After I Quit the Game, He Followed Me to the New World Chapter 2

When we got back to the villa, a woman was standing in the center of the living room.

She wore a red dress. Her hair was long, black, and straight, with perfect bangs. Her smile was a gentle curve.

I froze.

She was the spitting image of Lily. Even the dimple at the corner of her mouth was identical.

“Elara, let me introduce you,” Daniel said smoothly. “This is Janice. I’m sponsoring her. She’s going to stay with us for a while as our… nanny.”

His friends snickered, drawing out the word “nanny” with lewd insinuation.

Daniel chuckled, his gaze fixed on the girl, his desire and satisfaction utterly undisguised.

This was a familiar scene. Though he called me his girlfriend, Daniel never tired of collecting Lily’s substitutes, and he especially loved parading them in front of me.

Last time, I was sick with a fever, and his friends brought him a substitute dressed as a nurse. As I burned up in my room, I could hear them together in the room next door. The time before that, he took me to a gala and picked the most Lily-like woman from a line-up of aspiring starlets.

Afterward, he would always placate me. “You’re still the best one. The most like her.” Then he’d toss me a few affection points like a scrap of meat to a dog. And I, desperate and broken, would swallow my pain and force a smile as I saw his latest conquest out the door.

He’d been more restrained while I was pregnant, but I knew he still had a mistress tucked away somewhere. And now, he couldn’t even wait a day to flaunt this new one in my face.

“You’re good at making desserts, right? Janice loves them,” Daniel said, smiling at the girl beside him. “She’s allergic to mango, prefers chocolate. Use that expensive French chocolate, the one she likes. Oh, and Janice rescued a stray cat. She can bring it here to live with us.”

The girl’s eyes filled with tears of gratitude. “Daniel, I only mentioned that once. I can’t believe you remembered.”

“Of course. When something is important to me, I pay attention.”

The irony was so thick I could have choked on it. He could remember all that, yet he pretended not to see the hives that broke out all over my face every time I forced down seafood for him. He couldn't remember that I had a deep-seated fear of cats after being badly scratched as a child.

But then, I wasn’t important. I was just his favorite toy.

That night, I went to our bedroom to change and found the two of them already in our bed. Janice was curled in Daniel’s arms, her face flushed an unnatural red. Daniel’s eyes were dark with a storm of passion.

Seeing me standing there, he dropped all pretense. A lazy smirk played on his lips. “Janice didn’t have anything suitable to wear. The things in your closet fit her perfectly. You can sleep in the guest room tonight.”

Janice pulled back a corner of the duvet, revealing the pale pink silk of my nightgown. Her smile was a triumphant, mocking slash. “I’m sure my sister won’t mind,” she purred.

“This lingerie was never meant for her anyway,” one of Daniel’s friends chimed in from the doorway, leaning casually. “It belongs to whoever fits it best.”

I understood his meaning. Every piece of clothing in that closet had been chosen by Daniel to match Lily’s taste. Now that someone who looked more like her had arrived, I was being replaced.

“Go get some sleep, Elara,” Daniel said, his tone laced with that familiar, cruel amusement. He was so confident. “Don’t worry. In my heart, you’ll always be number one. You know how much I love you.”

He was certain that with his affection score at 99, I wouldn’t dare say a word. I would just be his good little dog, grateful for any scrap of affection he threw my way.

I did exactly as he expected. I turned and walked away without a word.

The moment the door clicked shut, a series of messages lit up my phone screen. They were from Daniel’s group chat.

“Didn’t you guys say bringing in a new girl right when she thought she was safe would be the ultimate mind-fuck?”

“We practically did it right in front of her, and she still didn’t make a peep.”

“Haha, Daniel, aren’t you planning something even bigger? You’ll never get rid of that leech.”

“Shit, Daniel, wrong chat! Recall! Recall!”

I watched as the messages vanished one by one. My breath hitched, and a sharp pain lanced through my numb heart.

I used to believe that 99 was real. I was so happy, so terrified of losing it. I tiptoed around him, treasuring every rare crumb of kindness he offered.

But it was all a lie. The rising affection score was just another tool to torture me. They were watching me like a play, entertained by my struggle and my pain.