Chapter 5

One week before I decided to leave New York, Killian suggested taking everyone out to sea to relax.

I didn't want to go.

But Killian insisted that I attend.

"Halen, this is a family gathering, you are the hostess, you cannot be absent."

He was wearing a white casual shirt, the cuffs rolled up casually, revealing his strong forearms, his tone gentle but unquestionable.

"Besides, the sea breeze can improve one's mood. You also need to relax, don't you?"

So, I boarded this private yacht named "Poseidon".

The yacht sailed into the high seas, surrounded by endless deep blue.

Champagne towers were built high on the deck, and the music was soothing.

Killian stayed by Elena's side the whole time, considerately shielding her from the wind, and even stood with her for half an hour holding binoculars just because she said she "wanted to see dolphins".

That scene was too glaring.

I walked alone to the edge of the second-floor deck with a glass of wine to get some air.

Not long after, the sound of high heels came from behind.

I knew who it was without turning back.

"The scenery here is really nice, isn't it, Halen?"

Elena walked up to me, holding a glass of red wine, her smile bright and moving.

Where was even a hint of the weak appearance of a late-stage brain cancer patient?

"Speak your mind." I looked at the sea surface coldly.

"Nothing, just wanted to thank you."

Elena leaned close to me, lowering her voice, her tone full of vicious showing off.

"Thank you for your miscarriage, thank you for your design drafts, thank you... for giving everything of yours to me."

"Halen, do you know what Killian said to me last night?"

"He said, as long as I recover, he will be with me, after all, I am his legal wife."

I gripped the wine glass tightly, my knuckles turning white.

"Get lost."

"Don't be in such a hurry to drive me away."

Elena suddenly smiled strangely.

She glanced at Killian who was chatting and laughing downstairs, then suddenly grabbed my wrist.

"Halen, if I jump from here, do you think Killian will save me or kill you?"

"Are you crazy? This is the high seas!"

Before I could shake her off.

Elena suddenly screamed: "Ah—! Halen, don't push me! Help!"

Immediately after, she unhesitatingly flipped over the railing, falling into the bone-chillingly cold seawater like a kite with a broken string.

"Splash—!"

The huge sound of falling into the water startled everyone.

"Elena!"

Killian downstairs heard the cry for help, looked up and saw this scene, his pupils contracting sharply.

He didn't even think for a second.

Throwing away the wine glass in his hand directly, he leaped and jumped into the turbulent sea.

"Quick! Save her! Throw the lifebuoy!"

Chaos on the deck.

I stood by the railing, watching the sea surface coldly all over.

Watching that man, who usually didn't even go to the swimming pool much because I had claustrophobia, now swimming towards that woman desperately like a crazy shark.

He lifted Elena's head, letting her float out of the water, that anxious expression as if he was lifting his whole world.

Ten minutes later.

A soaking wet Killian climbed onto the deck holding the choking Elena.

Elena nestled in his arms, coughing violently, her face pale as paper.

"Killian... cough cough... don't blame Halen..."

She clutched Killian's wet shirt, crying like a pear blossom bathed in rain, her body trembling uncontrollably.

"It's my fault... I shouldn't have told her I wanted to take a photo with you on the deck..."

"She was just too angry... she didn't mean to push me..."

Killian took the blanket handed by the waiter and wrapped Elena tightly.

He wiped the seawater off his face and slowly raised his head.

In those deep eyes, bloodshot veins were now visible.

He stared at me firmly, walking towards me step by step.

Seawater dripped from the tips of his hair, spreading dark water stains on the floor.

"Killian, I didn't..."

I subconsciously stepped back, wanting to explain.

"Halen."

Killian interrupted me.

His voice was no longer angry but carried an extreme, heartbreaking disappointment.

Like watching a carefully crafted piece of art suddenly turn into a puddle of mud.

"I always thought that although you had some petty temper, at least your heart was kind."

"I thought the previous incidents were just misunderstandings, just your willfulness."

"But today, I saw it with my own eyes."

He pointed at the shivering Elena behind him, his tone painful as if pronouncing my death sentence.

"She is a late-stage brain cancer patient; her body simply cannot withstand the torment of seawater."

"This is the high seas, the wind and waves are so big. You pushing her down means you want her life."

"For jealousy, for so-called 'possessiveness', you actually turned into a murderer?"

"I didn't push her! She jumped down herself!"

I shouted in breakdown.

"Jumped down herself?"

Killian sneered, a barren coldness in his eyes.

"Would a person with such a strong will to survive, who dreams of living, jump into the sea herself?"

"Halen, how can there be such a ridiculous lie in this world?"

He walked up to me, looking down at me from above.

He didn't hit me, nor did he roar again.

He just used that gentlemanly, decent, yet extremely cruel gaze to execute me by a thousand cuts.

"You are too terrible, Halen."

"Your jealousy has made you unrecognizable."

"I even start to doubt whether that pure, kind girl I fell in love with four years ago was a false appearance disguised by you."

After saying these few sentences.

He didn't look at me again.

Turning around, he picked up Elena and strode towards the infirmary in the cabin.

"Dock the ship."

He ordered the captain coldly.

