I endured Sophia Caldwell's cold, cutting stare. As long as her favorability toward me did not reach one hundred, the system would erase me. Five years of grinding had brought her favorability up to ninety.
Then she handed me a file.
"You're going to prison anyway, so why not donate your heart to Ethan Rivers?"
I looked down at the file in my hands, then back at Sophia Caldwell, with an expression she couldn't read. "Why are you doing this?"
"Even if you refuse, you can't leave me. You have a system mission to complete. Until it's done, you have no choice but to keep pleasing me. If you agree without a fight, I might take pity on you. My favorability toward you might even increase. Why not learn to be a little smarter?"
Smarter? I laughed until tears came.
Sophia Caldwell was brilliant. There was no denying that. An IQ of 153 had made her the top cardiac surgeon in the country before she turned thirty. So even when it came to love, she quantified every emotion into numbers, like running an experiment, using cold measuring tools to control everything, using thin threads of hope to force me into compromise again and again.
In that moment, I finally understood. Sophia Caldwell didn't hate me. She was just too cold, too detached.
In the end, even our daughter, the one I'd raised for eight years with my own hands, turned out exactly like her mother. If Dad won't let Uncle Ethan have your heart, I won't call you Dad anymore.
The hearts of these two were like blocks of ice. No amount of warmth could ever melt them.
That was it. Then I didn't want to waste another eight years.
My voice came out soft. "I've thought it through. If you want my heart, you can have it."
At the same time, I spoke silently to the system. After this body dies, switch me to a new target immediately.
Host confirms desire to change conquest target. After the change, you and Sophia Caldwell will have no further connection. But you will be reborn with a new identity.
No connection was just fine. I was done trying to win over Sophia Caldwell.
Surprise flickered across Sophia's face. She hadn't expected me to agree so quickly. Her brow furrowed slightly, sensing something off about me.
"Go rest for now," she said, without thinking further.
The moment I stepped through the door, my daughter Quinn threw something at my feet. Her voice was imperious. "Dad, you're useless. Fix this for me."
On the floor was a toy car model. From the look of it, this belonged to Ethan Rivers' son. I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. These two were sickeningly devoted to each other. She even loved his son.
Quinn saw me laugh. She frowned in confusion. "I need to see it fixed by tomorrow. Fix it for me right now."
My voice turned cold as I looked away. "Dad doesn't know how."
This car model had complicated components. Repairing it wasn't something that could be done overnight. I had just spent three hours standing outside in the freezing cold. My hands and feet were numb and stiff. I physically couldn't do it.
Quinn's anger flared. "Why are you so useless? You can't do anything. I promised Tyler I'd give him a perfect one tomorrow. You have to do it today."
My voice was ice. "Quinn, I'm your father, not your servant."
I rarely spoke harshly to Quinn. She'd inherited her mother's sky-high IQ. When it came to school, she hardly needed me at all. So most of the time I took on the role of support, managing Quinn's daily life, from meals and routines to her health. I handled everything with meticulous care.
But even so, Quinn was never satisfied with me. She'd grown so accustomed to my devotion that she made demands more brazenly every day, as if it were perfectly reasonable for her to order me around.
In the past, I'd let everything slide. But now I was done holding back.
Sophia emerged from the kitchen. She said to Quinn, "Let Dad rest tonight. He'll do it tomorrow."
In this moment, Sophia seemed to slip back into the role of the dutiful wife. She pressed a hot water bottle into my hands, reaching for mine. "Why get upset with a child?"
I stepped back, avoiding her touch. My voice was calm. "I'm not upset. I'm just letting Quinn know that from now on, I won't be her full-time father anymore."
Sophia's hand hung frozen in the air before finally falling back to her side. The silence carried a tension she didn't know how to handle. An unspeakable loss.
Sophia's brow furrowed. She'd never seen me like this. In her calculations, I should have exploded, blamed her, resented her, and then in the end given in. But now I'd skipped every step, calmly accepting everything as if I didn't care at all.
"Let's eat first." Sophia changed the subject.
She brought out a bowl of fish soup from the kitchen. The first bowl went to me. "Drink the soup. It'll warm you up. Don't you love fish soup?"
I stared at the milky white liquid in the bowl. The tender fish meat, the rich, savory broth. It was Sophia's signature dish, but bitterness rose in my throat.
The one who loved fish soup was Ethan Rivers.
Sophia's movements paused for a beat. Then she said, as if nothing had happened, "You two are brothers. Your tastes must be similar."
I laughed at myself. Ethan Rivers and I had completely different tastes. But Sophia only remembered his. At the start, to better complete the system's mission, I'd set my identity as Ethan Rivers' twin brother.
I looked down and said, "I hate fish soup. I hate the fishy smell. It makes me nauseous. Every sip tastes like sewage."
Sophia's movements didn't stop. She only said calmly, "Fish is good for the heart."
My hand tightened around the spoon. So that's what she cared about.
I said nothing more. I forced myself to swallow the entire bowl of fish soup, then turned and went to my room.
Eight years of marriage, and Sophia and I had always slept in separate rooms, because Sophia said she couldn't sleep well. So I'd volunteered to sleep in the guest room for eight years straight. The truth was, she just didn't want to share a bed with me.
But at this point, I didn't care anymore.