Chapter 4

Oliver crawled toward me, his face pale and his tears almost gone. "Nate, I'm begging you. Just agree to their request. You're the only one who dares to take that road. Please, have some mercy on us."

Ethan looked grave. He sighed and gripped my shoulder. "The Ellwood family has the power to do exactly what Grace said. Nathaniel, you—"

I pushed Ethan's hand away and looked down at Oliver and Noah. Desperate to cling to any thread of hope, both of them had scraped their knees raw, causing blood to run down their legs.

I said, "I'll find a way to handle Noah's situation. I really can't take this job. There's nothing I can do about it."

Elias seized my collar in a fury and slammed his fist into my face. All the friendliness he had shown earlier was gone.

He said, "We've asked every rescue team we could find. They all say you're the only one who can make this run, and now you're telling me that there's nothing you can do? That's a living, breathing person out there. If you refuse to save her, you're a murderer!"

I sneered, grabbed him by the hair, and forced him to the ground before punching him in the face again and again. "You're the murderer!"

Grace, who had stood by without saying a single word while Elias hit me, went pale the instant she saw him get hit back. The bodyguards she had brought pinned me down in the snow.

She pressed her heel onto my face and looked down at me. "What gives you the right to hit my husband? Looks like you'd prefer to do this the hard way. Tie up all his friends. For every minute he wastes, throw one of them off the cliff!"

I struggled against the bodyguards and screamed at her, "Don't you dare!"

She pressed her foot down harder, and I could feel my teeth grinding together. "Go ahead and test me. This place is in the middle of nowhere anyway. We'll just say you were buried in a blizzard during the rescue. Nobody will ever know what really happened."

They tied up Ethan and the others and shoved them to the edge of the cliff.

Julian was the first one to be pushed over. He was so terrified that sweat soaked through his clothes. He screamed at me wildly, "Nate, help me! I don't want to die! I haven't even seen my son get married yet!"

I glared at them, my eyes bloodshot. I clenched my jaw and turned to Grace. "Pull them back first!"

Grace lifted her foot off me and gently helped me to my feet. She then smiled and straightened my collar as if she hadn't been the one threatening everyone just moments ago.

She said, "I'm glad you've come to your senses. I hope you bring my daughter back without a scratch. Otherwise, my husband and I will lose our minds."

After hearing her words, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Is that so? Does losing a child cause you pain? I heard that the child you had with your ex-husband died."

Grace's brow twitched sharply.

I continued, "You didn't show the slightest bit of sadness. After the divorce, you married your current husband without hesitation. You never even visited your daughter's grave.

"Do you ever think about her? Do you grieve for her? In the dead of the night, have you ever shed a single tear for her?"

Grace's lips began to tremble, and a flash of pain crossed her eyes. "W-Who are you? How do you know all of this? Have you known me all along?"

I scoffed. "You're so arrogant. How could someone like me ever be worthy of knowing you?"

"Grace, how could some nobody like him know us?" Elias asked. "Stop wasting your breath on him. Make him go save Kiara right now!"

He grabbed me and dragged me over to my vehicle. "Get in the car now!"

When I refused to move, he shouted for his men to throw Julian over the cliff.

Ethan screamed at the top of his lungs, "Nathaniel Reed, get in the car! Are you really going to stand there and watch Julian die? He has followed you for ten years without a single complaint!"

Julian's face went deathly pale, and his eyes filled with despair. "Nate, why are you really refusing to go? At least let me die knowing the truth!"

I closed my eyes in agony, barely able to stay on my feet. "Because I won't be able to stop myself from strangling her and dying on that road afterward. I can save anyone in this world except her!"