My Metric Dropped He Dropped Dead

Five years into her marriage to Benson Crawford, a wife watches the invisible Affection Metric in her mind stay frozen at 99%. A cosmic bargain once let her remain in this world only if she secured his absolute devotion within five years; failure means erasure. With the deadline days away, she anonymously asks an online forum how to push her story's protagonists across the finish line.

A commenter claims the man funding her life knows his wife is a system traveler using him, and that she is his true soulmate. The attached photo shows a gauze-wrapped hand tied in a neat butterfly knot, identical to Benson's. Searching his phone, she finds a hidden message begging him not to play house with his fake wife.

Then the System warns the metric has fallen to 80%. Pregnant and five days from their anniversary gala, she must decide what remains of a marriage she now suspects was staged from the start.