In the dead of night, Mia Grant slept fitfully.
She opened her eyes and gazed around, disoriented.
The bedside nightlight was still on. Once her eyes adjusted to the surrounding light, she slowly turned her head to look at the visitor’s bed not far away.
She remembered that before she fell asleep, Kian Keller had said he wouldn’t leave.
But now, on the bed next to hers, the blanket was neatly folded, and the sheet was so smooth it didn’t have a single wrinkle.
Kian Keller was gone.
Mia Grant didn’t want to know where he had gone. She rolled over, trying to go back to sleep.
The flowers on the bedside table were stunningly vibrant. Their sweet fragrance filled the air, bringing a sense of calm.
But Mia Grant still couldn’t sleep.
She had just broken out in a cold sweat. It felt sticky, and the hospital gown clung uncomfortably to her skin.
Taking a deep breath, she threw back the covers and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
When she came out again, the room’s lights were on.
She froze for a moment, her eyes scanning the room before landing on the figure sitting in the chair by her bed.
It was Silas Grant.
The hand drying her hair paused. "Brother."
"Why... are you here now?"
Silas Grant beckoned for her to come closer.
"I’ve been here for a little while, but you were asleep, so I didn’t want to disturb you."
Mia Grant didn’t doubt his explanation.
She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. He took the towel from her hands.
The soft towel quickly absorbed the water dripping from the ends of her hair.
He stood in front of her, gently rubbing her long hair.
A familiar scent drew near. Mia Grant breathed it in greedily. After a long moment, she asked, "Did Kian Keller go home?"
"Yes. The weather’s been bad, and his leg was acting up."
Silas Grant was straightforward.
Hearing this, Mia Grant frowned but said nothing.
Once her hair stopped dripping, Silas Grant got the hairdryer to blow it dry for her.
Mia Grant’s hair was thick and long, so drying it took some time.
Whenever she dried her hair herself, she was already exhausted by the time it was half-dry.
She looked up at the man before her. His eyes were gentle, and his fingers ran through her long hair. He was so focused that she could almost feel a hint of enjoyment in his actions.
When it was finally dry, Mia Grant yawned, suddenly feeling drowsy for no reason.
"Which one do you want to use?" His deep voice sounded by her ear.
Mia Grant lifted her eyelids and looked at the two small bottles in his hand.
They were hair oils.
She blinked. "What scents are they?"
Neither bottle was a brand she usually used. Someone must have prepared them on short notice and left them in the bathroom, and Silas Grant had brought them out.
Silas Grant unscrewed a cap, and Mia Grant leaned in to take a gentle sniff, choosing the bottle on the right.
"I can do it myse—"
Seeing him tighten the cap on the other bottle, Mia Grant reached for the one she chose, but her hand grasped at empty air.
He asked, "Just the ends?"
He had read the instructions, but he asked just to be sure.
Mia Grant pulled her hand back and nodded lightly.
It was obvious that Silas Grant’s movements weren’t practiced. But he was gentle and cautious, as if afraid of pulling her hair and hurting her.
It took a while, but the result was excellent.
Very satisfied, Mia Grant pulled a wet wipe from the side and handed it to him.
Silas Grant wiped his hands carefully. The sticky oil on his palms wasn’t very comfortable.
’I need to wash my hands.’
’But not now.’
’The main task right now is to lull her to sleep.’
Mia Grant was indeed getting tired.
But the moment she lay down and touched the bed, she suddenly felt wide awake.
She looked at the man sitting in the chair by her bed, blinked, and said, "I’m not that sleepy yet. You should go get some rest."
It was already three in the morning.
No matter when he had arrived, he should be resting by now.
She was the patient; she could sleep whenever she wanted.
But Silas Grant couldn’t.
"Did you have another nightmare?" Silas Grant asked.
Mia Grant thought back for a moment. "I’m not sure if it counts as one."
"On its own, it was something I could handle. It’s just... it was a little unexpected."
She didn’t know if it was related to the System, but ever since their conversation that afternoon, she had dreamed of many new things.
Things that were unfamiliar.
’They must be memories from the previous world.’
The feeling was very strange.
Before, she hadn’t known if these things had actually happened, so she had mostly felt terror and confusion.
But now, fully immersing herself in them, the experience was different.
She had thought she would dream of Hayes Hughes first. After all, he was the first person she had dreamed about from the previous world.
Especially after learning about Hayes Hughes’s suicide, she felt a pang of loss and guilt...
But in her dream, the first to appear was another acquaintance—Yates Donovan.
Even the scene itself was exceptionally familiar.
It wasn’t the first time she had experienced it.
Because it was the infamous engagement-breaking scene that had left a particularly deep impression on her.
Yates Donovan came to the Grant Family home with his elders. Just as described in the plot, he was there to break off their engagement, and the new fiancée would naturally be Serena Grant.
She was already numb to it. Seeing this scene again, she felt nothing.
’I just treated it like watching a replay. Nothing special.’
But unexpectedly, the engagement-breaking scene from the last life and the one from this life played out differently.
In this life, she had feigned calmness and accepted the arrangement.
But in the last life, she had followed the System’s instructions and played the part of the malicious and resentful villainess to the extreme.
So, like a buffoon, she had jumped up from the sofa the moment she heard the Donovan Family wanted to break the engagement, directly interrupting Yates’s second uncle.
She refused to break the engagement.
Yates’s second uncle and the Grant couple were stunned on the spot.
Across from her, Yates Donovan was watching her with great interest.
Out of respect for the Donovan Family, Ms. Hughes didn’t lose her temper on the spot, but the engagement was canceled anyway.
As a side character, she was destined to not make any waves.
Her only role was to do her best to disgust the male and female leads.
So, the System had her target the female lead and make her break off the engagement with Yates Donovan herself.
At a dinner party, she pulled Serena Grant into a deserted corner and tried to force her to agree to break off the engagement.
The System said that Yates Donovan was nearby and would witness the entire scene.
She pulled out all the stops, saying every malicious thing she could think of.
Serena Grant looked at her with fear in her eyes but didn’t back down. "Why? He was my fiancé to begin with!"
"Nonsense!" She grabbed Serena Grant’s wrist, her tone vicious. "Before you showed up, he was always mine! Who do you think you are? How dare you try to take him from me!"
Serena Grant’s eyes reddened on the spot.
Just as the System predicted, Yates Donovan soon appeared to play the hero saving the damsel in distress.
It seemed like nothing was different.
Although the process had some discrepancies compared to this life, at least the ending was the same.
As a qualified villainess, she silently pushed the female lead toward every male lead.
’That was what I was supposed to do.’
Just as the System said, she completed her tasks brilliantly.
The System was very satisfied with her and confidently left her to complete the missions on her own.
The problem arose during the period when the System was gone.
On her birthday, she got drunk.
When she woke up again, she was surrounded by complete darkness.
A strange room, an unfamiliar scent, but a familiar man.
The lights turned on. Mia Grant stared blankly at the man sitting by the bed.
"Awake now, baby?"