I Refuse to Be the Tragic Heroine

I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The man who performed the double mastectomy was my own father, the Chief of Surgery.

But before the anesthesia had completely faded, I heard the assisting surgeon whispering to a nurse.

Chief Hamilton really tricked his own daughter into this surgery just to help his adopted daughter blow off some steam.

"I know, right? I heard her husband personally authorized it. Now shes just left with a massive, bowl-sized scar. She looks like an absolute freak."

My entire body convulsed.

The moment my eyes cracked open, the very first thing I did was try to claw my way out of the bed to demand the truth.

But my husband, Matt, just wrapped his arm around Sierras waist, shooting me a cold, cruel smirk.

"What? You had no problem mocking Sierra for being malnourished like some absolute psycho. Now youve learned your lesson, havent you?"

I stumbled forward, but my father violently shoved me back onto the mattress.

"Stop making a scene! Sierra had a tragic childhood. You grew up with everything. Losing two lumps of flesh is nothing."

My genius son chimed in from the doorway, looking at me with pure disdain.

"Yeah, Mom. Look at yourself. You look like a monster now. Its time you step aside and let Aunt Sierra take your place."

Right at that moment, the System, which had been silent for years, suddenly pinged online.

[Host, I have detected that your Redemption Mission was successfully completed long ago! Do you wish to terminate your physical body and return to your original world immediately?]

A slow, liberated smile spread across my face.

Since this entire "deeply emotional redemption" was a con from the very beginning.

Why the hell should I care if they live or die?

I mentally slammed the confirm button. The System instantly flashed a final warning.

[After your physical death, every character in this book will be permanently erased after a three-day delay. Initiating your extraction portal now. Reward: $700 Million USD + Absolute Health in your original body.]

...

Hearing the massive reward, the only thing left in my heart was a wild, screaming ecstasy to finally go home.

I dragged my battered body out of the bed, agonizingly pulling myself toward the hospital window.

Every single step tore at the fresh, brutal surgical wounds on my chest.

But looking out at the glittering skyline of New York, millions of lights illuminating the dark, not a single one was burning for me.

I sped up.

Suddenly, a sharp sneer echoed behind me.

I turned around to see my son, Julian.

"Mom, what are you doing climbing out of bed? You should be recovering."

"You're not an actress. Who exactly is this little suicide performance for?"

"Performance? Who is the one actually putting on a performance to trick me?!"

I stared deep into his eyes, desperate to find even a flicker of guilt.

But he just scoffed. "How is this a trick? At worst, Grandpa just gave you a misdiagnosis! You don't have cancer, so you're not going to die. You get to keep living with us. Isn't that a good thing?"

Oh. I see. I'm supposed to be jumping for joy that my family mutilated me for fun.

I turned my back to him.

The howling night wind whipped my hair around my face.

When I laid down on that operating table, I was fighting to live.

Now, straddling this window ledge, I was fighting to die so I could truly survive.

Without a second thought, I threw my weight forward.

But the rush of gravity never came.

Julian smashed the emergency call button and lunged forward, grabbing my hospital gown with everything he had.

"MOM! What are you doing?! Grab my hand!"

"Let go," I rasped, my throat raw.

Julian gritted his teeth, the veins popping on his forearms.

"NO!"

"Mom, so you lost two pieces of meat, who cares? It's not a big deal! Dad said he wouldn't mind no matter how ugly you look!"

I was so sick of hearing this garbage.

I thrashed my arm, trying to force his grip to slip.

His eyes went completely red. His voice cracked into a frantic sob.

"Are you really going to abandon me and die?!"

I looked down at the boy I had raised with my own two hands.

The absolute terror in his eyes made it look like he genuinely couldn't survive without me.

I violently yanked his arm, my eyes dead and frozen.

"If you can't bear to lose me, then come down to hell with me."

I pulled with everything I had, twisting his center of gravity toward the open window.

All the blood drained from his face. In pure, instinctual panic, his grip loosened.

I knew it. He was a coward.

I felt myself start to slip downward, thinking I was finally free.

