He Asked How to Compensate Me While I Was Dying Chapter 08

He Asked How to Compensate Me While I Was Dying Chapter 08

At that same moment, I was in Seabrook, Florida, 

a warm coastal town where winter barely existed. 

I lay in bed eating freshly cut fruit while the 

System delivered its real–time report. 

[Host, that bastard tried to claim your ashes after 

you died. I would never let someone like him have 

them.] 

[That blast should leave him half–blind, hard of 

hearing, and short several ribs. With any luck, he 

won’t walk for six months. Anyone who hurts my 

Host answers to me.] 

The System shook a tiny fist, furious on my behalf. 

Watching Grant learn the truth and rush into the 

fire did nothing for me. 

Grand displays of devotion had always come 

easily to him. 

They no longer moved me. They only made my 

stomach turn. 

I smiled at the System with genuine gratitude. 

“You bent the rules and brought me back even 

though I failed my mission. You even gave me a 

reward. You’re the best System in any world.” 

“But I don’t want to watch that life anymore. I’m back in the real world, and I need to begin again.” 

The System cried over my new beginning and 

voluntarily entered sleep mode. 

My parents in this world were retired teachers who 

had lost their only daughter. Robert and Elaine 

Foster were gentle people who loved me without 

reservation. 

They had found me unconscious on the beach and 

cared for me until I woke. 

As they learned that I had no family, they gladly 

adopted me as their adult daughter. 

The smell of dinner drifted from the kitchen. I 

tossed aside the pillow, slid my feet into slippers, 

and hurried to the table. 

Elaine emerged from the kitchen with laughter in 

her eyes and tapped my hand. “Greedy girl. Wash 

up before you steal anything.” 

The Bennett house had never held warmth like. 

this. 

Here, I was the one they chose. 

Six peaceful months passed. Then one day, the System woke in a panic. 

[Host, something’s wrong. Grant and your parents. from the alternate world broke the laws of 

space–time. They found you, and they’re standing. outside.] 

Startled, I pulled back the curtain. The three 

familiar figures were on the sidewalk below. 

“What happens if I refuse to see them?” 

[Leave them there if that’s what you want. They 

don’t belong in this world. The Interdimensional 

Authority will track them down and remove them. in about ten days.] 

Ten days. 

They had already found my home. I could not hide 

indoors for that long. 

I decided to send them away before Robert and 

Elaine returned. 

Before I reached the door, voices rose from below. 

“Arden, we know you’re in there. Please come out. 

Let us explain.” 

I felt nothing as I opened the door. 

Grant froze at the sight of me. 

The next second, he rushed forward and pulled me 

into his arms. 

“Arden, I finally found you. I missed you so much. 

Please don’t leave me again. I can’t live without 

you.” 

“Mallory carrying my baby was supposed to 

compensate you. I never loved her. She was only a 

childhood friend I treated like family.” “I have cut 

her out of my life completely. Forgive me, please. 

There is nothing between us anymore.” 

He wept so hard that his explanation broke apart 

in his mouth. 

My biological parents came up behind him. 

In six months, their hair had turned white, and they seemed to have aged more than a decade. 

They spoke with a humility I had never once heard 

from them. 

“Arden, you are our biological daughter. We 

believed Mallory’s lies and failed you.” 

“We know we were wrong. Please come home. 

Trust us one more time.”