Chapter 6

"They're just pictures," Olivia said, her voice completely flat. She looked at the photo in Daniel' s hand without a flicker of emotion. "They don't matter anymore."

Daniel stared at her, his anger mixed with genuine confusion. "Don't matter? Olivia, this is our life! This is us!"

"Is it?" she asked quietly, her gaze sweeping over him and then to Ethan. "It doesn't feel like it."

Her cold detachment seemed to infuriate him more than any outburst would have. He looked like he wanted to shake her, to force some kind of reaction out of her, but he was cut off by Clara' s cheerful voice from downstairs.

"Daniel? Ethan? Dinner's ready!" she called out. "I'm starving!"

The spell was broken. Daniel' s shoulders slumped in defeat. Ethan, who had been watching the exchange with a pained expression, put a hand on Daniel' s arm.

"Come on, let's go eat," he said softly. "We can talk about this later."

They left her standing in the empty room. Olivia heard their footsteps descend the stairs, followed by the warm, happy chatter of the dinner table. She wasn' t hungry. She went to her suitcase, took out her bottle of painkillers, and swallowed two more. The pain was a constant, low hum beneath the surface, always threatening to roar back to life.

After a few minutes, she slowly made her way downstairs. The scene in the dining room was one of domestic bliss. Clara was laughing at something Daniel said, her face glowing with adoration. Ethan was smiling, looking more relaxed than he had in months. They were a perfect little family. A family that didn't include her.

As she took her seat, she saw Daniel present Clara with a small, beautifully wrapped box.

"A little something for you," he said. "Just because."

Clara gasped with delight as she opened it, revealing a brand new, top-of-the-line digital camera. "Oh, Daniel, it's perfect! Thank you!"

She immediately started playing with it, aiming it around the room. As she turned, her elbow knocked something off the table. There was a sharp crack. Olivia looked down and saw the shattered pieces of her old camera, the one she had used to take most of the photos she'd just thrown away.

Clara glanced at the broken camera on the floor. "Oops," she said with a small, unconcerned shrug. "Sorry about that."

Neither Daniel nor Ethan paid any attention to it. Their focus was entirely on Clara and her new gift.

"It has a portrait mode that will make you look amazing," Daniel was explaining, leaning in close to her.

Then Ethan presented his gift. It was a custom-designed silver necklace, a delicate pendant hanging from a thin chain.

"I designed it myself," he said proudly, his eyes shining. "I wanted it to be special, just for you."

Olivia froze. She recognized the design. It was a stylized feather, intricately detailed. It was a design she had sketched in a notebook months ago, a design she had shown to Ethan, telling him she wanted to have it made for herself one day. He had told her it was beautiful. He had promised to help her find a jeweler to make it.

Now it was around Clara' s neck.

A sound bubbled up from Olivia's chest-a dry, humorless laugh. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated despair.

All three of them turned to look at her, their happy mood shattered.

"What's so funny?" Daniel asked, his tone sharp with annoyance.

Olivia pushed her chair back, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. "Nothing," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "Nothing's funny at all."

She tried to stand up, to leave the room, but Daniel and Ethan were on their feet in an instant, blocking her path.

"Sit down, Olivia," Daniel commanded. "You're going to apologize to Clara for ruining this moment."

"Apologize for what?" she shot back, her control finally snapping. "For laughing at the fact that you stole my design? That you broke your promise?"

Ethan looked genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

Before she could explain, the System's cold voice echoed in her head, accompanied by the flashing red numbers of the countdown clock.

[Time remaining: 21 days, 4 hours, 16 minutes, 5 seconds.]

Her life was slipping away, second by second, and they were arguing with her over a stolen necklace. The absurdity of it all was overwhelming. She felt dizzy, the room spinning around her.