But a massive force clamped onto my shoulders, hauling me backward.

The bodyguards and medical staff had burst into the room, swarming me.

Damn it. Just one second away.

Dragged back inside, I collapsed onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Julian was huddled in the corner, sobbing hysterically from the shock.

Before I could even process what was happening, Matt stormed into the room.

He shoved past the nurses and marched directly up to my bed.

SLAP

He struck me so hard my head whipped to the side.

The violent motion ripped my stitches. Fresh blood bloomed across the white bandages on my chest.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

His eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look at him.

"Julian is our son! You were going to drag him out a window just because you're throwing a tantrum?!"

"When are you going to stop this, Ruby? Do you have no heart?!"

My throat felt like it was packed with glass, but a cold, hollow laugh scraped its way out.

I'm the one with no heart?

Who fabricated a fake cancer diagnosis?

Who forced me to endure the agony of chemotherapy when I was perfectly healthy?

Who used a fake terminal illness to completely sever my breasts, just to make Sierra smile?

But honestly? I couldn't even find the energy to explain.

Seeing my dead silence, Matt's patience snapped completely.

He grabbed my arm and violently yanked me off the bed.

"If you refuse to behave in the hospital, you're coming home!"

I was totally numb. I let him drag me into the backseat of his car, only one thought echoing in my head.

I needed to find the right moment to die so I could escape this fictional hell.

Outside the tinted windows, the neon blur of the city rushed by.

The world looked so vibrant, but there was nowhere left for me.

Once the car turned onto the deserted, winding mountain road leading to his estate, I suddenly reached for the door handle.

"Are you looking for a death wish?!" Matt roared, violently cranking the steering wheel to the right.

The tires shrieked, the car swerving in a lethal arc across the asphalt.

I threw my entire weight against the door. It popped open, freezing wind screaming into the cabin.

Without a second of hesitation, I threw my battered body into the void.

But just as I was about to tumble onto the road, Matt completely abandoned the steering wheel. He threw himself across the console, pinning me down with crushing force.

The car completely lost control. It slammed into the reinforced mountain guardrail with a deafening crunch.

The violent impact threw us around the cabin.

Matts forehead smashed into the dashboard. Blood poured down his handsome face.

He was panting heavily, his eyes burning with a dark, terrifying obsession as he stared down at me.

"Do you want to die that badly?!"

I stared right back into his eyes, my voice absolute iron. "Yes."

He opened his mouth to scream at me, but a sharp, suffocating smell of gasoline flooded the car.

Matt's face went white. "Shit!"

Ignoring the blood pouring into his eyes, he scrambled to unbuckle my mangled seat.

My survival instinct was completely dead. Honestly, I was praying the spark would catch faster.

"Just run. Leave me here."

He acted like he didn't hear a word. He violently ripped the crushed seat back, scooped me into his arms, and hauled us out of the wreckage.

The second we cleared the doors...

BOOM.

A deafening explosion rocked the mountain. The multi-million dollar sports car was instantly swallowed by a blinding inferno.

A wave of blistering heat hit us. Matt tackled me to the ground, shielding my body entirely with his own. His eyes were completely red.

"Ruby, I'm going to say this one last time."

"Unless I give the order, the grim reaper himself doesn't have the right to take you!"

The scene was a carbon copy of a memory from years ago. When we were caught in a brutal shootout with a rival syndicate, trapped in an abandoned warehouse.

He had covered me exactly like this, whispering into my hair.

"Don't be scared, Ruby. As long as I'm breathing, I won't let anyone touch a hair on your head."

Because of that promise, I had followed him through absolute hell.

I waded through blood and violence, eventually weaponizing my own familys massive empire to crown him the undisputed king of the New York underworld.

But now? The same protective gesture just made me want to vomit.

I honestly don't remember how I got dragged back into his mansion.

The moment we walked through the door, a wave of sickening, domestic warmth hit my face. It felt so alien.

Sierra was delicately blowing on a bowl of hot soup.

