They Removed the Fake Chip but the Real System Came for Me Chapter 01

They Removed the Fake Chip but the Real System Came for Me Chapter 01

I was bound to a tragedy novel as the heroine, and the system told me only a successful birth could save my brother and husband.

So I kept getting pregnant. Over and over. Every delivery, the same. A dead baby. Stillborn. Again and again.

Until the ninth one. The moment that child drew its last breath, Dominic finally spoke. Casual. Like he was commenting on the weather.

“There’s no system. That voice was just a chip we planted in your brain.”

“And the babies didn’t die during labor, that’s not what happened. Ivy dropped them. She was having an episode. She couldn’t control herself.”

I lunged at Ivy with nothing but murder in my veins. Julian kicked me back.

Ivy curled against his chest, eyes wide and innocent. “If you hadn’t kept throwing your pregnancies in my face, I wouldn’t have spiraled like this. Dominic says it’s your fault. All of it.”

Julian turned to the doctor, his face ice-cold. “Take the body away. Burn it.”

I ran after them. My legs gave out, ALS, and I hit the floor hard.

Julian frowned. “Are you alright?”

Dominic rolled his eyes. “She’s being dramatic. I drop fifty grand on postpartum care every time she delivers. She’s fine.”

“Anyway, we pulled the chip during this last labor.”

“Swear you’ll stop tormenting Ivy, and you’ll always be Ms. Sinclair. If not, don’t expect us to claim you anymore.”

They didn’t know.

Moments before, the real voice had come online. It told me my anguish threshold was full. Twenty-four hours. Then I could leave this world.

***

“Elena, I feel awful about all of this. My depression got really bad and they were just trying to make me feel better. You’re not mad, right?”

Ivy tilted her head at me, malice swimming behind her eyes.

Before I could speak, Julian pulled her into his arms. “Why would she be mad at you? She’s the one who kept getting pregnant on purpose. She did this to you.”

“You’re way too nice, Ivy. Elena should be the one apologizing right now.”

I already knew how shameless they were. Still, that statement hit me like a joke I couldn’t stop hearing.

Maybe it was a mercy those children died without ever knowing how disgusting their father truly was.

“Yeah. I’m not mad.”

I heard my own voice come out thin and weightless.

Dominic’s brow furrowed. “You used to be obsessed with those babies. Now you’re acting like you don’t even care. What’s wrong with you?”

I looked down at my hands, still trembling from labor, and thought, so you did know.

Nine years. Every single child dead at birth.

Dominic and Julian told me over and over it was my fault. My body was too weak. I killed my own babies.

So I became a lunatic chasing medicine. I begged doctors. I begged God. I begged anyone who would listen.

Handfuls of pills at a time. I shoved them into my mouth, throat raw and burning, gagging before I could even swallow. Then I’d throw up and start again.

Did they ever soften?

Dominic saw my frown and decided he understood. “Looks like you finally get it. Ivy grew up with nothing. No family. She’s been through enough. You had no right to hurt her.”

“And the reason she can’t have kids? She gave that up saving us. You owe her. Big time.”

My fingers curled. Nails bit into my palms.

That’s not what happened.

That year, we took Ivy out for her birthday. The hurricane hit.

I screamed myself hoarse telling Ivy to help me pull them out.

She was too scared. She hid.

I went in alone. I dragged Dominic and Julian out of the collapsed house. Then I collapsed myself, exhaustion, hypothermia. Passed out in the mud.

When I woke up, Ivy was the hero.

I raised my head and stared at Dominic, lips white.

“Dominic. If it had been me… if I was the one who pulled you out of that hurricane, if I was the one who ended up sick, would you have lied to Ivy? Would you have made her get pregnant over and over and over, just to watch her suffer?”