Chapter 1

As the world burned outside our penthouse, my husband secured two tickets to the Helios Initiative-a billionaire's ark for humanity's brightest minds. I was a brilliant software architect who sacrificed my career for his, so I assumed the second ticket was mine. Instead, he asked me for a temporary divorce. He needed to legally bring his doe-eyed protégée, Katia, as his "Key Collaborator." "It's the only logical solution," he said calmly, handing me the papers. He explained that his work with her was essential for rebuilding civilization, while our marriage was mere "sentimentality." He was leaving me and my mother, who sold her home to fund his career, to die. He offered me a "fund" to be comfortable while the world ended, insisting he still loved me. The man I had built my life around was discarding me like an outdated accessory. But he made a fatal miscalculation. He forgot the billionaire funding the ark owed me a life-altering favor. My hand shook as I dialed the number I hadn't touched in ten years. "Emmett," I whispered, "I need to call in that favor."

Five years ago, I gave my fiancé, Floyd Meyers, my neural interface to save his life after a car crash left him in a coma. He promised to cherish me forever, but now he's engaged to another woman, Jaylah Ryan. Together, they're publicly erasing me, making it clear I'm being thrown out of the house I once called home. In my last life, I broke down. I cried and begged for an explanation. He told me a psychic claimed I was the source of his bad luck. He had me locked away in a mental hospital, then drowned me in the cold lake behind our house, convinced he was freeing himself from a curse. I sacrificed a piece of my own body for him, and he repaid me with humiliation and murder. But I woke up again, back in this house, just days before their engagement party. This time, I will not cry. I will not beg. This time, I have an escape plan, and I will walk away before he can destroy me again.

For seven years, my husband Kerr Chapman' s every cruel word and cold shoulder was translated by a mysterious "Mind-Link Notification" as a twisted expression of love. It told me his dismissals were "tests of obedience," his neglect a sign of "profound commitment." I believed it, sacrificing my dignity and self for a love I thought was just hidden. Then, after he kicked me out late one night, I crashed my car. Lying injured in the hospital, I expected him to finally break. Instead, he arrived with my university rival, Gina Parker, who openly mocked me and claimed Kerr had been with her. Kerr stood by, defending Gina, even as she deliberately broke a cherished drawing of my deceased mother and then fabricated a story that I attacked her. He carried her out, leaving me alone, his words echoing: "It's a thing, Chloe. You hurt a person over a thing." The Mind-Link notification flashed, trying to justify his betrayal as "a test of my unconditional love." But for the first time, its words felt like a monstrous lie, a sick justification for his cruelty. I stared at the blue box, the words blurring through my tears. The love it described wasn't love. It was a cage. And I finally, finally saw the bars. I had to get out.

I poured years of my life into "The Gilded Cage," a virtual world where I became Noah, determined to save Chloe, its tragic villainess. I guided her, taught her, helped her build a tech empire, thinking I' d rewritten her destiny. But when she finally stood on top of the world, she looked at me, her eyes cold. "You didn't save me, Noah. You just built me a different cage." Then, she brutally threw me from her penthouse balcony. Ejected from the simulation, I thought I was free. But a system malfunction tethered my consciousness to Chloe's. I was dragged through her past, a ghost watching her childhood trauma and Liam Hayes's betrayal unfold, forced to relive every painful step of her original story. Each memory, a cruel reminder of my failure, of the monster I inadvertently helped create. Why was I condemned to witness the very pain I' d tried so hard to prevent again? The system said it was a recursive feedback loop, a side effect of her emergent sentience. But it felt more like a calculated torment. When my consciousness was finally about to dematerialize, Chloe, tear-streaked and broken, reached for me, pleading, "Please. You have to save me." But the phantom pains of her betrayal surged, and I recoiled, spitting out the words that echoed her own cruelty: "My life doesn't need a monster in it." I thought it was over. Then, weeks later, the real Chloe, corporeal and lost, appeared on my doorstep. "I found a way out... You have to help me. You have to save me."

The system's cold, mechanical voice echoed in my head: "Elimination in 24 hours. Affection and love values from all targets remain at zero. Final task failed." My life, spent trying to win a game of affection I was designed to lose, was ending. Then the phone rang. It was my husband, David, frantic. "Olivia, where are you? Get to the hospital. Now. It's Emily." My twin sister. Always Emily. Her kidneys had failed, she needed a transplant, and as her twin, I was the perfect match. My heart didn't even flutter. They demanded my last kidney, just as they always demanded sacrifices from me. My mother called next, yelling, "How can you be so selfish? Your sister needs you! We've given you everything... the least you can do is save her life." They called Emily "delicate," their excuse for endless favoritism, while seeing me as "the strong one" who endured and gave without complaint. I had already secretly given my father one of my kidneys years ago, letting Emily take the credit and the love. I signed the consent forms for the surgery, a final act of surrender. My family promised David a down payment on a house and offered me "forgiveness for all the trouble I'd caused"- a veiled threat for a lifetime of perceived defiance. I was a tool, a means to Emily's end, and now, a vessel to be emptied. I had chased their love for ten years, following the system' s tasks, sacrificing my dignity for worthless points. But every time I earned one, Emily found a way to make me lose two. David' s score never even reached one. Now I knew the truth: the system was a curse, a reflection of my desperate need for their approval, and it was killing me. Just hours before the surgery, a new nightmare began. Emily's latest design was leaked, traced to my IP address. The press swarmed; my mother slapped me; Emily, the perfect victim, cried for me to be forgiven. My family ordered me to confess, to take the blame for something I didn't do, to protect Emily's reputation. And I did it. I publicly admitted to being the jealous villain, sacrificing my name, my dignity, my entire being for the family that never loved me.

I poured every spare dollar from my part-time jobs and scholarships into a scuffed-up piggy bank, dreaming of a future with Chloe and a promise ring that would seal our love. But then I heard her laugh-a laugh that wasn't for me. Just an hour after I ended things, saying "We're over," my best friend, Liam, walked up, clueless as ever, showing off an expensive watch Chloe had helped him pick out, a watch that screamed what a joke my cheap promise ring was. I ducked into a stairwell, my heart pounding, and pulled out my phone. In our shared photo album, I found a selfie of Chloe and her friends at a fancy rooftop bar. Zooming in, I saw it-my piggy bank, next to a bottle of champagne, being used as an ashtray. The memory hit me: overhearing Chloe brag to her friends about using me as "A tool, a pawn to make Liam finally notice me," all while calling me "a little charity case" and "so boring." My world shattered. Two years, all a lie, a game where I was just a prop in her drama with Liam. The cheap daisies I held for her surprise visit were crushed in my hand, my stomach churning with nausea. I spent the night walking, my mind a blank, howling void. The pain solidified into a cold, hard resolve: I had to disappear. Five years of isolation. No friends. No family. No Chloe. To me, it sounded less like a punishment and more like a rescue. I went to see Professor Davies and signed up for the Ares Project.