Chapter 1After the Cannon Fodder’s Suicide, They All Cried Regret

The moment the car crashed, my brother’s choice was instant. He went for Dolores, my adopted sister.

I was pinned under the airbag, a searing pain shooting up my left leg. Broken, for sure.

“Dolores’s terrified of pain,” he pleaded, his voice urgent, “Just hold on, Ava.”

Before I lost consciousness, the last thing I saw was him carrying Dolores away from the car, just moments before it burst into flames.

When I woke up, I’d been kidnapped.

A phone camera was pointed at my face. “Mr. Ashworth,” a gruff voice said, “if you want to see your sister again, get thirty million in cash. And you bring it yourself. The car crash didn’t finish her, but we might.”

I looked up at the camera, my vision blurred by the blood trickling down my forehead.

But then I heard Dolores’s tearful voice through the phone. “Oh, thank God, Ava’s alive! She survived a car explosion… she’s so lucky!”

The worry in my brother’s eyes vanished in an instant.

“Ava, when are you going to stop with these games? First the crash, now a kidnapping.”

His voice was cold steel. “You’re pathetic. If you want to die so badly, do it somewhere I don’t have to see it.”

The call ended. The kidnapper was furious.

“If we can’t get the money, you’re useless. Beat her!”

At that exact moment, a voice echoed in my mind.

[Cannon Fodder True Daughter mission complete. Fake Daughter Counterattack Value at 95%. Detach from storyline upon death. Accept?]

My sealed memories flooded back, sudden and sharp. All this pain, all this suffering… it was all to bring my parents back to life.

I immediately chose to accept.

In the next second, the system blocked all my pain receptors.

As the steel pipe came down on me, the corners of my mouth lifted into a smile.

The things I can’t take with me… I’m letting them all go.

…

[Key plot node “Rejection by Kin” has been achieved! Your role as cannon fodder is now ending!]

[Upon death, the host will return to their original world. Reward: Parents revived! A happy life awaits you!]

The memories of my real life surged through me like a broken dam.

I remembered. I wasn’t from this world. I was a Contractor.

To resurrect my parents, who had died in a car accident, I accepted this mission to play the part of a story’s disposable character. The previous contractors had all failed, unable to endure the constant abuse. To increase my chances of success, the system had sealed my true memories, making me believe I really was Vincent Ashworth’s sister.

Watching my brother’s heart slowly turn toward Dolores had been agony. But now, the crushing weight on my chest was gone. I was filled with a joyful anticipation of death.

The steel pipe fell again and again. The gash on my head bled freely. Thanks to the system, I felt nothing but the elation of a final curtain call. As the beatings continued, my smile grew wider, until a laugh escaped my lips.

“Boss, there’s something wrong with this girl,” one of the thugs whispered to the leader. “Did we hit her too hard? Is she brain-damaged?”

The leader’s eyes flashed with malice. “So, Vincent Ashworth thinks this kidnapping is fake? Fine. I’ll give him something real!”

He grabbed a knife and moved toward my hand.

I shifted my body, helpfully offering my neck instead.

Just as the blade was about to fall, the door burst open. The lead kidnapper was sent flying, the knife skittering across the floor. A team of men swarmed in, quickly subduing the thugs. Leading them was Marcus.

He was the bodyguard Vincent had assigned to me eight years ago. There was a time when he would have whipped himself fifty times if I so much as chipped a nail. But this time, he had watched me burn in a car, allowed kidnappers to take me, and let them beat me half to death. He probably only intervened because he’d have a hard time explaining my actual death.

With the kidnappers restrained, Marcus looked down at me. “Can you get up?”

I tried to move. I felt no pain, but the injuries were real. I was completely immobilized.

Marcus frowned, but he reached down, half-dragging, half-carrying me out and into a car. He glanced at my bloodless face, looking like he wanted to say something but thought better of it. He seemed surprised that I wasn't crying and screaming for my brother like I used to over the smallest scratch.

“You really overdid it this time, didn’t you?” he said as he started the car.

I didn’t even bother to open my eyes.

He continued, talking to himself. “Did you really think this little pity party would make Mr. Ashworth care more about you than Miss Dolores? He hates these kinds of tricks. And on top of it all, you terrified Miss Dolores.”

He paused. When I still didn't react, his voice grew colder.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just be a good little rich girl? Why do you always have to provoke Miss Dolores? Consider this a lesson. You’d do well to remember it.”

My eyelids fluttered. A bodyguard, paid by my family to protect me, was telling me that being kidnapped and beaten was a lesson I deserved? All to defend the girl he had a crush on. He’d forgotten who his real boss was.

But none of that mattered anymore. The cannon fodder’s story was over. I was leaving.

Vincent got the news and arrived at the hospital before me. When he saw the gruesome wound on my forehead, my swollen and deformed leg, and the dark bruises covering my skin, his face went pale.

“Ava!” His voice was tight with panic. “Quick! Get Dr. Ramsey in here now!”

“Don’t bother,” I said. My voice was a dry, hoarse whisper, but it was perfectly calm. “I refuse treatment.”