Yvonne nearly broke down in that instant.

But she forced down the lump in her throat, yanked her wrist from his grasp, and flung herself onto the nearby doctor with all her strength.

Her voice came out eerily calm. “What do you mean, look after you? Haven’t I had enough flings on this cruise already?”

The doctor was startled. He was about to say something when Jason roared at him, “Get out!”

The doctor bolted for the door. As he left, he saw Jason grabbing Yvonne and throwing her violently onto the bed.

“You’re that desperate, Yvonne?!”

“Yeah. You never managed to satisfy me. When I was overseas, I had a different man every day. You? You’re boring.”

Whatever shred of emotion was left in Jason’s eyes vanished without a trace. He pinned her down brutally as he growled savagely. “Then you’d better enjoy this.”

What followed was violent and merciless; it was like a storm without relief. Her body was tossed like a ragdoll beneath his weight. The agony dragged her mind back to those days in the psychiatric hospital. Electric shocks, hands around her throat, lashes across her body. The past and present blurred into one endless nightmare.

His sole purpose was to hurt her. When it ended, he slammed the door behind him without looking back.

In the dim room, Yvonne curled into herself. Her whole body spasmed as nausea clawed its way up her throat. She doubled over and dry-heaved uncontrollably as tears poured down her cheeks.

Was this what she wanted? To degrade herself so completely in front of Jason, to make him hate her beyond redemption?

But it hurt so much…

It was like being torn apart from the inside out. She wanted to die right then and disappear completely.

After showering, she received a message from Jason, asking her to go to the main hall of the cruise.

When she arrived, he spared her just a glance before pointing with his chin toward a table covered in leftovers.

“Eat.”

Yvonne did not move right away. She had not eaten in days. Her condition had worsened, and her throat often spasmed uncontrollably. Every time she tried to eat, it came right back up.

She had lost even more weight because of that.

​​Jason tossed a stack of cash at her face without a trace of sympathy. Yvonne picked up the chopsticks while she trembled.

Cindy leaned gently against Jason’s shoulder and said softly, “Jason, just let her go.”

Jason chuckled coldly. “If you hate to see food go to waste, then find someone to finish it off.”

Yvonne ate slowly and emotionlessly. None of the food was to her taste, and Jason knew that better than anyone. She used to hate these dishes so much that she could not even force them down. But in the psychiatric hospital, having food at all had been a luxury. She had long since learned not to be picky.

She ate one bite at a time, but her throat spasmed violently in protest. She tried to fight through it, but in the end, she could not hold it down. She turned aside and threw up in pain.

Jason’s expression darkened. “You’re disgusting, Yvonne!”

“Eat. All of it. You’re not leaving until you finish it!”

He left with Cindy. His face was full of disgust.

Yvonne vomited up everything she ate. Her throat was pushed to its limit. She began to taste blood, and a wave of dizziness hit her again. She had to drag her messy self out to the deck to get some air and clear her head.

Cindy was already standing there, almost as if she had been waiting for her.

She looked Yvonne up and down and smirked, “You really are a mess… Yvonne, compared to Jason, I went easy on you back then.”

Yvonne’s body went rigid, and the agonizing pain tore through her again.

“You should disappear forever.”

As she finished her sentence, Cindy stepped forward suddenly, grabbed Yvonne’s hand, and shoved it against her own shoulder. Then she threw herself over the railing.

Yvonne’s blood ran cold instantly.

“Cindy!” Jason’s roar came from behind as he charged toward them just in time to see Cindy fall into the sea.

The scene mirrored a memory burned deep into his mind. Years ago, her sister had been pushed into a burning fire by Yvonne.

His eyes reddened, and the veins on his forehead bulged. Something inside him snapped. His voice tore through the air like a trapped beast.

“You’re a monster, Yvonne!”

“You should’ve died instead!”

The words hit Yvonne like a sledgehammer. But before she could react, Jason shoved her off straight into the ocean.

Icy seawater rushed over her nose and mouth while Yvonne flailed helplessly. She could swim, but her body had no strength left.

She began to sink. Air was replaced by water, and the light from above grew faint and farther away.

Suffocation dulled her consciousness, and she stopped struggling.

Maybe this was better, to die here and disappear into the depths. In the next life, she would be a small fish which was free from memory and the weight of it all.

But why was Jason’s voice echoing in her mind?

He was saying, “Yvonne, I love you. Let’s never be apart. Not in this life, not in the next.”

***

Yvonne never expected to open her eyes again. But when she did, she found herself strapped to a hospital bed.

If it were not for the absence of electroshock equipment, she would have thought she had been dragged back to the psychiatric hospital.

She was tied down for three days. During those three days, no one came to see her except the nurses who dropped off meals and medications. They ignored her entirely and never answered any of her questions.

She was on the edge of a breakdown when the door finally creaked open. It was Hannah’s husband, Zach Scott.

His eyes were filled with loathing and hatred when they landed on Yvonne. He walked straight up to her and slapped her across the face.

“Yvonne, how dare you come back?”

She bit down on her lip and said nothing.

“Jason loved you so much. Hannah treated you like family… Why did you kill her? Why didn’t you die?! Why did Jason save you from the sea?!”

Zach was like an unhinged beast, and Yvonne’s face swelled from the slap while she stared blankly into the air.

After a long while. Zach eventually calmed down and looked at Yvonne coldly.

“Cindy has been diagnosed with aplastic anemia. She needs a bone marrow transplant, and you’re a match.”

