All Chapters of When the Frost Gives Way: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The actor swiped his badge to open the hidden door, and the light outside made me squint."Don't look back." He patted my shoulder.I nodded my thanks, pushed open the door, and saw the three of them in the lobby lounge.The game had been over for twenty minutes. Not one of them had come looking for me.Derek was standing at the counter buying coffee. He popped in a straw with practiced ease and held it up to Vivian's lips.My younger brother, Kyle Carter, lounged on the couch, reading jokes off his phone to them.Vivian was giggling so hard she could barely sit straight, and Derek watched her with that indulgent smile of his.What a perfect little picture.I took a deep breath, walked straight over, pulled out the chair across from Kyle, and sat down. "What's so funny?"The laughter died instantly.The smile on Derek's face froze for a split second before irritation took its place. "Fiona, what took you so long in there?""Seriously, what were you doing?" Kyle rolled his eyes and toss

Chapter 2

Early the next morning, I ran into Derek in the hotel lobby. His face was dark as a storm.He had clearly tracked down my hotel reservation to find me."Fiona, are you done throwing your tantrum?" He grabbed my wrist, brows drawn tight, his voice full of blame. "All this over one necklace? You blocked everyone, and now you want to break up. When did you become so impossible?"I said nothing. I just quietly clenched the hand hanging at my side.That was not it.It was not about a necklace. What I could not take anymore was five years of him always choosing her over me.Every time the three of us went out for dinner or a trip, Vivian would claim the front passenger seat as if it were hers by birthright.Once, when I was drenched in sweat from period cramps, Derek had made me a cup of hot tea. Vivian said she was thirsty, picked it up, and drank the whole thing. Just like that.Every time I tried to push back, Derek would pat my head with a helpless sigh. "Fiona, Vivian's just clueless. S

Chapter 3

The next day, I pushed open the glass door to the office. My desk was buried under Vivian's belongings.The monstera plant I had tended for three years had been tossed into the trash, and the air was thick with her cloying perfume."Derek, how do I adjust the chair height?" Vivian cooed.Derek pressed in behind her, an arm around her waist as he leaned over.At the sound of the door, Vivian turned.Her collar was slightly open. The diamond necklace glinted at her throat, and on her collarbone sat a fresh red mark.Derek straightened up without a trace of guilt. He frowned at me. "So you finally decided to show up. Vivian's handling the big clients now, so this office goes to her."I ignored him. My gaze had fallen to the wastebasket by the corner of the desk.The cameo pendant my grandmother, Evelyn Carter, had left me lay broken in two.When the company was just getting started, the funding dried up.I drank until my stomach bled while courting investors. Even in the hospital, with an

Chapter 4

They were the love letters I had written to Derek on every anniversary for the past five years.He had once held them with tears in his eyes and promised to lock them in a safe and keep them forever.Now they had been ripped open and tossed in with discarded reports, scattered at Vivian's feet.Some even bore the imprint of a stiletto heel.I looked at the barely concealed triumph on Vivian's face, and at Derek frantically dabbing ointment on her cheek.Five years of love and devotion, ground into the mud in a single moment. Rotted through.I did not scream or cry. I slowly pulled myself to my feet, picked up the broken cameo, and closed my fist around it.I unclipped the ID badge from my chest and slammed it onto Derek's desk along with the resignation letter I had already prepared. "I quit."The dead look in my eyes startled Derek. Then his face went dark.Vivian covered her cheek and put on a worried expression. "Fiona, don't be rash. You turned down an offer from a major company to

Chapter 5

"Who are you?"The figure curled up in the corner was not Fiona. It was Frank, his face beaten red and swollen.He was huddled on the ground, shaking violently, wailing through his tears. "Stop hitting me... Please stop! Please!"Derek's heart plummeted. He lunged forward and grabbed Frank by the collar, his eyes red. "Where is she?! Where is Fiona?!"Kyle rushed over and kicked Frank hard in the ribs. "Where is my sister? If you laid a hand on her, I will make sure you rot behind bars for the rest of your life!""I didn't touch her... I never touched her!" Frank was sobbing, blood and tears and snot streaming down his face. "Some man in a suit carried her out!"Derek's fingers began to tremble.A man in a suit?"Wait... he said to give you this!" Frank fumbled in his pocket with shaking hands and pulled out a bloodstained note. "He told me to give this to you. He said if you wanted to see her, go to this address!"Derek snatched the note. The handwriting was stark and hard-edged, and

