She Left Me in the Storm

"Mabel, stop! The hurricane's less than an hour away! If you leave me here, I'm going to die!"

I struggled to get the words out through the pain of my broken leg.

Before Mabel Payne could answer, her adopted brother, Jason Payne, suddenly burst into tears inside the helicopter. He clutched his action figures to his chest, refusing to let them go.

"They're my family! If they can't come with us, I'm not going either!"

With that, he made a show of getting ready to jump out of the helicopter.

Just moments ago, Mabel hadn't hesitated to kick me out. Now, she immediately threw her arms around Jason, holding him back.

"No, Jason! We're too high up! You'll get hurt if you jump! And the hurricane's almost here! It's not safe for you to stay!"

She turned on me, her eyes blazing with anger.

"Felix! Haven't you done enough damage already? Are you seriously going to keep this up until Jason gets himself killed?

"Why can't you just wait for the next rescue helicopter? Jason's my family! And the only reason he's like this is because he got hurt trying to save you!

"If you can't accept that, then the wedding's off!"

I opened my mouth to tell her there wouldn't be another helicopter, but Mabel had already turned her attention back to Jason.

"Jason, I promise. Nobody's going to take your little friends away from you."

Jason still looked anxious, his eyes fixed on his action figures.

Mabel immediately placed them in the seat that should've been mine, even taking the time to buckle them in.

Only then did Jason stop crying. His face lit up, and he threw himself into Mabel's arms, snuggling up to her.

"Mabel, you're the best! You'll always stay with me, right? Just me and nobody else?"

Mabel nodded, and my heart sank.

I had known Mabel had an adopted brother ever since we started dating.

Plenty of friends had warned me that something was off about Mabel's relationship with Jason, but I was too blinded by love to listen. I had my heart set on marrying her.

The day before our wedding, Jason and I were kidnapped.

When the kidnappers told Mabel she could only save one of us, she chose me without a second thought.

She immediately went back for Jason, but the kidnappers had already taken him away and put him through horrific torture.

By the time he was found, Jason had suffered severe psychological trauma.

His mental state had regressed to that of a three-year-old, and he depended entirely on Mabel to feed him, dress him, and take care of his every need.

Mabel quit her job, which paid hundreds of thousands a year, to take care of Jason full-time.

I hated watching her run herself ragged, so I suggested hiring a professional caregiver.

Mabel flew into a rage.

"Felix! Don't you dare forget why Jason ended up like this! If you can't accept it, then we might as well call off the wedding right now!"

I loved her too much to argue, so I backed down.

Even when the authorities ordered everyone to evacuate ahead of the hurricane, Mabel refused to leave because of Jason.

Despite being a senior government official, I chose to stay behind with them.

I spent hundreds of thousands reinforcing our villa, turning it into what should have been a completely secure storm shelter. But Jason complained that the house felt stuffy and smashed every hurricane-resistant window.

He also destroyed all the emergency food and medicine I had stocked up on, claiming that the sight of those supplies brought back memories of his trauma.

Even after everything he had done, I still refused to abandon Mabel or her brother.

Instead, I immediately contacted my superiors and requested an emergency evacuation helicopter to get us all out safely.

But when the helicopter arrived with only three passenger seats available, Mabel personally shoved me out so Jason could bring his precious action figure collection instead.

My chest hurt so badly that I could barely breathe.

Still, after all the years we had spent together, I decided to give Mabel one last chance.

"I'll arrange for someone to come back and get the action figures. Just let me on the helicopter!"