"Send Halen back to the manor, grounded."

"Before I confirm Elena is not in life-threatening danger, I don't want to hear any news about this woman again."

The crowd on the deck gradually dispersed; everyone looked at me with eyes full of contempt and fear.

I stood alone in the wind, the sea breeze cutting my face like knives.

I looked at Killian's retreating back.

So determined, so protective.

He would rather believe that "best actress" full of lies than believe the wife who shared his bed for four years.

I didn't cry.

I just felt the hole in my heart being completely filled by the whistling sea breeze.

Killian.

You will never know.

Just now, the moment you jumped down to save her.

The Halen who loved you had already jumped into the sea with her and drowned.

Killian didn't let the yacht return directly.

After Elena drank ginger soup and her vital signs were stable, he made a new decision.

"Halen, I think you need a quiet environment to think properly about what 'humanity' is."

The yacht stopped by a reef of an uninhabited desert island.

This was a wild reef in the high seas, half submerged at high tide, surrounded by sea on all sides, calling to heaven and earth to no avail.

"Killian, what are you doing?"

Watching those bodyguards forcing me onto a lifeboat, fear began to spread.

Killian stood on the high deck, the sea breeze blowing the hem of his trench coat. He was still that steady, rational appearance, like a fair judge.

"Calm down for a night."

He said lightly.

"There is no signal here, no one to disturb. You can face the sea and repent properly for what you did to Elena."

"Killian! The tide will rise! And there is a storm tonight!"

I struggled desperately, trying to grab the railing.

"I have claustrophobia, I'm afraid of the dark... please don't leave me here alone..."

"When Elena fell into the sea, she was more scared than you are now."

Killian was indifferent, his eyes even carrying a hint of sternness hoping for iron to become steel.

"Everyone has to pay the price for their evil deeds. If this little fear makes you flinch, then when you pushed her down just now, why didn't you think about the consequences?"

"There is water and food here, you calm down here for a night, I'll send someone to pick you up tomorrow morning."

"Hope that by then, you can give me a sincere apology."

The lifeboat was lowered.

I was abandoned on that bare reef.

The yacht's engine roared, turning the bow ruthlessly and sailing into the distance.

Leaving only two white waves, as if mocking my wretchedness.

Night fell.

The weather forecast didn't lie; the storm really came.

The gale whipped up huge waves, slapping against the reef time and again.

The cold seawater flooded over my ankles, then knees, waist...

I curled up in a rock crevice at the highest point of the reef, wet all over, shivering.

There was no light, no sound here, only the angry roar of the sea.

Fear choked my throat like countless cold hands.

"Killian... help..."

I cried out, my voice instantly swallowed by the wind and rain.

I remembered four years ago, we also encountered a storm.

Back then, he used his body to shield me from the wind and rain, saying in my ear over and over again: "Don't be afraid, even if it's the end of the world, I won't leave you."

But now.

The one who personally threw me into this hell was him.

In the second half of the night, the seawater had flooded up to my chest.

My physical strength was exhausted, consciousness beginning to blur.

Just when I thought I was really going to die here, a faint beam of light came from the distance.

It was a speedboat.

"Killian..."

I used my last bit of strength to wave.

The speedboat approached.

But standing on the boat wasn't the figure I expected.

Instead, it was Elena, wrapped in a thick down jacket, holding a searchlight.

She looked down from above at me soaking in the water, her face wearing a victor's pity.

"Tsk tsk, how miserable, Halen."

"Did you really think Killian would come to pick you up himself?"

"Elena..." My teeth were chattering, "Where is Killian?"

"Him?"

Elena chuckled lightly, absentmindedly fiddling with her freshly done nails.

"He's busy cooking ginger soup for me right now. I said I was scared and dared not sleep alone, so he's been guarding me."

"As for you..."

She paused, her gaze becoming vicious and smug.

"Originally he wanted to send an assistant. But I told him, 'Halen must have realized her mistake, I'll go pick her up, and reconcile with her by the way, this will show our sisterly affection'."

"And guess what?"

"He actually believed it. He even praised my generosity, saying I still thought about your safety after being wronged."

"Look, Halen."

Elena squatted down, shining the searchlight in my eyes, stinging me to tears.

"He simply doesn't care about you."

"If he really cared about you, how could he hand over such a life-and-death matter as picking you up to me just because of a couple of sentences from me?"

"In his heart, my emotions are ten thousand times more important than your life."

I clutched the rock tightly, my nails breaking, blood seeping into the seawater.

The last spark in my heart was completely extinguished at this moment.

Yes.

He didn't care.

If he cared even a little bit, he wouldn't have left me alone on this desert island that could be submerged at any time.

"Come up."

Elena had appreciated enough of my wretchedness before lazily waving her hand to signal the bodyguards to pull me up.

"If I really let you die here, Killian would still cause me trouble."

"Go back alive, so you can see how loving we are, right?"

I was dragged onto the speedboat like a dead dog.

Lying on the cold deck, I looked at the pitch-black night sky, letting the rain wash over my face.

Killian.

You won.

You taught me what despair is in this way.

This time.

I really, don't love you anymore.