lasted all night. Eventually, they tired of the noise. They slapped me, over and over, calling me the filthiest woman on earth, until blood poured from my ear. I wanted to give up. But the thought of my family, waiting for me in my own world, was the only thing that kept me going. They locked me in an empty room. Then they stopped giving me food. They said if I was too weak, I wouldn't have the energy to make such annoying sounds. But the torment… it never stopped. When I woke up again, I was in a familiar room. My family’s city home. A system prompt floated in my mind: Annihilation in six days. I had been unconscious for two. A figure moved toward me from across the room. A jolt of pure terror shot through me. I tried to scramble away, but a hand pressed me back down onto the bed. “Don’t be scared, Julia,” a sweet voice chirped. “It’s me, Lila.” She sat on the edge of my bed, her face a mask of innocent concern. In her hand, she held a small jar of medicated balm. “Don’t be afraid, silly,” she cooed, but her other hand shot out, her fingers closing around my wrist like a vise. I remembered the perfume workshop. How she’d deliberately knocked over the vial as I walked by, then collapsed, pretending to be poisoned, pointing her finger at me. I knew she hated me. She wanted Jerry for herself. Yet she always played the part of my dearest friend. Her pity was more poisonous than any chemical. Seeing my body tremble, a smirk played on her lips. “How will your wounds ever heal if you don’t let me put some ointment on them, Julia?” “Ah!” With the last of my strength, I shoved her away. “Agh!” To my shock, Lila flew backward, as if propelled by a great force. My push had been feeble; there was no way it could have sent her flying like that. The door burst open and Jerry rushed in, catching Lila just as she was about to fall. He looked at her with such tender concern, but when his eyes landed on me, they were filled with venom. “Julia! I thought a year of reflection might have changed you, but you’re still the same monster. Lila comes here out of the goodness of her heart to bring you medicine, and you attack her? I should have left you to rot in that place!” Lila melted into his arms, her voice a soft sob. “Jerry, don’t say that. Julia’s been through so much. She’s probably just not feeling well.” “She brought this on herself,” Jerry snarled. “Crawling around in the snow like a madwoman. Why couldn’t she just walk back on her own?” A bitter laugh escaped my lips. A fifty-kilometer mountain road, in my condition? “She had the best food, the best care at that retreat! Is she so spoiled she can’t handle a single word of criticism?” “If it weren’t for your soft heart, she wouldn’t even be here. Ungrateful bitch.” The best food? The best care? “The master is right,” Mr. Henderson chimed in from the doorway. “When we went to pick her up, she said she had gotten used to the retreat and looked down on the Ewing estate. If we hadn’t begged her, she wouldn’t have come back at all.” “I think you’re too soft on her, Master. Look at her now. Does she look the least bit remorseful?” I stared daggers at the butler. We had no history of animosity, yet he stood there, weaving a web of lies. Someone had clearly coached him. Jerry’s face flushed with anger. He yanked me from the bed. The half-healed wounds on my body tore open again, and a low groan of pain escaped my lips. He gripped my arm, forcing me to stand, the agony twisting my features. He ignored my pain, his grip tightening. “Lila came to help you, and this is how you treat her? Was life at the retreat so comfortable that you’ve forgotten your place?” “If Lila hadn’t pleaded for you, you wouldn’t have the right to even stand in my presence! You’re not weak, you’re just an actress. How long are you going to keep up this charade?” “Lila is nothing but kind to you, and you repay her with this? Do you even have a heart?” He shoved me back onto the bed and stormed out of the room, pulling Lila with him. As she left, Lila glanced back over her shoulder, a triumphant, mocking smile on her face. I knew what she was flaunting. The man I had chased for a decade was now hers, effortlessly. Fine. She could have him. My time in this world was almost over anyway. My father, hearing I was back, rushed to see me. Seeing the silver in his hair, I couldn’t stop the tears. He wasn't my father from my world, but his love for me was real. I was his only child, and he had always cherished me. Now, look what I had become. He wrapped me in a tight embrace, but as his hands brushed against the raw scars on my back, he recoiled. His eyes filled with anguish as he gently traced a long, deep wound. “Julia… your injuries! What in God’s name happened to you?” Through my tears, I managed a bitter smile. “It’s nothing, Dad. I brought it on myself.” My father’s face contorted with rage. He smashed his water glass on the floor and immediately took me to the hospital. Jerry and Lila, hearing the news, followed us there. When the test results came back, the doctor looked at us, his expression a mixture of shock and confusion. His next words sent a shockwave through the room. “Julia… she’s pregnant.”
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