Suddenly, Olivia purposefully passed a half-eaten meatball to Gerard's lips.

The tips of his ears reddened instantly. A pregnant pause later, he shot Olivia a look.

In return, Olivia gave Gerard an encouraging and cheeky look. Embarrassed, he could only chomp down on the half-eaten meatball.

Gerard was a severe clean freak who especially hated eating with others. He'd even throw out the food that I had tasted when I was cooking.

I never ate from the dishes he did. In fact, I never even used the same glassware he did.

It turned out that Gerard wasn't a clean freak at all. He just treated the woman he loved differently from the woman he didn't.

At the moment, Gerard's cheeks were heavily flushed. He was so embarrassed that he could barely utter a word. Instead, he just lowered his head and continued eating.

But Olivia acted as though nothing had happened. She continued the conversation with a straight face.

"By the way, Ger, is there any news about Elly yet?"

Gerard's embarrassment dissipated instantly. He frowned in return.

"She almost killed you back on the mountain! Why do you still care about her? Olivia, you're far too kind, and you care about others way too much! You should take care not to get bullied by others!"

Olivia just smiled sheepishly at Gerard. "But isn't this the reason why you fell in love with me in the first place?"

Back then, everyone knew that Olivia was Gerard's first love. They were like a match made in heaven.

But after Olivia studied abroad, she cut off all contact with Gerard. Since then, no one had heard from her ever again. That was when Gerard and I began dating.

Two years ago, Olivia returned to the country and ended up joining Gerard's mountain excursion squad as the weather observer. However, she made an error when compiling the data on the snow mountain's weather forecast, leading to Gerard's squad getting stuck in a dangerous blizzard on the day they decided to tackle the summit.

At that time, the excursion squads belonging to two separate mountaineering clubs Gerard and I were in had embarked on the journey at the same time. The sudden blizzard caused Gerard—who was in the middle of scaling up a ledge—to fall off and lose consciousness on the spot. To make things worse, his oxygen tank was damaged because it was all banged up from the fall.

In order to save Gerard's life, I made a bold decision by giving him my oxygen tank. After strapping the oxygen mask to his face, I began dragging him down the mountain slowly.

In the end, Olivia was fired by Gerard's mountaineering club. As for me, I had suffered from pulmonary edema due to the prolonged lack of oxygen. Because of this condition, I could never climb all the way to the summit as a mountain climber anymore.

Just like that, my dream to tackle the summit once again was crushed.

After that, I made the decision to quit the mountaineering club I was in. Then, I joined Gerard's club as a field medic, primarily working in Camp 3.

But all Gerard noticed was the fact that Olivia had left right before I joined the club. He thought that I was the one who forced her out of the club.

At that moment, Gerard and Olivia slowly covered the distance between them. Their mouths were inching closer to each other as well.

"Ah, Gerard! You're here!" someone shouted, completely ruining the suggestive atmosphere.

Soon, a bunch of people from Gerard's mountaineering club could be seen running toward him from the base camp while hugging something in their arms.

They were quick to tell Gerard their reasons for meeting up with him. Their first reason was to show concern toward him because of the latest incident faced by the incursion, and to reflect on the factors that might have contributed to the incident's occurrence. The second reason was to deliver the things as per my request.

Those things were originally meant to be delivered to me. Now that I had gone missing, the group decided to give them to Gerard instead.

Truth be told, I wanted to give Gerard a surprise after the excursion. After all, our anniversary was coming up in a few days.

The members of the mountaineering club didn't expect to see me missing. The first thing they did see, however, was Gerard and Olivia being intimate on the plateau.

Gerard began inspecting the gift I had prepared for him. It was a watch that he'd had his eye on for a very long time, as well as a love letter that was penned with all my feelings for him.

He didn't hesitate to rip the letter into shreds without bothering to read it. Then, he tossed the pieces as well as the watch into a nearby crevice.

The members of the mountaineering club could no longer stomach Gerard's behavior. One of them quickly stopped him before asking, "Gerard, what the hell are you doing? If you don't like the gifts, I can return them to Elliana! What are we supposed to tell her now that you've tossed her gifts away?"

Gerard merely responded with a sneer, "What are you supposed to tell her, you say? Well, I want her to tell me what she's thinking right now!

"How dare she go missing on me as a field medic during the time the base camp needs her the most! What is she going to tell the patients in return, then?"

Gerard sounded extremely righteous when he criticized me.

But the thing was, he was the one who personally robbed me of my oxygen tank and reduced me to nothing but a corpse. Did he not feel ironic after saying those things?

When the members of the mountaineering club saw the way Gerard was acting, they didn't want to stay there any longer. Instead, they just came up with an excuse of not having lunch yet and left right away.

Meanwhile, Gerard handed a flower over to Olivia.

"Look, Olivia! This is your favorite pink rose! I've never forgotten your favorite flower!"

So… It turned out that pink roses were Olivia's favorite flower.

In the past, I had asked Gerard what his favorite flower was, yet he never gave me an answer. So, I began giving him different types of flowers. Out of all the flowers, he chose to place the pink roses in a vase at home.

Since then, I thought his favorite flower happened to be pink roses. For a long time, I was secretly pleased with my sharp observational skills.

I never expected those pink roses to be Olivia's favorite flower instead.

It turned out that everything I had done for Gerard was nothing but an illusion to him. My soul felt as though it was stabbed by a thousand blades.

How ridiculous. Gerard actually presented the flowers that were meant for him to Olivia, as though he was the one who had bought them for her.

