Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

He clenched his jaw so hard the muscles twitched. His voice broke as he choked out the words. “But Jacob is dead. There was no way I could make that kind of money in such a short time. Elsa didn’t want to drag me down. She slit her wrists.”Winter felt her scalp go numb.Her fingers found the lighter on the ground. She closed her hand tightly around it.“I exposed that club because Jacob exploited countless underage boys and girls,” she said steadily. “I did it to save more people. As for his death, that was the result of his own actions. It has nothing to do with me.”“Nothing to do with you?” His face was now twisted with grief and rage, almost unrecognizable. “If you hadn’t exposed the club, it wouldn’t have been shut down. I wouldn’t have lost my only source of income. You say you did it to save others. All I know is that Jacob gave me a way out. He gave me money. He could have saved Elsa. You destroyed that path. You destroyed her only chance to live.”Winter frowned.She co

“That’s right.”Chris’s gaze followed the movement of the knife. He shifted his stance ever so slightly, and in that gap, Winter caught sight of Zion lurking behind the group.It was a silent signal, almost as if he were trying to steady her nerves.William had mentioned once that Zion was a world-class marksman.Suddenly, Winter understood Chris’s intent. He was trying to bait the man, drawing his focus away just long enough for Zion to find his mark or perhaps to take a kill shot.But the man was hyper-vigilant. Even though his resolve was wavering, his grip never slackened. He left no clear opening.With Winter held so close, even a marksman of Zion’s caliber faced a nearly impossible task without a proper vantage point. At this distance, the slightest tremor or a fraction of an inch could mean a bullet in her instead of him.Chris wanted to swap himself for her. He was offering himself up as the hostage.Winter clenched her teeth.“So it was you who killed Jacob,” she sudd

“Have you ever heard the alternative explanation of death people share online?” Winter asked quietly. Her eyes flicked once more to his right hand, which had loosened slightly around the detonator.The man looked up at her, confusion clouding his face.“Death isn’t the end,” she continued gently. “It’s just that when you wake up, Elsa has already gone to work. When you sit down to eat, she’s out for a run. And when you go looking for her, she’s just gotten home. She’s still beside you. You just can’t see her anymore.“But she can see you. Everything you’re doing right now, she can see.”“She’s really still with me?” he asked, glancing around blankly. The sky had grown darker. The temperature in the mountains was dropping fast.Winter held her bruised throat and nodded firmly. “Of course.“You brought her favorite cake. She can taste it.“You said she liked lighting candles before eating cake, right?” Winter’s voice softened, almost like an older sister coaxing a child. “Let’s li

“My glasses fell off.”Chris’s voice was hoarse. After he said it, Winter heard him suppress a couple of coughs.She frowned.By now, night had fully swallowed the mountains. The snow in the valley reflected just enough light that it wasn’t completely pitch-black.She let her eyes adjust to the dimness before realizing he was right. The glasses were gone from the bridge of his nose.Years ago, a car accident had left Chris temporarily blind. His vision had eventually returned, but not without lasting damage. His eyes had abnormal refraction, something like severe astigmatism, so he had to wear glasses. Whether his vision would ever fully recover was still uncertain.Without them, especially in this darkness, he was almost blind.After the fall from the cliff into the snow, his hair had come loose. A few strands hung over his forehead as he lowered his head slightly, as if trying to sense the faint traces of light around him.Seeing him like that brought back memories of those y

She had forgotten that when she was drunk, she had already asked him that question.“Were you hoping it was me?” Winter could vaguely feel something cold behind her head, probably a dry branch pressing against her skull. She shook her head weakly, and the world tilted.Hoping?Her head had fallen against Chris’s thigh. She didn’t have the strength to lift it again. A faint, fragile laugh escaped her lips.“I never let myself hope for that. Not even once.”Her breath brushed against him. The warmth of it seeped into his leg. His hand paused. When her body suddenly went limp, he quickly cupped the back of her head.The heat shocked him.“Winter!”His hand slid to her shoulder as he pulled her fully into his arms and sat down in the snow.She barely had any awareness left. She slumped weakly against his chest.His hand moved lower, finding hers. Her palm was ice cold.But her temperature was still rising.“Winter!” He supported the back of her head with one hand and lightly