The Orphan's Reckoning

The Orphan's Reckoning

Kao La

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I was an orphan, adrift in the real world, until I found what I believed was stability and love in the Continuum Program. Here, in this vivid simulation, I was a "Prime Beneficiary," granted a perfect life with my chosen partner, Chloe. I clung to our "perfect emotional bond," making every sacrifice and enduring agonizing "Feedback Dissonance" for her "brain injury," convinced it was the price of true devotion. But everything shattered the moment a simulated car deliberately slammed into me. Standing over my broken body were Chloe and Liam, her long-hidden lover, her "brain injury" miraculously gone. "Your Prime Beneficiary status. We need it," Liam sneered, while Chloe callously admitted her love and injury were lies, a manipulative act to keep me until they could steal my life. My hard-won status, my entire programmed existence, was merely a resource for their personal gain. They stripped me bare, taking my savings, forcing me to kneel and crawl for a few coins in an act of ultimate humiliation. Then, Liam confessed: he had maliciously lied to my only remaining family, my kind surrogate grandfather Mr. Henderson, directly causing his death. Overwhelmed by a tidal wave of betrayal, grief, and unbridled fury, I stared into the void of my shattered life. How could I have been so blind, so trusting, to the monsters I had cherished? The years of Dissonance, the mental agony I'd endured, were not my failing, but the bitter harvest of their deceit. For a moment, I considered ending it all, pressing the self-deletion button to escape this torment. But a new, cold resolve hardened within me, sharper than any pain they had inflicted. "I'd like to stay," I told them, my voice hollow. I offered to be their housekeeper for the brief time remaining before my forced exit. My real intention was a dark, patient vigil: to witness the very "perfect bond" they coveted, the one that had broken me, tear them apart, piece by agonizing piece.

Introduction

I was an orphan, adrift in the real world, until I found what I believed was stability and love in the Continuum Program.

Here, in this vivid simulation, I was a "Prime Beneficiary," granted a perfect life with my chosen partner, Chloe.

I clung to our "perfect emotional bond," making every sacrifice and enduring agonizing "Feedback Dissonance" for her "brain injury," convinced it was the price of true devotion.

But everything shattered the moment a simulated car deliberately slammed into me.

Standing over my broken body were Chloe and Liam, her long-hidden lover, her "brain injury" miraculously gone.

"Your Prime Beneficiary status. We need it," Liam sneered, while Chloe callously admitted her love and injury were lies, a manipulative act to keep me until they could steal my life.

My hard-won status, my entire programmed existence, was merely a resource for their personal gain.

They stripped me bare, taking my savings, forcing me to kneel and crawl for a few coins in an act of ultimate humiliation.

Then, Liam confessed: he had maliciously lied to my only remaining family, my kind surrogate grandfather Mr. Henderson, directly causing his death.

Overwhelmed by a tidal wave of betrayal, grief, and unbridled fury, I stared into the void of my shattered life.

How could I have been so blind, so trusting, to the monsters I had cherished?

The years of Dissonance, the mental agony I'd endured, were not my failing, but the bitter harvest of their deceit.

For a moment, I considered ending it all, pressing the self-deletion button to escape this torment.

But a new, cold resolve hardened within me, sharper than any pain they had inflicted.

"I'd like to stay," I told them, my voice hollow.

I offered to be their housekeeper for the brief time remaining before my forced exit.

My real intention was a dark, patient vigil: to witness the very "perfect bond" they coveted, the one that had broken me, tear them apart, piece by agonizing piece.

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My engagement party was supposed to be the start of my fairy tale with Liam, the handsome CEO, my everything for three years. His arm was tight around my waist, his whispered "I love you, Liv" filling my heart. Everything was perfect. Then his phone rang. His face changed, his easy smile replaced by a tension that radiated from him. He took the call in a quiet corner, and when he returned, he looked wild, frantic. "Liv, I have to go. It's an emergency. A family emergency." He said it was about "Chloe," a childhood friend who had just woken up from a ten-year coma. He practically ran out, abandoning me at our party, telling me to wait at home. The humiliation burned. My perfect world shattered. I was devastated, but I followed him to the hospital, only to overhear him confessing passionate devotion to Chloe. When I confronted him, he hid me from her, telling her I was just "a friend from work." He then asked me to move out of our shared apartment, claiming it was a "family tradition" before the wedding, so Chloe could move in. Day after day, I watched him choose her, lie for her, put her first, while I became a secret, a temporary inconvenience. I was heartbroken, but a cold realization began to dawn. I found an old photo album, hidden away, showing a teenage Liam with Chloe, intertwined and deeply in love. Her face, eerily similar to mine. Then, a newspaper article: Chloe Hayes, the sole survivor of a tragic car crash that killed her parents ten years ago, a crash Liam was in. He wasn't just her childhood friend; he was her first love, the man who was with her when her world shattered, and his family adopted her. I wasn' t the love of his life. I was just a substitute, a temporary replacement for the girl he lost. I was seeing red. How could he have used me like this? How could he have built our entire relationship on such a cruel, agonizing lie? I looked at the wedding dress I was supposed to be wearing for our photoshoot, then at the man who had seen through Liam's deception from the start. Ethan, Liam's rival, had been a quiet, steady presence. When Liam abandoned me at the photoshoot, claiming Chloe had tried to kill herself, and then told her in the hospital, "I'm here to marry you," I knew. I had to end this. "Are you free in ten days?" I asked Ethan. He blinked. "Marry me."

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