Chapter 4

"I'm not sick, Gabe. I don't want to go there."

I pulled the IV needle out of my hand and forced myself to sit up.

"Isn't our wedding tomorrow? How can the wedding go on without the bride?!"

I looked at Gabriel, pleading with everything I had. I would go anywhere except a mental hospital.

But Gabriel only looked at me indifferently.

"Fine, you don't have to go to the mental hospital. But then we have to switch the bride. Otherwise, if you have an episode, the wedding will turn into a joke."

"It just so happens that Zoe is your best friend. Let her take your place."

For a moment I froze. I had thought through every possible outcome, except that he would come up with the idea of swapping brides.

"Bella!"

Zoe had been standing behind the door for who knows how long.

"Just listen to Gabe. Honestly, all that stuff you talk about—the System, time travel—it's all just something you made up in your head. You're just sick, that's all."

"I'll reluctantly take your place at the wedding. Once you're better, Gabe can make it up to you."

I looked into her eyes and felt my heart go cold.

So they had never believed me at all.

A passing nurse peered in at the commotion, and someone whispered.

"Did you hear? Something's wrong with this woman's head. She's always going on about systems and time travel."

"Her fiancé has had it rough too, taking care of a mental patient for three years."

"I heard she even threatened suicide last night."

Those words poured into my ears like a flood.

Just then the System began its final countdown in my mind.

Twenty-three hours until the host is erased.

I had no strength to answer. I only felt exhausted to the bone.

Gabriel stood before me with a faint, unreadable smile, and it was as if I finally understood.

He hated that I'd been married before, that I'd cheated—swapping the bride was just a way to satisfy his twisted mind.

I closed my eyes numbly. "Fine. Then have it your way."

I only hoped he wouldn't come to regret it.

Seeing that I'd agreed, Gabriel sat down by my bed, satisfied.

"Bella, Zoe only wants to keep the baby. She doesn't want any title. Think of this wedding as making it up to her."

"After the wedding, she'll go abroad to carry the baby. You'll still be my only wife. That way I'll be keeping my original promise that you're the only one, okay?"

I opened my mouth, but a thousand words stuck in my throat, and in the end they all became a very soft "okay."

On the wedding day, Zoe stood beside Gabriel in a wedding dress.

The dress was well tailored—clearly it had been prepared long in advance.

No one noticed me standing in the corner.

The System's cold countdown was still ticking.

"One hour until the host is erased."

Gabriel held a glass of red wine and looked me up and down. "Don't make a scene. Once today is over, from now on I'll have only you."

I looked up at him, and his face seemed utterly unfamiliar.

"Gabriel, are you really not going to regret this?"

Over the noisy music, Gabriel looked puzzled. "What did you say?"

I shook my head, smiled, and said nothing more.

The countdown went on, and my body slowly began to turn transparent.

Ten, nine, eight...

The ceremony formally began, and the officiant loudly asked the bride if she was willing to marry the groom.

Zoe said shyly, "I do."

And standing below the stage, I watched them and mouthed silently, "I don't."

Three, two, one.

Time's up. All traces of the host in this world have been erased.

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