My father, Arthur, stood right behind her, looking at her with absolute adoration. "Careful, sweetie. Don't burn your tongue."

When they saw usspecifically the blood dripping down Matt's faceSierra let out a dramatic gasp and rushed over.

"Matt, what happened?!"

Her eyes instinctively flicked to my flat, heavily bandaged chest. The disgust in her eyes smoothly morphed into fake pity.

"Is this because of Ruby? You really shouldn't blame her. She's just having a mental breakdown because she can't accept her new, deformed body. That's why she's acting so crazy. We just need to give her more love."

I couldn't take it anymore. I stepped forward and slapped her directly across the face.

"Shut your mouth! What gives you the right to stand here and play the saint?!"

Sierra clutched her cheek, staring at me in total disbelief.

In a flash, my father lunged forward. He shoved me violently to the floor and shielded Sierra behind his back.

"Enough!"

"Look at you! You look nothing like the heiress of this family!"

"We spoiled you too much. That's why you think you can just bully Sierra whenever you want! That surgery was supposed to teach you a lesson. But instead, you're throwing a massive tantrum and threatening to kill yourself!"

I looked up from the floor, staring dead into the eyes of the man who used to love me more than life itself.

"So that's your excuse for faking a terminal illness and mutilating my body?"

I don't know if he felt guilty, or if he genuinely thought he was in the right.

But he didn't say a word.

When I first transmigrated into this world, Arthur had just lost his beloved wife.

Because he married into my mothers ultra-powerful family, the board of directors treated him like trash and ruthlessly suppressed his career.

The System sent me to redeem him, driven by the original character's dying wish.

For a very long time, we saved each other.

I even gave up my chance to go home, choosing to stay in this world for them.

But the second I started sponsoring a poor orphan named Sierra, everything changed. Everyone around me slowly turned on me.

Even a completely neutral comment I made about her would be twisted into a malicious insult.

They were perfectly willing to tear me to shreds just to defend her honor.

I let out a bitter, hollow laugh. I grabbed a fruit knife off the glass coffee table...

But I failed again.

Matts reflexes were terrifyingly fast. He kicked the blade right out of my hand.

"Are you addicted to this now, Ruby? Just threatening to kill yourself every five minutes?"

His voice was absolute ice.

"I swear on my life, as long as you behave and stop bothering Sierra, I don't care if you look like a freak. You will always be Mrs. Hamilton."

I slumped against the marble floor, my voice completely dead.

"But I don't want to be."

The air in the room froze.

The next second, Arthur stepped forward. He reached down and violently ripped the heavy gold medallion off my neckthe heirloom my mother gave me, the absolute symbol of my power as the true heir of the family empire.

He stared down at me with profound disappointment.

"Look at you. Half human, half ghost. You don't deserve to be Matt's wife, and you certainly don't deserve to run this family!"

"When you and your mother were in that car crash years ago, if I knew you were going to turn out like this, I never would have saved you!"

In that exact moment, my heart flatlined.

Lying on the cold floor, I actually started laughing so hard tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.

Right in front of my face, Arthur clipped the family heirloom around Sierra's neck.

From that day on, I was locked in the basement. They completely cut off any avenue I had to kill myself.

Sierra started visiting me daily under the guise of "psychiatric treatment."

"Matt, her mental state is completely unstable. I'm a doctor. Let me counsel her," she had cooed.

Matt had pinched the bridge of his nose, looking profoundly relieved.

"Handle it. Just make sure she doesn't pull any more crazy stunts."

What he didn't know was that the second the heavy basement door locked, Sierra's sweet mask completely melted off.

She grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her.

"You know what I hate the most about you, Ruby? That arrogant, superior look on your face."

"But look at you now. You're not even a complete woman anymore. What exactly are you trying to fight me with?"

I thrashed against my restraints, but my body was completely drained.

She let out a soft, venomous laugh and slid a cold needle directly into my vein.

"Don't be scared, sister. You want to die, right? But I'm not going to let you. I am going to make you live the rest of your life like an obedient little dog, cowering in my shadow."

