The System Offered Death As My Only Exit Chapter 01

The System Offered Death As My Only Exit Chapter 01

On the night of the car accident, Adrian Whitmore ordered the doctors to draw the last unit of rare blood my body could give to save the woman he had never gotten over.

The doctor stepped in front of him, nearly pleading. “Mr. Whitmore, your wife has an extremely rare blood type, and she has a congenital clotting disorder. If we draw any more, she’ll die.”

But Adrian’s eyes were bloodshot as he shoved the doctor aside.

“Save Vivi first. Evelyn is hard to kill. She’ll make it.”

My seven-year-old daughter, Annie Whitmore, was crouched beside Vivian Clarke’s hospital bed. She turned back to me in tears and begged, “Mommy, please save Miss Vivian.”

“You won’t die from giving a little blood, but if Miss Vivian stays sick, no one will dance with me at the parent-child dance.”

I was pinned to the hospital bed, watching the needle drain my blood little by little.

In that moment, I finally gave up on both Adrian and our daughter.

After they brought me back from the edge of death, Adrian came every day with Annie and stood outside my room, begging me to forgive them.

Gift baskets, jewelry, and apology letters were sent in one after another. I accepted none of them. Even when Annie developed a high fever and cried for her mother, I didn’t open my eyes.

Then, at last, the system I had not heard from in years sounded again.

[Host’s vital signs has fallen below the critical threshold. Death will allow host to leave this world.]

Adrian was gripping my wrist with red-rimmed eyes.

“Evelyn, are you done with this tantrum? Are you really going to abandon your own daughter?”

I looked at him calmly, then suddenly smiled.

The next second, I yanked out the IV tube, grabbed a shard of broken glass from the bedside table, and cut my wrist without hesitation.

***

When I opened my eyes again, Adrian was sitting beside my bed.

His suit was wrinkled beyond recognition. The moment he saw me wake up, his eyes lit up, and he reached out to touch my face.

I looked at that hand and suddenly remembered the night before.

It had been this same hand that held me down while I struggled. It had been this same hand that told the doctor, “Draw it. Save Vivi first.”

I turned my head away and lowered my gaze to the thick bandage wrapped around my wrist.

The next second, I raised my hand and tore the bandage off.

The freshly stitched wound split open at once, and blood instantly soaked through the white gauze.

Adrian’s eyes widened. He grabbed my wrist, his voice shaking.

“Evelyn! What the hell are you doing?”

He forced me back onto the bed. My wrist throbbed until it went numb, but all I felt was relief.

“Adrian, stop saving me. Being alive means nothing to me anymore.”

The hospital room went deathly still.

The panic in Adrian’s eyes was quickly swallowed by anger.

“How long are you going to keep this up? I know I wasn’t thinking clearly when I had your blood drawn last night.”

“But Vivi had just been in a car accident, and Annie was crying so hard. What was I supposed to do?”

“Besides, every other time, didn’t you pull through after they treated you?”

I stared at him in a daze.

Only then did I realize that, in his eyes, every time I crawled back from death, it was only because the doctors had “treated” me.

I laughed.

Adrian’s expression darkened.

“What are you laughing at?”

A deep exhaustion rose in my chest. I pulled my hand free and cut him off.

“Mr. Whitmore, please leave.”

He froze.

“What did you just call me?”

I didn’t look at him again.

Once, I had called him Adrian with all the love in my heart. I had watched him go from a penniless doctor to the powerful Mr. Whitmore everyone deferred to.

Now even letting his name pass over my tongue made me feel sick.

Adrian’s gaze fell on the trash can beside the bed.

Inside it sat a clear plastic box.

My wedding ring, necklace, bracelet, and brooch had all been removed and thrown inside one by one.

On top of them was a greeting card Annie had drawn for me when she was four.

I had once treasured every gift from them like something sacred.

Now they belonged in the trash.

Adrian stared at the card, his expression darkening by the second.

He reached down and opened the box. Under the ring was the letter he had written to me when he proposed.

I had thrown it away with the jewelry.

I didn’t want any of it anymore.

Adrian snapped the box shut, his voice cold and vicious.

“Nice, Evelyn. So now you’re throwing away Annie’s things too?”

I closed my eyes.

“I don’t need them.”

His chest rose and fell violently, as if those words had finally struck him somewhere it hurt.

“Fine. Fine. So this is how you treat our daughter.”

“In that case, you don’t need to go to Annie’s parent-child dance rehearsal tomorrow. Vivi will go with her.”

He stared hard at me, waiting for me to break down, waiting for me to question him, waiting for me to beg through tears the way I used to and ask him not to give my place to someone else.

But I only said, “Okay.”

The anger on Adrian’s face froze.

Just then, his phone rang.

Vivian’s name flashed on the screen. Her voice came through in broken sobs.

“Adrian, did I upset Evelyn again?”

Adrian looked at me in silence for a few seconds, then turned and walked out.

“No. She’s just being unreasonable.”

After the door closed, the room fell quiet.

A nurse came in, eyes damp, to change my dressing.

I looked at the freshly opened glass vial on the tray and said softly, “Could you pull the curtains? The light is too harsh.”

The moment the nurse turned around, I grabbed the vial and smashed it hard against the edge of the bed.

The sharp crack of glass seemed to pierce the air.

By the time the nurse screamed and spun back around, I had already picked up the largest shard and pressed it against the side of my neck.

This time, I didn’t hesitate.