When the Redemption Ends

After two decades with Julian, pulling him from the abyss to the absolute peak, a voice in my head, the System, suddenly asked.

“He cut down your peach tree for his new lover. Do you regret it?”

He no longer loved me. There was no point in holding on.

With a bitter smile, I nodded, ready to leave this world completely.

But after I vanished, Julian lost his mind, searching the entire city for me. He even followed me to my real world, his eyes bloodshot, pleading.

“Please, come home with me.”

My new husband stepped forward, tossing the engagement ring Julian offered into the trash.

“She is married to me now. Please leave.”

Scarlett’s POV

The moment the peach tree in the backyard was cut down, I knew my time in this world was nearly over.

“Wow, Mr. Thorne! You actually cleared a whole plot for me! Thank you so much, now I can grow vegetables for you!”

Julian stood in the yard, his voice gentle. “Whatever makes you happy.”

I watched them from the balcony, a silent observer behind glass.

It was as if that man wasn’t my husband, and that girl had no connection to me.

“Hello, long time no see.”

The familiar electronic voice of the System echoed in my mind. I took a sip of my coffee.

“You don’t seem surprised at all.”

“The peach tree was destroyed. Of course, you’d show up.”

My voice was calm. “When do I leave this world?”

“You’ve stayed too long after your mission ended, forming too many ties with this world. You can’t detach the instant your soul host disappears. It will take at least two weeks.”

“Okay.”

The System was silent for a moment, as if calculating.

“Ten years ago, you chose to stay, anchoring your soul to an object in this world. Now you’ve watched your host object be destroyed, watched your husband’s devotion shift to another woman…Do you feel no regret?”

I looked down at the coffee in my mug, lost in thought.

I was only sixteen when I first arrived in this world.

Back then, Julian was shunned and despised for the scandal of his birth. Almost overnight, he went from a bright student to a branded ‘homewrecker’s son.”

At school, he was isolated and bullied.

His mother’s small business, their sole livelihood, was maliciously ruined.

The relentless accusations broke his mother first.

She fell from a great height and ended her life.

Then it was his turn.

Friends slowly drifted away, teachers chose to avoid him. The once outgoing boy gradually closed himself off, letting the cold stares and malice wash over him.

When he was about to lose all will to live, I stood by his side.

During that time, I did so much.

I slowly pulled him out of that dark abyss.

Later, his biological father appeared.

Julian refused to accept this sudden presence in his life.

He couldn’t forgive that man for destroying his once peaceful life, nor could he forgive his mother’s death.

The man left him with a threat-

If Julian didn’t return to that family, his path forward would be incredibly difficult.

In the days that followed, we endured pressure from all sides.

Countless sleepless nights, endless doubts, and sneers.

Eventually, he stood firm on his own, making a name for himself in the industry.

Ten years ago, his company went public.

My mission was completed that day.

According to the rules, I had to leave this world after the mission was done.

Unless I chose to anchor my soul to an object-

If the object lived, I lived; if the object was destroyed, I left.

We had been through too much together.

Those memories ran too deep; I couldn’t bear to leave.

So, I stayed, even though I knew it meant immense risk.

“Hello?”

I snapped back to reality, looking at the man in the yard who was intently listening to the girl talk.

“I never regret the decisions I’ve made.”

“Aren’t you sad?”

I didn’t answer.

A knock sounded at the door. It was Julian.

He walked up beside me, looking at the busy figure in the yard.

I shifted my gaze, my chest tightening.

How could I not be sad?

He was the man I had poured my entire heart into loving.

“Scarlett, don’t you think Stella is a lot like you back then? Passionate, lively, full of life.”

I knew very well that nostalgia was just an excuse.

The real reason was that he had changed.

I wiped away the dampness from the corner of my eye, adjusting my breathing. “Do you remember what I told you when we planted that tree?”

“You said I should take care of it as if I were taking care of you.”

He had taken care of that tree for ten years.

But he couldn’t resist someone who had only been in his life for a few months.

I looked at him, not speaking, but he already understood what I wanted to ask.

“Out with the old, in with the new, right?”

I forced a smile, laced with a touch of bitterness.

I really wanted to ask-

Did “the old” he spoke of include me too?

I also really wanted to tell him that I would be leaving soon.

But in the end, I said nothing.

Perhaps it was because I already understood that the passion in our relationship had long since faded.

Maybe he hadn’t completely fallen out of love, but he was no longer the man who looked at only me with his whole heart.

If that was the case, what was there to say?