บททั้งหมดของ One Percent of Love: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

I was falling fast. My bones rattled, my blood seemed to run backward, and my head buzzed.Somewhere above me Ethan was shouting, panicked. "Nora! Are you insane?"Just when I was sure I was about to die, I hit something huge and soft, a fire rescue airbag.Ethan came down too. He pushed through the crowd and stood over me.His voice was full of scorn. "Huh. Still alive?""Nora, you really know how to put on a show. Can't even die from a jump. You did that on purpose, didn't you?"His friends laughed along. "Yeah, she just wants Ethan to feel sorry for her."Ethan stood and brushed the dust off his knees. "Even if you'd jumped and actually died, I still wouldn't have married you.""You die, I marry someone else. You live, don't expect me to pity you."I opened my mouth. The taste of blood welled up from my throat, thick on my tongue.I forced it down, and my voice came out shaking. "Ethan, I don't want you to marry me.""As of today, we're even."Ethan's smile froze for a second. Then

The day my mother's life hung in the balance, I was putting together a financial report for Ethan's company.The hospital called. "Ms. Bennett, your mother has had a brain hemorrhage. She needs surgery immediately.""Please come and sign the consent forms. The deposit is fifty thousand, up front."Fifty thousand dollars.I checked every account I had. Together they came to less than five hundred.Ethan had taken all my savings, everything my parents and I had set aside over a lifetime. I had nothing left.When I burst into Ethan's office, he was leaning back in his chair on a video call with Vivian, his voice impossibly gentle."Baby, what do you want for dinner? I'll book somewhere."He frowned when he saw me come in, covered the phone's mic, and looked at me.I spoke fast. "Ethan, my mother has a brain hemorrhage. She needs fifty thousand for surgery. Can you—"He cut me off, his voice flat. "Money's tight for me right now. Figure it out yourself.""That money you took out of my acco

I lay in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling.Ethan had a system too. So what had it told him to do?I turned it over in my mind all day and couldn't make sense of it. He came back the next day.His eyes were red. One look and I could tell he hadn't slept, that he'd been crying.I didn't make much of it. I just said, evenly, "Go on. Tell me about this system of yours."Ethan's voice was hoarse. "It woke up five years ago. The target was you."Five years ago, the exact moment I'd gotten mine."What was your task?"He looked at me, his lips moving. "To make you give up on me."I went still.A lot of things fell into place at once. No wonder he'd agreed to that agreement in the first place."Your task was to make me give up on you. Why? What was the reward?"Ethan dropped his head, his throat working."If you gave up on me, I'd live past thirty."Something in my mind snapped.He went on. "I've had a heart condition since I was a kid. I was never going to make it past thirty.""Five y

The day I was discharged, the sun was out.I handled the paperwork on my own, on crutches, and instead of going straight home I went to my mother's room. She was waiting for me.When I opened the door she was sitting on the edge of the bed, already changed into her own clothes, her bag packed.She saw me, stood, came over and took my hands, and looked me up and down.Her gaze landed on the crutches, on the bruises that hadn't fully faded from my face, on the leg that had just come out of its cast.Her eyes went red. "Nora, you've lost weight, and you're so pale. Have you not been eating?"Warmth spread through my chest. "I have. Every day."She touched my cheek, her fingers warm. "Come on. Let's go home. I'll make you something good."I smiled, and I meant it. "Okay."We went to her doctor's office for one last check.He looked over all her results and said everything was normal, that she could go home.I nodded along, then asked, almost in passing, "By the way, doctor, a friend of min

After my leg healed, I took my mother for one last follow-up.Ethan trailed silently behind us. I ignored him.While we waited for the results, a commotion broke out at the end of the hall.A woman was crying. A nurse rushed past pushing a gurney with a small child on it, the child's lips gone blue."Out of the way. The child's lost too much blood. He needs a transfusion."Ethan got up from the bench at the other end of the hall and ran over at once."I'll give blood. We're the same type. Take mine."The nurse looked at him.Ethan was pale, his lips dry, still not recovered from the blood loss and the stomach pump."Are you up to it? You don't look well.""Yes. Hurry, the child can't wait."He lay down in the donation chair, pushed up his sleeve, and the blood ran out through the line and into the bag.His lips went whiter and his hand kept trembling, and the nurse glanced at him again and again.I stood at the corner of the hall and didn't go over.I watched the blood come out of him,