The God's Game System

"They are going to kill me tonight, Elena."

Leo stood near the grand fireplace in the center of the marble living room, his hands trembling against his sides.

Elena sat on the couch, resting her feet on the glass coffee table while Dominic leaned close beside her. Dominic swirled a glass of vintage wine, his tailored suit immaculate.

"Fifty thousand dollars is an absurd amount of money, Leo," Elena said without turning her eyes away from her phone screen. "Do you think I am a bank?"

"The deadline is midnight," Leo said. His voice rasped with terror. "Andres gave me three months. Three months to pay back the loan. If I do not have fifty thousand dollars in his hands by midnight, his men will hunt me down on the streets."

Dominic let out a quiet laugh and took a sip from his glass. "Andres? The loan shark operating out of the harbor docks? You actually borrowed money from a violent criminal, Leo? That is extraordinarily stupid, even for you."

"I did not have a choice!" Leo shouted, stepping toward the couch. "Three months ago, my sister was dying in the emergency room! Her kidneys failed, her lungs were filling with fluid, and the hospital refused to perform the surgery without fifty thousand dollars upfront!"

Elena sighed and finally set her phone face down on the couch. "And that is my problem because...?"

"Because you are my wife!" Leo yelled, tears welling in his eyes. "When my sister was collapsing on that hospital bed, I came to your family first! I dropped to my knees in front of your mother! I begged your brother! The Leroy family has millions in the bank, but every single one of you turned your backs on me! You laughed in my face and told me to let her die!"

"Because you are a nobody from the gutters," Elena replied, her tone completely flat. "My family works hard to maintain our social standing. Why should my parents waste fifty thousand dollars on a girl who carries peasant blood?"

Leo stared at her in disbelief. "Peasant blood? Have you forgotten why I am standing in this house today, Elena? Have you forgotten why your grandfather forced you to marry me?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Do not start with that old story again."

"It is not a story, it is the truth!" Leo said, his chest heaving. "Four years ago, your grandfather slipped off the dock at the mountain lake. He sank thirty feet into freezing water. Your cousin stood on the shore screaming like an idiot, but I jumped into that water! I pulled your grandfather to the shore! I pumped the water out of his lungs and kept his heart beating until the ambulance arrived!"

Dominic chuckled into his wine glass. "A lucky rescue by a poor kid looking for a handout."

"Your grandfather swore an oath on his deathbed," Leo continued, glaring at Elena. "He declared that as long as he lived, I would be treated like his own flesh and blood. He forced this marriage so I would be protected! But three years ago, the moment his heart stopped, your entire family showed their true colors. The day after his funeral, you moved me out of the main bedroom. You turned me into an unpaid servant in your house!"

"You live under our roof for free," Elena said coldly. "You eat our food."

"I work sixteen hours a day!" Leo snapped back. "I scrub your floors! I wash your cars! I took double shifts at the shipping warehouse every single night for three months just to save money for Andres! But do you know how much I managed to save after paying for my sister's daily medications? Two thousand dollars! Two thousand dollars, Elena! That is all I have! I am forty-eight thousand dollars short, and Andres will put a bullet in my head before sunrise!"

A loud knock sounded from the front entryway.

Elena stood up instantly. Her cold expression melted into pure excitement. "It arrived! Dominic, it is finally here!"

She hurried past Leo, ignoring his existence entirely, and pulled open the front door. A courier stood in the doorway holding a large golden box tied with a ribbon. Elena took the box out of the courier's hands and rushed back into the living room.

"Open it!" Dominic said, sitting up on the sofa with a grin.

Elena tore open the packaging. She reached inside and pulled out an exotic handbag made of bright green reptile leather.

She held the bag up to the chandelier light, her eyes shining with joy. As she turned the bag around, a thick paper price tag ripped loose from the strap and fell through the air.

The tag landed right beside Leo's shoe.

Leo looked down at the tag.

Printed across the white paper in bold numbers was the price: $200,000.00.

Two hundred thousand dollars.

The room seemed to spin around him. Two hundred thousand dollars for a leather bag. Four times the amount he needed to stay alive. Four times the amount needed to clear his debt with Andres and keep supporting his sister.

Leo dropped to his knees on the hardwood floor.

He crawled across the rug until he reached Elena's feet. He pressed his palms together, pleading upward at her face.

"Elena, please!" Leo begged, his voice breaking into raw sobs. "Look at this tag! You just spent two hundred thousand dollars on a bag! Please, I am on my knees at your feet! Lend me fifty thousand dollars! I will sign any contract you want! I will be your slave for the rest of my life! Just save my life from Andres! Please!"

Elena did not even glance down at him. She shifted her feet back, pulling the hem of her dress away from his hands as if he were a disease.

"Dominic!" Elena called out, her voice full of delight. "Get your phone out right now! Take a picture of me holding this bag next to the window light! The leather looks incredible in this lighting!"

Dominic pulled out his smartphone, laughing openly as he adjusted the camera lens. "Hold it near your shoulder! Perfect! Hey, stay right there on the floor, Leo! Having you groveling on the rug next to her makes the bag look even more expensive!"

"Stop it, Dominic," Elena giggled, posing gracefully with the purse. "You are going to make me laugh in the photo."

Leo remained on his knees, his forehead practically touching the floor. Tears of complete humiliation spilled down his cheeks. He had thrown away his pride, his dignity, and his last shred of humanity, only to be treated like background scenery for a picture.

Elena finished posing and set the bag down on the sofa. She picked up a yellow manila folder from a pile of fashion magazines on the glass table and tossed it down onto the floor right in front of Leo's face.

"Sign them," Elena said. Her voice lost all its warmth, returning to that familiar, bitter tone. "Those are divorce papers. My lawyer prepared them last week. You are signing away any right to my family's estate, this mansion, or any marital assets."

Leo stared at the yellow folder lying on the carpet. "Divorce?"

"You are a parasite," Elena said. "You have always been a parasite. My grandfather forced me to marry you, but he is in the ground now, and I am sick of looking at your pathetic face. Gather your clothes and get out of my house before I call the security guards. Dominic is moving into the master suite tonight."

Dominic smirked down at him from the couch. "You heard her, Leo. Time to pack your bags."

Leo did not touch the pen. He did not sign the papers. He pushed himself up from the floor, turned around, and walked out the front door into the dark night.

Rain poured down in heavy streams, soaking his shirt within seconds. He walked down the long paved driveway of the Leroy estate and stepped onto the empty main road.

His head throbbed with unbearable agony. Everything in his life had collapsed into absolute ruin. He had saved an old man's life, only to be bound to a family of snakes. He had given up his youth to serve them, only to be thrown onto the street like trash. He had risked everything for his sister, and now he was going to die on a cold curb because he was forty-eight thousand dollars short.

Two thousand dollars in his pocket. Three hours until midnight. Andres's goons were already waiting at his apartment with guns.

Leo stopped at the edge of the pedestrian crosswalk. He stared into the darkness, completely hollowed out, utterly broken. He had nothing left to lose, nowhere left to run, and no reason left to hope.

He took a step out onto the wet asphalt.

Tires screeched against the road.

A pair of blinding yellow headlights emerged from the gloom, rushing toward him at full speed.

A heavy horn sounded through the storm, but Leo stood frozen in the middle of the lane.

The massive grill of an oncoming truck slammed directly into his chest, throwing his body into the air and plunging his mind into absolute darkness.