Chapter 3

Sebastian's car never once slowed down to save me. There was only the freezing wind, cutting straight to the bone.

By the time I'd dragged what was left of my legs back into the wheelchair, I finally managed to get him on the phone.

"Sebastian, what about me? You're just going to leave me here?" I screamed into the phone.

There was nothing but silence on the other end. When he finally spoke, his voice was colder than the snow around me.

"The car's gone. If you want to come back, figure it out yourself."

"What is that supposed to mean?" My voice shook, and it wasn't just from the cold.

"This is your punishment." He seemed to force the words out through clenched teeth. "I told you to hold it together until the baby was born, but instead you tried to push Tessa off the mountain and kill her and the baby both. Ruby, what happened to you?"

"I didn't do that!"

"Don't even try to lie to me!" Sebastian's temper broke. "Tessa cares about that baby more than her own life. If it wasn't you, are you telling me a pregnant woman just decided she didn't want to live anymore?"

The storm kept building, and the ground itself seemed to shudder beneath me. My fingers had turned purple with cold, and I could barely keep my grip on the phone.

"So... you're leaving me on this mountain on purpose."

"Get yourself back down here in that chair and think about what you did," he sneered.

I opened my mouth to say something else, but the line went dead, the busy tone swallowed up by the roar of the storm.

And then came a wall of collapsing snow tearing through everything in its path, barreling straight toward me.

An avalanche.

I turned to run, but the snow overtook me instantly, burying me whole. Pain tore through my chest.

When I came to again, my shaking hands dialed Sebastian's number over and over.

"Sebastian, there's an avalanche, help..."

"Hello? Why aren't you saying anything? I'm hanging up if you don't talk."

It was Tessa's voice, sweet and syrupy. Through the wind, I could just make out Sebastian's voice in the background.

"Who called?" I heard him ask.

Tessa laughed lightly. "Wrong number."

The wind outside howled, and in that instant, every drop of blood in my body ran cold.

The call ended. I understood, then, that as long as Tessa was near him, no one was coming to save me.

Snow slammed into my back, hard enough to crush me, and I couldn't hold on any longer. I passed out completely from the cold.

In the last second before everything went black, I saw, hazy and distant, the day Sebastian had gotten down on one knee beside my hospital bed after the amputation and proposed.

"Ruby, I'll be your legs from now on. Wherever we go, I'll carry you there myself."

But today's snow had buried that promise for good.

When I woke up again, Sebastian was at my bedside, looking terrifyingly wrecked. He gripped my hand, his eyes churning with something raw and painful.

"Ruby, I'm sorry. I swear I had no idea there'd be an avalanche. Hit me, scream at me, whatever you want. Just please... forgive me."

As he spoke, he pulled out a whip and knelt bare-chested in front of me, so utterly submissive it was as if he was terrified I might vanish for good.

The door banged open.

Tessa burst into my hospital room, her belly heavy, her eyes swollen like walnuts.

"Mrs. Walker, please don't hit him. If you want to hit someone, hit me. This is all my fault..."

She dropped to her knees too, looking every bit as pitiful, tears streaming nonstop.

"The second Mr. Walker heard about the avalanche, he nearly lost his mind. He ran straight into the mountains, disregarding his own safety, just to save you. Please, you can blame me..."

"Enough!" Sebastian's voice cracked like a whip as he cut her off, rushing to help her up. "No one's blaming you. Don't cry now. It's not good for the baby."

Watching the two of them, I let out a hollow, exhausted laugh.

What a joke. I'd just been dragged back from the edge of death, and Sebastian was worried about whether some other woman had cried too much.

I grabbed the water glass beside me and hurled it at their feet. It shattered, glass scattering everywhere.

"Get out! Both of you, get out!"

Sebastian froze. "Ruby..."

"I don't want to look at either of you! Get out!" I screamed, my voice already raw and hoarse.

Tessa flinched back, terrified, and Sebastian finally led her out, though he glanced back at me with something like guilt on his face just before the door shut.

For the next few days, Sebastian became a different person. He stopped fussing over Tessa and started doing everything he could to win me over instead.

He cooked for me, showered me with flowers and luxury gifts, and checked on me constantly, morning to night.

Today, he'd even told me, with total conviction, "Ruby, I bought Tessa a plane ticket. I'm sending her abroad tonight. If she bothers you, I'll make her disappear."

I said nothing, just watched him with a faint, cold smile, ice settled deep behind my eyes.

That night, I came back from a follow-up exam to find Tessa in my hospital room, the same woman who should have been on her way to the airport.

She stood on tiptoe at the edge of my room's balcony, her back to me.

This was the top floor.

What the hell was she trying to do?