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.”