Chapter 6

The sharp smell of disinfectant gave way to a faint scent of cedarwood. I opened my eyes to the cold white ceiling of a hospital room.My right hand was wrapped in a warm, broad hand.Julian Reed sat in the chair beside my bed, still in his suit jacket. His tie was loose, and his eyes were bloodshot.When he saw my eyes open, he did not ask something useless like "Are you okay?"He just tucked the blanket around me, his fingertip gently brushing the gauze on the back of my hand. "You're safe now. I'm here."I looked at his exhausted, bloodshot eyes, and my nose burned.Five years.Whenever I had cramps, Derek would only tell me to sleep it off, then complain that I was being dramatic if I took a painkiller.Yet here was someone from my past, catching every piece of me that had been about to shatter in the dark.Julian studied my calm face for a moment, then reached for a tablet beside him. "I've looked into everything."He tapped an audio file. His voice was low, careful. "Fiona, this

Chapter 7

Three days later, I finished signing the last notarized property documents I needed before leaving the country.The moment I stepped out of the attorney's office, Derek and Kyle blocked my path.Derek's eyes were ringed with dark circles. Stubble covered his jaw, and his shirt was badly wrinkled. He looked disheveled and exhausted.He grabbed my wrist, his voice raw. "Fiona, where have you been these past few days? What did Julian mean by what he said?"Before I could shake him off, he rushed to explain himself, with a note of self-deception even he did not seem to hear. "I asked Vivian when I got back. She swore to me in tears that she had nothing to do with it."He looked at me, and somehow his tone still carried a note of blame. "Fiona, Vivian is so timid she won't even step on a bug. How could she possibly do something like that? You two have been best friends for years. You know her. Don't let some outsider like Julian poison you against her."I watched him rush to Vivian's defens

Chapter 8

The heater was on inside the car. Julian pressed a hot latte into my hands, its rich, bitter scent chasing away the damp chill.Outside the window, the storm that had been building finally broke.My phone was buzzing nonstop.Sophie Grant, the receptionist I used to get along with at the company, had secretly started a livestream in the employee group chat.On the screen, Derek swept Vivian's pink laptop and crystal figurines off her desk in one violent motion. Over a chorus of piercing screams, he grabbed Vivian by the throat."Why did you do it... Why did you lock Fiona in there? You knew how much that award meant to her!" Derek's eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed, the veins standing out on the backs of his hands. "Do you have any idea that because of you, she never got to say goodbye to her grandmother?! Vivian, what the hell is wrong with you?!"Vivian clawed at his arms, her nails raking bloody lines across the backs of his hands.With everything exposed beyond denial, s

Chapter 9

My departure was like pulling the last load-bearing wall out of Derek's company.I did not take a cent, but I took the core project's entire source code and every authorship right attached to it.I had built it through countless sleepless nights that had pushed me past exhaustion. They could not even understand the code, let alone reproduce it.When the major clients discovered that the project Vivian had put her name on was nothing but an empty shell, they pulled their funding one by one.And in the business world, Julian was more ruthless and decisive than I could have imagined.In less than two weeks, he severed every supply chain lifeline Derek had, trapping him in a dead end with no way out.Derek was hit with massive breach-of-contract penalties. His entire cash flow collapsed.That office Vivian had claimed, the one reeking of cheap perfume, was shut behind a stark white court-ordered closure notice.Derek went bankrupt, saddled with debts he would not be able to repay for the r

Chapter 10

In the departure lounge, my phone screen lit up. The word "Mom" flashed across it.The moment I answered, a barrage of screaming tore through the speaker. "Fiona Carter, you ungrateful little wretch! Your brother's criminal justice program put him on disciplinary probation! Your mess went viral online! You destroyed your own brother. Are you happy now?!"Then came the sound of a struggle on the other end."Mom, stop..." Kyle's voice came through the phone, heavy with exhaustion, stripped of every trace of the cocky swagger he used to carry. "I brought this on myself. I can't blame anyone else. Fiona... I'm sorry."He hung up.I leaned back in the departure lounge chair, staring in silence at the restored cameo pendant in my hand.Grandma, after you left, they loved me even less.I opened my contacts, blocked every number from that family, then opened my banking app and set up an automatic monthly transfer of three hundred dollars for parental support.That legal minimum would be my onl

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