Chapter 7

Zoe stared at the phone for a moment before realizing—it was Dylan’s.

Before she could react, it buzzed again. Then again. One message after another kept lighting up the screen.

“You said you’d stay with me! And now you’re rushing to her just because she got hurt?

“Do you not love me anymore?! Have you fallen for her?!

“You’d better explain, or I swear I’ll break up with you!”

Dylan had come after all.

Zoe’s emotions swirled into a complicated mess.

He was always like this—trying to be cold, but never able to go all the way through with it.

As the messages kept coming with no reply, Jenny must have grown desperate. She started a video call.

Zoe felt a wave of irritation. She wanted to silence the phone but quickly realized she couldn’t move her hand.

Her fingers brushed over the thick layers of gauze, and her expression froze.

No... it couldn’t be...

A nurse stepped in just then. “Miss Stone, you’re awake.”

Zoe sat up quickly. “Nurse, my hand—what happened to it?”

The nurse hesitated, her face tightening with sympathy. After a long pause, she finally said, “Miss Stone, the doctor did everything he could. But… you got to the hospital too late. You missed the best treatment window.”

“So… it’s disabled?”

The nurse chose her words carefully. “You won’t be able to carry anything heavy with that hand anymore.”

Oddly, hearing the truth didn’t shake her. It only confirmed what she had already suspected.

In her past life, Dylan had lost the use of one hand trying to protect her.

This time, she lost one herself. Consider it repayment.

But the nurse wasn’t finished. “Also… because you just had the procedure and then were left in the cold for so long, there’s severe damage to your uterus. You may never be able to have children again.”

Zoe froze, her gaze dropping instinctively to her abdomen.

She stared blankly, as if the words hadn’t quite registered.

No children…?

Once upon a time, that would have devastated her.

Now… it didn’t matter.

She wasn’t planning to get married in this lifetime.

Maybe she wasn’t even capable of falling in love again.

The nurse glanced at her strangely, confused by her eerie calm. Assuming Zoe had gone into psychological shock, she quickly tried to comfort her.

“It’s not definite, Miss Stone. There’s still a chance—”

Clang.

Something crashed to the floor behind them.

A thermos rolled across the tiles, hot soup splattered everywhere.

Zoe looked up and locked eyes with Dylan.

He was standing in the doorway, ghost-white, frozen in place.

He had clearly heard everything.

His eyes trembled, lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to say something but no words came out.

The nurse glanced between them, then quickly slipped out, leaving the two alone.

The silence in the room was suffocating.

Finally, Dylan spoke.

“I…”

He looked directly at her, struggling for words. After a long pause, his voice cracked.

“I’m sorry.”

His mind was spinning.

He couldn’t stop thinking—

If he hadn’t left…

If Zoe hadn’t been left out in the snow for four hours…

Would the outcome have been different?

But Zoe felt nothing anymore. No sorrow, no anger. Just exhaustion.

She didn’t speak. She simply gave a quiet nod.

Dylan stiffened.

That wasn’t the response he had expected.

He had thought she would seize this chance to guilt him into marriage. That she would cry, plead, use this as leverage.

But she didn’t.

She just looked… tired.

Before he could process what that meant, a sudden voice broke the silence.

“Zoe! Oh my god, what happened?!”

Mr. and Mrs. Xander rushed into the room.

Mr. Xander’s face was dark with worry. “We were gone on a short business trip—how the hell did things get this bad?!”

Seeing their genuine concern, Zoe thought of her past life—of what came after Dylan’s death.

Back then, Mr. and Mrs. Xander had cursed her with the cruelest words they could find.

But she hadn’t blamed them.

Because deep down, she believed it was her fault he died.

Mrs. Xander’s eyes turned red. “Does it hurt?”

Zoe shook her head gently. “Not anymore.”

Mr. Xander turned sharply to Dylan, his tone hardening.

“You’d better explain. What the hell happened? Did you do this to her?”