Chapter 185
185.
185
+25 BONUS
After Lance left, I didn’t try pulling my usual stunt of leaving the hospital as soon as I could move. The doctor said “ I needed to stay for observation, so this time, I stayed.
After facing death yet again, especially after everything I’d been through, I finally realized nothing mattered more than just being alive and healthy. Compared to that, any discomfort was bearable. But my body just wasn’t what it used to be.
I’d barely been awake long when exhaustion kicked back in dragging me toward sleep. Noah noticed immediately and gently encouraged me to rest. The doctor had insisted needed plenty of sleep to recover, promising I’d bounce back soon enough.
He told me to rest easy, that he’d stay by my side the whole time.
There was something about the way he looked at people–steady, reassuring, almost magnetic. It made people believe him without even thinking.
I looked at him, remembering the little chubby kid who used to be so scared of the dark he couldn’t sleep alone, during a blackout.
Now, not only was he braver, but he had also grown into someone willing to face a freezing winter night, battling wind and snow to save someone. And on top of that, he had turned out so sharp, so reliable.
I couldn’t help but smile, ruffling his hair. “Noah, you’ve all grown up now. You saved me, so I owe you one. Just name it, anytime.”
He made saving me sound so easy, so casual. But I knew just how brutal the conditions must have been. If it weren’t for his stubborn insistence, I might have already died out there in that frozen wilderness.
Noah bent slightly, obediently letting me mess up his perfectly styled hair. When I promised him a wish- anything he wanted in the future–his eyes instantly lit up, bright and eager.
I couldn’t help but laugh. No matter how much he had grown, he was still the same as when he was little.
Back then, whenever I promised him a reward for overcoming his fears, his eyes would sparkle just like this. And now, without even thinking, I had made him the same promise, offering him something he wanted most.
I had completely forgotten–he was no longer a kid. What he wanted now was nothing like what I had imagined.
What I didn’t know was how his hands trembled as he carefully touched my face while I slept.
I didn’t know that when he found me nearly frozen to death in the snow–when he realized that if he had been even a moment later, I wouldn’t have made it—his heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst.
The rage inside him was overwhelming. It made him want to kill.
While I was sleeping soundly, Irvin was being rushed into the emergency room, Landon practically shoving the stretcher down the hall.
The moment he hit the freezing water and understood everything, he hadn’t even wanted to survive. But then he thought of me.
I was still missing. I hadn’t been found and rescued. He couldn’t die, just yet. So he kept diving, desperately searching for me in the icy depths.
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185
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Even when Quinton and Landon found him and tried to pull him to shore , promising to send divers instead, he refused . He wouldn’t leave the water without me.
The temperature was way below freezing. Even standing outside in thick winter clothes for a few minutes was unbearable, let alone being submerged in it. And on top of that, the impact from jumping off a cliff had already left him injured.
He stayed in that water for who knew how long until someone told him I hadn’t jumped, that people were searching the mountains for me. Only then did he drag himself out–soaking wet , freezing, and barely able to stand–before immediately joining the search team.
In the end, his body gave out. He collapsed, rolling down the mountainside and landing hard against a jagged rock. The injuries were so serious that he needed surgery immediately.
Both Quinton and Landon tried to sign the consent forms, but the doctors insisted they needed a family member’s signature as consent. They had no choice but to call me.
Thinking about how Irvin treated me when I fell off that cliff back then, I coldly dismissed the call by saying I was busy and turned off my phone.
Just like the saying, what went around came around, he was finally paying the price for what he had done. This was exactly what he deserved.
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