I Jumped at My Wedding to Save My True Love

Everyone knew I loved Kevin to the point of self-abasement.

For ten years, I swallowed every insult, shielded him from every scandal, even gave my own blood, all for him.

They called me the biggest joke in high society, the woman who shamelessly clawed her way into an engagement.

Kevin thought so too.

Until the day of our wedding, when I smiled, slipped on the ring, and leaped from the cliff.

This wedding was never about love.

It was because the System told me:

“Marry Kevin, and you can bring your true love back to life.”

Jennifer POV

Late at night, the piercing ring of the phone echoed through the apartment.

I jolted awake. On the other end, Kevin’s friend shouted, his voice laced with panic.

“Jennifer! Kevin’s in trouble, he’s at Downtown General!”

I was there in under fifteen minutes.

Outside the hospital room, Kevin’s friends were laughing and joking, their voices jarringly loud.

“Kevin’s such a madman! Wing-suiting just to get Sarah’s souvenir back, and he broke his leg!”

“Seriously! All for a dare! I bet Jennifer, his little shadow, is already on her way. Her nose is sharper than a bloodhound’s.”

“You can’t even get rid of her. Kevin says even if he beat her with a golf club, she’d crawl back, crying.”

The words seeped into my ears, but my face remained expressionless.

From inside the room, I heard Kevin’s scoff, his tone dismissive and utterly confident.

“She loves me too much; she’d be lost without me.”

I lowered my gaze, then pushed the door open.

Silence fell for a moment inside, then burst into a chorus of laughter.

“Kevin’s little pet has arrived!”

“Jennifer, you’re quick! We thought you’d need to cry in the car for a while.”

Kevin lay on the hospital bed, his left leg in a cast. His handsome face was pale, and his eyes, when they met mine, were arrogant and icy.

He didn’t speak, just lifted his chin, signaling his cronies to continue.

A man stepped forward, scrutinizing me playfully. “Jennifer, Kevin got hurt because of you. He’s not happy. Shouldn’t you do something to make it up to him?”

“Yeah! Do something! Do something!”

The jeers grew louder. Someone pointed out the window, making a cruel suggestion.

“You said you’d die for Kevin, didn’t you? If you’re so brave, blindfold yourself and walk across to that scaffolding on the building next door.”

I followed his gaze.

Between the two towering buildings, a narrow, temporary steel plank bridge had been erected for construction.

The night wind howled, making the plank sway precariously a hundred feet up, looking fragile and deadly.

The sheer malice of their request sent a chill through me.

“What, too scared?”

I was about to refuse when Kevin finally spoke.

Leaning against the headboard, he used my decade of devotion as a weapon, each word a cruel blow.

“Jennifer, you said you loved me, that you’d die for me. Didn’t you?”

My heart plummeted.

Our wedding was in a month.

For this wedding, I had endured for ten years. I couldn’t let everything fall apart at the last minute.

Under their eager gazes, I nodded softly.

“Okay.”

Kevin’s friends erupted in excited whistles.

Someone immediately produced a black silk ribbon and roughly tied it over my eyes.

Darkness enveloped me.

The humiliation nearly choked me. I was pushed onto the windowsill, my trembling toes reaching for the cold steel plank.

Below, Manhattan’s lights twinkled, a dizzying abyss. Around me, mocking laughter and the click of phone cameras.

I took a deep breath, stepping onto the plank, inching forward.

The wind picked up, violently shaking my slender body in the air.

Halfway across, just as I felt I was about to be blown off, Kevin’s furious roar stopped me.

“Crazy woman! Get back here!”

My movements froze.

“What are you waiting for? Planning to fall and die there, polluting my view?” Kevin’s voice dripped with impatience.

He commanded imperiously, “Go to the Upper East Side. Line up and buy me those limited-edition croissant donuts from that place! Don’t come back without them.”

I felt like a prisoner granted clemency, scrambling back in a hurry.

I pulled off the blindfold. The others looked disappointed, while Kevin turned his face away, refusing to meet my gaze.

I said nothing, just turned and left.

The trendy dessert spot had a long line.

I waited for three agonizing hours before finally securing the daily limited-edition treat.

When I returned to the hospital, the room was empty except for Kevin.

He was asleep, brows furrowed, as if in the throes of a nightmare.

I placed the dessert on the nightstand, about to leave, when I heard his mumbled dream talk.

I instinctively leaned closer.

“Sarah… don’t leave…”

He whispered, his voice laced with a vulnerability and plea I’d never heard from him.

“Just turn around, and I won’t get married, Sarah…”

The words were a blade that sliced through my heart.

My body froze, blood draining from my face.

Ten years.

I’d chased this man for ten years, from a naive girl to the laughingstock of high society. I’d sacrificed every shred of dignity for a wedding a month away.

Yet, in his heart, the wedding I’d earned with ten years of blood and tears meant less than a single glance from Sarah.

Despair choked me.

Just as I felt the pain crush me, a cold, mechanical voice resonated in my mind.

“Host emotional fluctuation abnormal. Warning.”

“Task progress: 99%.”

“Task objective: Marry Kevin.”

“Task reward: Revive William.”

“Host, please stabilize emotions and complete the final 1% of the task.”

The voice was like a bucket of cold water, pulling me back from the brink of collapse.

I slowly closed my eyes, memories flooding my mind.

Ten years ago, I didn’t belong in this world.

My childhood sweetheart and fiancé, William, and I were about to get engaged. But in an accident, William saved me and fell into a deep coma, becoming a vegetable.

Doctors said his chances of waking were slim.

In my despair, the voice of the System appeared.

It told me that if I crossed into this world and completed the task of marrying Kevin, I would receive the reward of waking William.

So I came.

In this world, my identity was an orphan deeply in love with Kevin, pursuing him by any means necessary.

I knew Kevin hated me because the “first love” of his heart, Sarah, was my stepsister.

But I didn’t care.

Kevin’s love and hate were merely background noise to the task.

All his torment and humiliation were just steps I had to endure to complete my mission.

My heart had died the moment William fell into a coma.

The only belief that sustained me was completing the task and returning to William’s side.

I opened my eyes again. The vulnerability and despair in them had faded, replaced by numb determination.

I looked at the sleeping man on the bed, my nominal fiancé, my gaze as calm as if I were looking at a stranger.

Only one percent left.

As soon as the wedding was over, I could go back.

William, wait for me.