My parents' agony, as well as my despair, were starting to tear my soul apart. Even my corpse was already riddled with injuries.

Now, my soul was immersed in nothing but despair.

Gerard and Olivia continued hanging out intimately with each other till nightfall. Only when a high fever suddenly broke out among a few people did Gerard remember me.

Before additional help and supplies arrived at the base camp, I was the only one who knew how to treat the patients and alleviate their fever symptoms.

Gerard began spamming my phone with countless calls. Since he couldn't reach me on my phone, he began texting me on WhatsApp. He threatened me by saying that I could forget about returning to the base camp ever again if I chose not to return right now.

The day Olivia flew back to the country also happened to be my birthday. The same thing had happened to me at home as well, for I had spammed Gerard's phone with countless calls.

After that, I found out that Gerard was actually picking Olivia up at the airport that day.

But I couldn't reach him no matter how many times I kept calling his number. In the end, I had to compromise by leaving Gerard a voice message that he must wake me up when he reached home so that I could heat dinner up for him.

Now that I thought about it, I sure was pathetic when I was still alive.

My parents were still waiting for the news of my impending rescue at the base camp. They had gone through the day without food, so they looked extremely pale and weak at the moment.

They supported each other as they stood where they were. Their figures were so frail and thin that a gust of wind could easily blow them off their feet.

"Please, Gerard! We're begging you! Please take your men and go look for Elly! She must be very scared right now!"

"Elly is terrified of the dark! Please, Gerard! Please save her!"

Olivia, who was intimidated by my parents' pleas, cowered instantly at the sight. Gerard quickly shielded her from my parents in response.

"Don't be scared, Olivia. Hey, you two! You're too immersed in your acting, aren't you? From the way I see it, you two have spoiled Elliana to no end! I can't believe you're going along with her shenanigans!"

My poor mother wailed at the top of her lungs. As for me, I kept circling in front of my parents while shrieking, "Mom! Dad! I'm here! I'm right here!"

I used all of my energy to scream at my parents. My hands kept phasing through their bodies the whole time, yet they could never feel my presence.

My tears dissipated as soon as they dropped to the ground. I could only watch everything unfold before my eyes desperately. Alas, I was too helpless to do anything about it.

Dad kept yelling my name hoarsely over and over again. His eyes soon slid shut before he collapsed like a ragdoll.

My parents didn't get any rest over the last 24 hours. The crushing sorrow, coupled with their altitude sickness, ended up crippling them despite being fueled by their need to look for me.

A frown marred Gerard's face as he summoned a medic over. Soon, my parents were carted into the makeshift hospital.

The moment my parents collapsed from screaming and wailing about me, Gerard finally fell silent.

There was a limit to how much one could act. It was impossible for me to put my parents in grave danger. Besides, they didn't look like they were acting at all.

Gerard raised his head to look at the snow mountain, which was located in the distance. His eyes were glued to the summit—the spot where I had died.

Then, he turned around to walk into his tent. There, he had someone bring out his mountaineering gear.

"Where are you going, Ger?" Olivia's sickly sweet voice echoed at that moment. "The weather conditions up in the mountains are very dangerous at the moment. What if something happens to you when you're climbing the mountain, Ger?

"The search-and-rescue team is almost here, but…" Olivia's voice faded into a few violent coughs.

She was extremely skilled when pulling off this tactic. Her sentences had yet to end, but her tears were already on the verge of falling. Once she let out a few coughs, she used the opportunity to collapse into Gerard's arms.

It was true that the journey up the snow mountain would be incredibly dangerous. At the same time, the weak and fragile Olivia could barely function without him. He was needed in the base camp as well, seeing as he was the leader.

"Ger, yesterday's incident was so terrifying! Although I'm still suffering from heart palpitations, I think I can ignore my discomfort once I start taking up chores in the camp.

"I can whip up some basic dishes, too! Why don't I prepare a meal for everyone in the cafeteria?"

Not only was Olivia independent and understanding, but she was also very capable and knew when to offer her help. Gerard felt that every positive adjective in this world described Olivia perfectly well.

To him, Olivia was a strong and independent woman who was needed in the base camp.

Gerard just smiled as he caressed Olivia's hair. After that, they hugged each other intimately.

Alas, Gerard had no idea that Olivia was a bad cook. At a time like this, when everyone was low on supplies, it'd be a waste of ingredients to let her cook.

On the other hand, everyone in the base camp loved my cooking. No one would turn down the dishes I made.

Although Gerard was young, he was already diagnosed with gastritis. I was the one in charge of planning and cooking his daily meals.

On top of that, Gerard had a strict dietary regime to follow as the leader of the mountain excursion squad. I was also the one in charge of his diet.

I wasn't just Gerard's wife—I was more like a dietitian and even a caretaker at times.

The staff members and patients who came over to grab their meals instantly showed their disgust and resentment toward the inedible food prepared by Olivia. They glared at her angrily in return.

Of course, Gerard wasn't spared from the crowd's anger as well, despite being the leader.

As Gerard stared at the pile of inedible junk and the angry mob before him, he finally recalled my existence. He began missing the food I made as well as the effort I had put into taking care of him. He missed the way I was able to take care of everyone at the base camp and not cause him any trouble at all.

That was right. My husband—the same man I had been taking care of for so long—was a selfish bastard through and through.

Before Gerard could dwell on his newfound emotions, a commotion could be heard coming from the outside. It turned out that the search and rescue team had returned from their quick excursion up the mountain.

After scanning around the camp, one of the team members spotted Gerard.

"We found your wife's corpse. We're sorry for your loss."