I don't know how many days I spent rotting in that dark room.

Until one night, Julian sneaked in holding a bowl of warm porridge. He stopped dead when he saw what I looked likea literal skeleton.

Maybe he remembered how fiercely I tried to jump out that window.

Or maybe, deep down, he actually felt guilty.

His eyes were red. He awkwardly scooped a spoonful of porridge and held it to my cracked lips.

"Mom... please eat something."

I turned my head away, completely dead inside.

I forced the words out in a raspy whisper.

"...Just give me... a quick death..."

The bowl in Julian's hand shook violently.

As if my rejection was a personal insult, the guilt in his eyes was instantly devoured by rage.

"You're doing it again! You think starving yourself is going to hurt us? Are you trying to make me and Dad feel guilty?!"

I closed my eyes. Flashes of him growing up flickered behind my eyelids.

His bright smiles. His tantrums.

The way he used to wobble into my arms when he was learning to walk, burying his face in my neck and calling me "Mommy."

I didn't want any of it anymore.

After a long silence, I forced a single word past my lips.

"Get out."

Julian burst into tears, turned around, and ran out of the room.

He didn't pull the door completely shut...

Maybe it was terminal lucidity, but I suddenly found a surge of adrenaline. Step by agonizing step, I dragged myself out of the basement.

The grand foyer was blindingly bright, echoing with applause and laughter.

Tonight was their victory gala.

In the center of the ballroom, the three men I had once loved with everything I had were orbiting Sierra like she was the sun.

They looked like the picture-perfect, flawless family.

Sierra stood there like a triumphant queen. And resting against her collarbone was my mothers gold medallion.

"Sierra, from this day forward, everything this family controls in the city is in your hands," Arthur announced to the board members, holding her hand up.

Matt stood right behind her, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

He leaned down and kissed her temple. "You earned this, baby."

Even my son, Julian, was looking up at her with starry eyes.

"Thank you, Aunt Sierra, for taking such good care of us."

My sanity completely snapped. The only thing I cared about was exposing this parasitic monster before I finally died.

I let out a raw, animalistic scream and threw myself into the crowd.

"GIVE THAT BACK TO ME!"

I lunged like a rabid dog, clawing at Sierra's neck. In the chaos, the gold chain snapped.

The entire ballroom went dead silent.

A second later, a manic laugh ripped from my throat.

"Hahahaha! Even the heirloom knows you're a fake! You absolute snake!"

Matt violently shoved me away. I crashed into a massive champagne tower, sending shattered glass raining down on me.

He pulled a terrified Sierra behind his back and turned to the crowd, his face a terrifying mask of fury.

"My apologies, everyone."

"My wife... ever since her mastectomy, she hasn't been able to accept her deformed body. Shes suffered a total psychotic break. We are having her heavily medicated."

In three sentences, he completely dismissed me as a lunatic.

Disgusted whispers broke out across the room.

"Ah, she's crazy. That makes sense..."

"Mr. Hamilton really has it rough. Running the underworld and babysitting a psychopath."

"Thank God for Miss Sierra. No wonder the Chief handed her the family reigns."

Hearing the vicious daggers thrown my way.

I stopped crying. I stopped screaming.

I just looked at the crowd with complete, utter peace.

"Matt," I said clearly. "A man shouldn't bite the hand that feeds him. Did you really forget who put you on that throne?"

I turned my eyes to Arthur.

"Dad... no. Arthur. You married into this family. You know exactly how my mother treated you. But for the sake of a cheap knock-off, you tortured your own blood daughter and turned her into a freak. Tell me, when you close your eyes at night, do you feel safe?"

The room erupted into shocked gasps.

The board members shifted uncomfortably, avoiding my eyes.

Using the distraction, I smoothly slipped a loaded pistol out of a nearby bodyguard's holster.

Without a millimeter of hesitation, I jammed the barrel directly against my temple.

I smiled.

And as the deafening gunshot shattered the room, the System's cold, mechanical voice echoed in my head.

[Host's physical body has been terminated. Initiating extraction portal immediately.]