The cold seeped into my bones, each beat of the heart monitor a countdown to my end.
My name is Ethan Miller, and I was dying, wasted by an illness the doctors couldn't explain.
The System, an emotionless voice in my head, confirmed my mission failure: I had refused to play the villain, refused to hurt my adoptive aunt, Eleanor Vance, the woman I loved with everything I had.
My reward for being the "good guy" was this hospital bed, my body shutting down because I wouldn't sabotage Eleanor' s perfect romance with the sculptor Liam Stone.
The door opened, and Eleanor entered, radiant in a tailored dress, her arm linked with Liam' s.
Her voice, smooth and practiced, feigned concern, but her eyes held impatience and distaste.
She played the grieving aunt, while Liam, naive and kind, looked at me with pity.