Programmed Redemption

Programmed Redemption

Kao La

5.0
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I woke up to the sterile beep of a heart monitor – but I was already dead, or should have been. My brother, Leo, paralyzed and silenced by an accident that was my fault, was all I could think of as I swallowed those pills. Then a cold, digital voice in my head offered a deal: fulfill 100 impossible requests for New York' s reclusive tech billionaire, Julian Croft, and Leo would be saved. I became his "personal assistant," more like his public punching bag, enduring two years of humiliation where I was dubbed "Julian's Lapdog" by every tabloid. I waded into freezing Met Gala fountains in couture gowns, repainted penthouses overnight, and publicly took the blame for his screw-ups, all for a brother no one else knew existed. The 99th task was done. The 100th, the final payment, was supposed to cure Julian's "dying" girlfriend, Victoria. It meant undergoing an experimental, agonizing procedure that everyone, including Julian, secretly believed would be my ultimate act of "love" for him. But then Victoria herself, with a venomous smirk, whispered a revelation: her illness was a lie, a "minor nerve disorder," and my procedure wasn't just "dangerous," it was 100% fatal. I was literally going to die as a sick test for Julian's devotion to her. Then I saw Julian' s silhouette, frozen just outside the door. He' d heard everything. Yet, I smiled. Why did I willingly accept a certain death for Julian, knowing he' d been manipulated and I' d been sacrificed for a lie? Because my world was bigger than his, and my real reward was already waiting. I was going home.

Introduction

I woke up to the sterile beep of a heart monitor – but I was already dead, or should have been.

My brother, Leo, paralyzed and silenced by an accident that was my fault, was all I could think of as I swallowed those pills.

Then a cold, digital voice in my head offered a deal: fulfill 100 impossible requests for New York' s reclusive tech billionaire, Julian Croft, and Leo would be saved.

I became his "personal assistant," more like his public punching bag, enduring two years of humiliation where I was dubbed "Julian's Lapdog" by every tabloid.

I waded into freezing Met Gala fountains in couture gowns, repainted penthouses overnight, and publicly took the blame for his screw-ups, all for a brother no one else knew existed.

The 99th task was done.

The 100th, the final payment, was supposed to cure Julian's "dying" girlfriend, Victoria.

It meant undergoing an experimental, agonizing procedure that everyone, including Julian, secretly believed would be my ultimate act of "love" for him.

But then Victoria herself, with a venomous smirk, whispered a revelation: her illness was a lie, a "minor nerve disorder," and my procedure wasn't just "dangerous," it was 100% fatal.

I was literally going to die as a sick test for Julian's devotion to her.

Then I saw Julian' s silhouette, frozen just outside the door. He' d heard everything.

Yet, I smiled.

Why did I willingly accept a certain death for Julian, knowing he' d been manipulated and I' d been sacrificed for a lie?

Because my world was bigger than his, and my real reward was already waiting.

I was going home.

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I'm Just A Substitute Wife For Your First Love?

I'm Just A Substitute Wife For Your First Love?

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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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