Chapter 3

Every now and then, a burst of laughter would erupt from the SUV, but even that gradually grew fainter and fainter.

Just as I was about to succumb to the darkness, a foot stomped down on my face.

"I bet you still don't know this, but Jon has been wanting to divorce you for a long time now."

At those words, hatred entered my unfocused eyes, but that only caused Madison to feel even more smug.

"However, that won't do. After all, if he divorces you, you'll get half the assets. The best outcome would be if you died." Pouring the electrolyte water onto the sand beside me, she added, "And that's why I would rather dump this water away than give it to you!"

I instinctively wanted to lick the wet sand, but I couldn't do it.

Madison laughed before crouching and leaning closer to me.

"The sun's about to set. Sure, the temperature will drop, but there are a lot of desert animals that come out at night." Taking out a folding knife, she viciously slashed my arm. "We'll come for your corpse tomorrow morning."

Blood instantly flowed from the wound.

With sheer fury powering me, I sat up to headbutt Madison and send her crashing to the ground. The coppery taste of blood in my throat thickened, but it did bring some much-needed moisture.

"Madison Zink, this is murder!" I cried in a hoarse voice filled with despair.

Upon hearing the commotion, Jonathan and the others rushed out of the SUV and dragged me away from Madison.

As Jonathan helped Madison up, she deliberately put on a panicked expression while pointing at the bloodied knife.

"I just wanted to give her some water, but she lashed out with that knife. She said she wanted the smell of blood to attract the wild animals around here to come and kill us all!"

What nonsense! She was clearly twisting the truth, and the urge to slap her welled in me.

Jonathan gave me a furious kick.

"Samantha, are you even human? Just because we refused to give you special treatment due to your team leader status, you want us to die? To think Maddy was willing to sacrifice herself to offer you some water! You don't deserve it!"

I managed to squeeze out several words through my injured throat. "That's… just…"

Before I could finish speaking, Jonathan cut me off with a disgusted expression. "People like you should be the ones to die in the desert!"

His ruthless words stabbed deep into my heart like a dagger.

Following that, some of the team members spat globs of saliva at me.

"At first, I thought you were just jealous because Jon paid extra attention to Maddy. Never would I have expected that you would be so wicked as to wish us all dead!"

"We truly are super unlucky to have met a monster like you!"

My team members were all people I used to treat with genuine sincerity, yet at this moment, none of them were willing to spare me even a little bit of trust.

A muffled sob escaped my lips as I tried to move my bleeding arm, to show them just who had actually suffered an injury.

However, none of them noticed, or perhaps they were deliberately pretending not to see. Either way, they all crowded around Madison as they comforted her.

"Don't be scared. We're here too."

"Once this expedition is over and we return, we'll immediately report her to the higher-ups."

"That's not enough. We should send scum like her straight to prison instead!"

Jonathan scoffed, "Well, that all depends on whether she makes it out of here alive first."

The more they spoke, the more their words cut deep into my heart till it was a bloodied mess.

The sun was slowly slipping below the horizon, and the surrounding temperature was starting to drop. However, I was still bleeding incessantly, which made me easy prey for any nighttime predators out to hunt.

I had no hope of surviving this night.

Madison stared at me, her eyes shining with malice.

With a frosty look in his eyes, Jonathan said, "If you kneel and apologize to Maddy, we can still take you with us tomorrow morning. Provided you don't die, that is."

I simply gazed at him quietly, feeling as though I were staring at a stranger.

Yet, this was no stranger. This was the man who had gone through many ups and downs with me, the man who had been on countless expeditions with me—my husband.