Chapter 171

Chapter 171

"Elodie……" Adrian's voice was shaking.

He struggled to lean forward from his wheelchair. Reached out his bloodstained hand. He wanted to grab the hem of Elodie's clothes.

Elodie stood up.

She stepped back half a step and pulled away from his touch with disgust.

Adrian's hand froze in midair. His fingertips trembled violently.

"I know I was wrong……" Adrian tilted his head up. His eyes were red. Tears hit the floor tiles without any dignity. "I was blind. Chloe tricked me. I didn't know she was going to kill you……"

Elodie looked down at him.

Her eyes were completely calm. No anger. No sadness.

"So what?" Elodie asked.

Adrian's throat moved, utterly humbled. "Given that I……given that I took the hit from that car for you today. Give me a chance to make it right. Please? Even if it means doing whatever you say……"

"Adrian." Elodie cut him off.

"You chose to throw your life away. That's on you. I don't owe you anything."

Adrian froze.

"The Elodie who loved you, who would worry about you over even the smallest scratch — she died long ago in the cold waters of Harbor City." Elodie looked him in the eyes. She said, dead serious, "When I look at you like this now, all I feel is disgust."

Adrian's mouth hung open. He couldn't make a single sound.

Elodie reached into her pocket and pulled out a checkbook.

The check floated down. Landing over the bloodstains on his legs.

"This is ten million dollars." Elodie's voice was cold. "To cover your medical bills for taking that hit today. We're even."

Adrian stared at the check. The air was sucked out of his chest in an instant.

"Take your feelings that came way too late, and get out of my life."

Elodie turned around.

Not a trace of hesitation.

"Lucas, let's go." Elodie looked over at Lucas. "We're going to be late for the skydive."

Lucas curved his lips into a smile. Didn't even glance at Adrian. He walked out side by side with Elodie toward the door.

Adrian sat in his wheelchair.

Watching Elodie's back as she left without a second thought.

"Elodie!" Adrian suddenly lunged off the wheelchair.

And crashed hard onto the floor.

Broken bones shifting out of place. Pain tearing through him.

But he couldn't feel it.

All he felt was cold. A bone-deep cold.

Elodie didn't look back.

The door swung open. Cold air rushed in. She and Lucas walked out into the snow.

Adrian lay face down on the floor tiles. Clutching that check with everything he had.

Blood soaked through the paper.

He finally understood. Some things, once broken, stay broken.

You can't fill that gap even with your life.

The door closed. Shutting out the wind and snow.

Adrian lay on the cold floor tiles. Elodie's figure disappeared completely from his sight.

The blood he'd been holding back deep in his throat could no longer be contained.

A rush of blood poured out. Splashing across the white tiles. The bloodstained ten-million-dollar check was crushed into a ball in his clenched fist.

"Mr. Stewart!" His assistant's eyes went wide with horror. He scrambled over frantically.

Adrian's pupils began to lose focus. The rise and fall of his chest grew so faint it nearly stopped.

He couldn't feel the pain of his broken bones. His mind held only Elodie's final look of disgust.

Disgusting.

She said looking at him made her sick.

Darkness surged in. Swallowing him whole in an instant.

"Doctor! Help! Someone help him!" The assistant screamed.

A crowd of medical staff rushed out pushing a gurney. They lifted Adrian, a bloody mess, onto it.

The red light above the emergency room lit up.

Two hours later.

The door opened. The attending physician walked out. Three critical condition notices in hand.

"The patient has severe internal organ rupture. Massive blood loss. Worse than that, he has absolutely no will to live." The doctor's voice was grave. "Brain death could occur at any time. You should start preparing for the worst."

The assistant's legs gave out. He collapsed onto the bench.

It was over.

Adrian didn't want to live anymore.

The skydiving base.

Thirteen thousand feet in the air. The helicopter door wide open.

Wind howled as it rushed in. The temperature dropped sharply.

Elodie was geared up in professional skydiving equipment. Behind her goggles, her eyes were bright and clear.

"Ready?" the instructor shouted from behind her.

Elodie didn't hesitate. She leaped.

The feeling of weightlessness wrapped around her entire body. The wind roared in her ears.

She opened her eyes. Below was an endless stretch of snow-covered mountains. Pure. Vast.

The gloom of Harbor City, the scheming of the Stewart family, Adrian's pale, wretched face — all of it dissolved in freefall.

Sixty seconds of freefall.

The parachute opened.

Elodie glided through the air. And landed smoothly in the snow.

Lucas walked over with long strides. A thermos in his hand.

"How do you feel?" he asked with a smile.

Elodie pulled off her goggles. She was about to answer.

A wave of intense dizziness slammed into the back of her head. The world spun.

Bright red drops of blood fell onto the white snow. Striking against the pure white.

Elodie raised her hand and touched her nose. Her hand came away covered in blood.

The next second. Her vision went black. And she fell straight forward.

"Elodie!"

The smile on Lucas's face froze. He lunged forward in one swift motion. Catching Elodie tightly in his arms.

Elodie's body temperature was dangerously low. The bleeding wouldn't stop.

"The helicopter! Back to St. Gallen Cancer Research Center now!" Lucas's eyes were bloodshot. He ran with Elodie in his arms.

St. Gallen Cancer Research Center.

Outside the emergency room.

Lucas leaned against the wall. Both hands buried in his hair. His suit jacket covered in Elodie's blood.

Her cancer was progressing too fast.

The conservative treatment from before had stopped working. Without a matching hematopoietic stem cell donor and an experimental cell therapy, she wouldn't make it through the winter.

Rapid footsteps came from the end of the hallway.

The attending physician walked over quickly. He held an urgent report in his hand, his face lit up with disbelief and excitement.

"Mr. Williams! A miracle!"

Lucas snapped his head up.

"Just thirty minutes ago, an emergency donor match was completed through the Eldoria national database." The doctor's voice was trembling. "Ten out of ten points matched. A perfect match for all of Ms. Turner's indicators!"

Lucas was stunned.

Ten out of ten points. The odds of that were incredibly low.

"Schedule the surgery immediately!" Lucas took a deep breath, his voice hoarse. "Get the best team. I'll cover all the costs."

"Of course. The donor material is being flown in now."

The hospital room.

The anesthesia wore off. Elodie slowly opened her eyes.

The room was warm.

Lucas sat by the bed. His eyes were full of red veins. A stubble shadow had grown along his jaw. He held Elodie's hand tightly.

"You're awake?" Lucas's voice was gentle.

Elodie gave a weak nod.

"There's good news." Lucas told her about the donor match.

Elodie was stunned.

She didn't have to wait to die anymore. She could actually live.

Lucas looked at her. His throat moved.

He suddenly dropped to one knee beside the bed. He took Elodie's pale hand in both of his.

"Elodie." Lucas's gaze was intense. "I don't want to be just your colleague anymore."

Elodie looked at him.

"All these years. I watched you suffer. Watched the Stewart family put you through hell. I hated that I could only stand beside you as a colleague." Lucas's voice was rough, but steady. "Let me take care of you. Be there for you, properly. Will you let me?"

The room was quiet.

Elodie looked at the man in front of her.