“I’m sorry…” His voice, raw and trembling, brushed against the nape of my neck. “I shouldn’t have…” I strained my ears, waiting for more. “I shouldn’t have left you alone at home…” His fingers tentatively grazed my shoulder. I whirled around, nearly hitting his nose. “I’m furious right now! Get out!” The System had just filled me in: Selena’s father, a compulsive gambler, had racked up a debt of two million dollars. She hadn’t wanted to borrow from Noah to bail him out. Instead, she’d expect- ed Rhys to rescue him for free. When Rhys arrived, he discovered the kidnappers were old associates of his, men he’d already expelled from The Abyssal Collective for their misdeeds. But Selena refused to believe him, convinced Rhys had orchestrated the whole thing. That’s why she’d slapped him. Rhys looked like he’d been hit by a truck. He opened his mouth, helpless, but no words came out. Instead, he just pulled me into a crushing embrace, so tight I could barely breathe. “Let go! You’re squishing the baby!” I hammered his back. He recoiled as if shocked, his eyes wide with terror, staring at my belly. “Darling… please don’t be mad… I bought you salmon.” “Me?” I blinked. Not for Selena? “You mentioned wanting salmon sashimi the other night, around midnight,” he whispered, explaining. “I wrote it down in my memo.” I… “So…” Rhys suddenly dropped to one knee beside the hospital bed, carefully taking my hand. “Can you forgive me?” I looked at his red–rimmed eyes, and an idea sparked. “Cry me a purple pearl, and I’ll forgive you.” Rhys: “…” Three minutes later, I was happily counting the purple pearls on the bed, listening to the Syst-
em’s ping: [Villain’s Darkness Meter: 70%).
I stayed in the hospital for three days, and then I stumbled upon an astonishing secret. The doctor who performed my ultrasound? He was a clownfish merman from the deep! I’d been secretly observing him for ages. When he bent down to record data, I whispered, “Can you cry pearls?” The doctor’s hand jerked, his pen almost clattering to the floor. He awkwardly pushed up his glasses. “Madam, not all merfolk can produce pearls….” I sighed in disappointment, turning to Rhys, who was peeling an apple nearby. “So, you’re the rare kind, then?” Rhys’s fruit knife paused. He gave me a piece of apple, his expression unreadable. “Eat your apple.” I pouted. Just as I suspected, pearl–crying merfolk truly were precious. During this time, Selena called at least ten times. The first time her phone rang, Rhys was peeling gra- pes for me. The screen lit up, he glanced at it, and his fingers stiffened slightly. I narrowed my eyes. “Go on, answer it.” Rhys silently pressed the reject button. “Cry
me one,” I said. Rhys: “…” Five minutes later, I contentedly pocketed a pale purple pearl.
5
By the third, fourth call… Rhys had developed a Pavlovian response. The moment his phone rang, his eyes would well up, tears already brimming before I even had to ask. I laughed so hard I slapped the bed. “Rhys, do you have… tear incontinence?” His face dark, Rhys muted his phone and gritted out, “Darling, don’t push it.” I blinked innocently. “What did I do? I didn’t say anything.” He turned to storm off to the balcony for air, but less than two minutes later, he quietly returned, placed a pear! in my palm, and murmured, “…Don’t be mad anymore.” I blinked. The System was silently losing its mind in my head. [Host, you’ve trained the villain into an automatic pearl dispenser!]