Yvonne seemed to have realized something and lifted her head in disbelief.

Zach sneered. “Jason’s already agreed to it. They’re extracting your marrow this afternoon. Yvonne, you owe him this.

“You probably don’t even know this, but Cindy saved Jason from the fire. She’s the one he owes his life to. They will never be apart.”

Yvonne’s voice cracked, and she sounded like a wind-up doll. “The fire... You mean five years ago…”

“Yes. Five years ago. Unlike you, she has a heart.”

But something inside Yvonne shattered. No… That could not be true. She was the one who had run into the flames and saved Jason!

“I want to see Jason. Let me see him!”

Zach scoffed. “He doesn’t want to see you ever again. You’re on your own now.”

“Wait! Zach, please! I can’t…”

He did not even spare her another glance. He strode toward the door and commanded coldly, “Prep her for the transplant.”

The nurse stepped forward and tried to restrain Yvonne. Tears streamed down her face while she begged, “No, please! I can’t. I have ALS. I have a neurological disorder!”

No one cared, only a detached voice responded, “Miss Xander, please cooperate. Mr. Fender said this is what you owe him.”

She froze. She stopped resisting and let the anesthetic needle slip into her body.

Tears ran silently down her face, and her expression was blank.

‘No, Jason. I don’t owe you anything,’ she thought.

The marrow extraction procedure was excruciating, it felt like her soul was being ripped from her body. She heard her own screams echoing throughout the operating room.

The damage to her nerves was irreversible. She was left paralyzed from the waist down and would never be able to walk again.

Jason still did not show. Only Zach came. He spared her a glance and spat out coldly, “Tough luck. You deserved it.”

Zach went straight to see Jason after he left.

He threw a punch at Jason. Jason let it strike him.

“You still kept her by your side? Jason, how could you do this to Hannah? She was a murderer! And you still have feelings for her?”

Jason’s gaze flickered. There was a long moment before he finally asked calmly, “How is she?”

Zach took a sharp breath, then sneered, “She’s doing just fine. She asked for some money, and she’d be on her way to live it up. You’d just be getting in her way.”

Jason’s eyes dimmed completely at that.

Eventually, he said flatly, “Got it.”

Half a month later, Yvonne sat in a broken wheelchair and spent the entire day dragging herself to the burial site.

Hannah’s grave was halfway up the hill. Yvonne’s wheelchair could not make it up, so she collapsed to the ground and began crawling upward, inch by inch, with her bare hands.

By the time she reached Hannah’s tombstone, her palms were torn open, raw and bloody.

Hannah was smiling radiantly in the photo on the headstone, just like she had always wanted to be remembered: Clean and Pure.

Yvonne sat silently for a long time before whispering, “Hannah, I’m here to visit you.

“I kept the secret safe. Are you happy over there?

“When it’s my time to join you, I hope you won’t turn me away.”

She placed the daisies that she had carefully protected at the foot of the grave. Her tears soaked the petals.

Hannah had been so good to her. She had once wrapped an arm around Yvonne’s shoulders and told Jason, “I treat Yvonne like my own little sister. If you ever dare hurt her, I’ll be the first to make you pay.”

Yvonne pressed her forehead against the cold headstone and murmured, “Hannah, Jason’s bullying me. Could you help me teach him a lesson?”

But there was only silence around her. No response came.

‘Maybe Hannah did not like me anymore either,’ she thought.

On the way back down, Yvonne accidentally tumbled down the steps. She blacked out for a moment, then forced herself to get up. She was bruised and battered from head to toe.

By the time she managed to crawl back into the wheelchair, a car pulled up in front of her.

Jason stepped out. It had been a long time since she last saw him. When he took in the sight of her covered in blood, he frowned slightly.

Yvonne quickly tucked her spasming hands behind her back and said, “I fell and broke my leg.”

Jason’s face went cold immediately. “Who cares what happened to you? I’d have a parade if you end up crippled.”

The pain in her heart pierced so sharply that she could not keep her composure.

He clicked his tongue impatiently and ordered the driver to get Yvonne into the car.

On the drive, Jason smoked one cigarette after another. Smoke quickly filled the car. He tossed a handkerchief over to her and said coldly, “Wipe that blood off your face. It’s disgusting.”

Yvonne did not move. Her hands had already begun to spasm, and she could no longer hold anything.

Jason’s expression darkened further, but he said nothing else.

Shortly after, they arrived at an empty lot on the outskirts of the city. They got out of the car.

The ground was littered with a heap of things in complete disarray. Yvonne froze when she saw what they were.

She recognized every single item.

The dress Jason had gifted her for his coming-of-age ceremony was torn in half. Their engagement invitations. Love letters from high school. The crafts they had made together. And so much more. Every memory that had followed them from school uniforms to wedding vows.

Jason tossed a lit lighter into the pile.

The items had already been soaked in gasoline, and they went up in flames with a loud whoosh. For a split second, Yvonne wanted to hurl herself into the fire and drag it all back.

But she simply stared. Her eyes were dry as if her tears had run out.

Jason said distantly, “I’m a fool for keeping these. Yvonne, falling for you was the biggest mistake of my life. Your bone marrow saved Cindy, so I guess that’s part of the debt repaid.

“From this moment on, disappear from my sight. If I ever see you again, I will kill you.”

Her heart had been burned to ash along with those flames. Jason was moving on, and she was just the dirt on his shoes that should be tossed aside with disgust.

She nodded blankly. “Sure.”