At heart 1

Chapter 1 

I was the hated side character in a story about a beloved heroine. 

After my mission failed, all I wanted was to die. I just wanted to go back to my own world. 

11.02 

But when they realized I had truly lost the will to live, the very people who had once tormented me came back, one by one, begging 

me to stay. 

They begged me not to die, not to leave them. 

But was already done with them. 

1 

My mission to save the devoted second male lead had failed. I was supposed to change his fate, to stop him from taking his own 

life over the heroine’s unrequited love. 

Instead, he walked out of our engagement party for a single phone call from her. 

I 

After the crowd dispersed, one to the rooftop terrace of Vaughn Tower. 

I kept confirming with the System in my hes fo 

As long as this body is destroyed, I can go home, right? 

After getting a definitive “yes,” I started moving, shuffling toward the railing. 

I’d only taken two steps when a sneer cut through the air behind me. 

I turned. Another familiar face. 

Leo Sterling, my adoptive brother, though not by blood. 

I found him in an alley when he was seven and took him home. We were inseparable until he was fourteen, when his wealthy biol- 

ogical parents found him and took him back. 

The next time we met, he was just another one of the heroine Sera Roswell’s fanatical admirers. The years I’d spent working three 

jobs to put him through school were only enough for a moment of excitement at our reunion. After that, when he discovered I was just as the rumors described–a venomous woman jealous of Sera–he treated me with nothing but scorn and suspicion. 

Tonight, at my engagement party to Joey Vaughn, the news that Sera had been kidnapped was enough to empty the hall. My fiancé 

was the first to leave. Before he left, he’d grabbed my wrist, his eyes dark with menace. 

“This had better not be you,” he warned, then turned and left without a backward glance. 

This was the one–hundredth time. 

Since I’d been dropped into this novel, this was the one–hundredth time he had abandoned me for Sera. 

And so, the System declared my mission a failure. 

A devoted second male lead is devoted for a reason. This so–called “rescue” was nothing more than the hubris of a mission–runner 

and her System. 

A bitter smile twisted my lips. When I looked at Leo, the old warmth was gone. 

“I don’t know why you’re still here, but you’d be wise to stay out of my business,” I said. “Any slower, and you’ll miss your chance to play the hero for your precious goddess.” 

After all, the so–called kidnapping was just a drama staged by Sera and her family. The goal was simple: to ruin my wedding to 

Joey, Once everyone had arrived to “rescue” her, Sera would make her grand reappearance.