The System Offered Death As My Only Exit Chapter 02

The System Offered Death As My Only Exit Chapter 02

The color drained from Adrian’s face.

He grabbed my hand, and the shard of glass sliced across my palm. Blood slid down through his fingers.

“Evelyn! Is that what it takes to make you happy, dying right in front of me?”

He pinned me down so tightly that I could not move.

The nurse shouted for help in a panic. Doctors rushed in with a crash cart, and the room fell into chaos.

I looked into Adrian’s bloodshot eyes and found the whole thing absurd.

Since he had already chosen Vivian, why was he pretending to be devoted now?

When I woke again, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

Adrian was not in the room. Only Annie stood beside my bed.

She was wearing a pink dance dress, her hair tied into two little buns, and she was clutching a sign-up form in her hand.

The moment she saw me open my eyes, she rushed over and frowned, her little voice full of complaint. “Mommy, can you stop being in the hospital?”

I froze for a second.

She tucked the form closer to her chest, sounding even more upset.

“Tomorrow is the rehearsal for the parent-child dance. My teacher said my mom has to be there.”

“But you keep staying in the hospital, Daddy won’t come home, and Miss Vivian cried all night.”

“Everyone is unhappy because of you. You’re going to ruin my dance too.”

I looked at the little girl who shared my blood and, pathetic as it was, still found myself thinking that maybe she had only been frightened.

After all, that night, she had watched the doctors draw blood from my body with her own eyes.

My voice was terribly hoarse. “Annie, when they took Mommy’s blood that day, were you scared?”

Annie’s eyes filled with tears. “Yes.”

Something in my chest moved.

But in the next second, she lowered her head and rubbed the hem of her skirt between her fingers.

“The nurses were all running around, and Daddy looked so scary.”

“Miss Vivian kept holding Daddy’s hand. She was in so much pain that she couldn’t even cry.”

“Mommy, you’re an adult. Can’t you just give in to her?”

I stared at her blankly.

Somehow, my tears fell onto the back of my hand.

So in my daughter’s heart, all the pain I suffered could not compare to one cry of pain from Vivian.

Annie handed me the sign-up form.

“Miss Vivian said she could dance with me instead of you. You’re not healthy anyway. If you go, you’ll only drag me down.”

I looked down and saw Vivian’s name written clearly on the mother’s signature line.

My fingers stiffened against the blanket.

Annie seemed a little guilty, so she added in a small voice, “Miss Vivian dances really well. She said she would help me win first place.”

I suddenly remembered the first time Annie learned to dance when she was four.

She had fallen and bruised both knees, then thrown herself into my arms, sobbing that she only wanted Mommy to dance with her from then on.

Back then, I held her for a long time and comforted her.

But now she was the one who had chosen Vivian to take my place.

I pushed the form back to her.

“Then let her dance with you from now on.”

Annie froze.

“Mommy, don’t be like this again. Miss Vivian said you’re always saying things that make people feel awful.”

Footsteps sounded at the door.

Adrian walked in just in time to hear the last sentence.

He glanced at Annie’s tearful eyes, and his brows immediately drew together.

“Evelyn, she’s only seven. Do you really have to hold this against a child?”

I said nothing.

Annie hid behind him and whispered, “Daddy, does Mommy not want me anymore?”

Adrian’s face instantly turned cold.

“Evelyn, have you made enough of a scene? If you hadn’t blown this whole thing up, Annie wouldn’t have asked Vivi to dance with her. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not knowing when to stop.”

The two of them stood one behind the other.

One thought I was being unreasonable.

The other thought I was ruining her dance.

In that moment, the last bit of warmth in my heart disappeared.

I closed my eyes in exhaustion and let their voices rage around me without saying another word.

At last, deep into the night, the nurse thought I had fallen asleep.

I pulled out the needle and followed the emergency stairwell up to the top floor.

There was a blood-product cold storage room on the upper floor of the hospital.

The temperature inside was extremely low. I had just lost a dangerous amount of blood, and my clotting function was already unstable. If I stayed there long enough, no one would be able to save me.

Cold air seeped through the crack beneath the door.

I slipped inside the storage room and slowly unwrapped the gauze around my wrist. Blood soon seeped out again, and the cold air made the wound ache sharply.

The system’s alert sounded again.

[Vital signs continues to decline.]

I closed my eyes.

For the first time, I felt at peace.

But after some unknown amount of time, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the hall.

Adrian rushed over and lifted me into his arms.

His whole body was shaking, yet the first words out of his mouth were still blame.

“Evelyn! Did you really have to do this right before Annie’s rehearsal?”