Chapter 3

Ethan arrived just in time to see Hazel collapsed on the floor, trembling with sobs.

His expression changed drastically. He strode in and yanked her up from the ground, shielding her behind him.

"I told you—if you have a problem, come at me!"

He glanced back at the trembling Hazel, then turned back to me with fury nearly overflowing from his eyes.

"She has a heart condition—don't you know that?! Can't you just talk properly? Did you have to push her this far?!"

I looked at him and let out a cold laugh.

"Ethan, you're quite practiced at protecting her. When she first moved into my place, you wouldn't even say her name! Now you've become her guardian angel?"

Ethan stood his ground righteously.

"Want to rehash the past? Fine. How much money did you spend raising her all these years? How many favors did you owe? Name your price!"

"I'll pay back every cent with interest! Is that good enough?"

Looking at this stranger before me, I suddenly remembered three years ago when he was pursuing me.

In the dead of winter, he'd wait for me outside the company building after work, keeping my favorite roasted chestnuts warm in his jacket.

Because he was afraid of disturbing my work, he never told me—just waited silently, his face turning red from the cold.

Back then I thought, this person is truly wonderful.

So wonderful that I felt all the suffering in the first half of my life had been to save up my luck, so I could meet him.

But now he stood across from me, trying to convert everything between us—

Three years of feelings, countless late-night phone calls, too many hugs and kisses to count, those things I thought would be carved into my bones for life—into a cold string of numbers.

A one-time settlement.

"Enough!"

Hazel suddenly shouted, stepping out from behind him.

Her face was covered in tears, her chest heaving violently as she gasped for air.

Ethan instinctively reached out to support her, but she pushed him away.

She stubbornly lifted her head to look at me, her eyes filled with almost savage determination.

"Natalie, I wronged you. I owe you a debt I can never repay in this lifetime. But don't make yourself sound so noble!"

"You raised me for sixteen years—every meal, every piece of clothing, every cent—I remember it all. But do you know that the person I've hated most my whole life is you?!"

"You arranged everything so perfectly, which just made me feel like I, Hazel, am worthless and can't survive a single day without you!"

"I could never hold my head up in front of you, so I desperately wanted to leave you! The only reason I married that bastard was because he said he'd take me to another city!"

"He still scammed me in the end, but this time I won't listen to you anymore."

She took Ethan's hand, interlacing their fingers.

"I've found my true love, and even if you hate me forever, I'll never let go!"

"Besides, you have so much already—what's wrong with giving him to me?!"

Hearing her speak so righteously, I felt thunderstruck. I stepped back two paces, watching Ethan firmly clasp her hand in return, then laughed softly.

"Fine. Hazel, from today on, you don't owe me anything anymore. From now on, whether you're well or not, dead or alive, it has nothing to do with me."

I turned and pushed open the glass door of the flower shop without looking back.

The year Dad died I was fifteen. To support myself and my sister, I went to class during the day and waited tables at night.

That winter, I collapsed from exhaustion and came down with a high fever.

Hazel piled all the blankets in the house on top of me, then went out alone to buy medicine.

Afraid the medicine would get wet from the snow, she carefully kept it in her jacket while she fell several times on the icy roads.

Her knee wound got frostbite, became infected, and she developed a high fever that eventually turned into myocarditis.

The doctor said her heart was damaged and she could never do strenuous exercise again or handle stress.

So I always felt I owed her, and was willing to devote myself to her for life.

But now she was holding my boyfriend's hand, saying the person she'd hated most her whole life was me!

One was the sister I'd raised with my own hands, the other was the person I'd planned to spend my life with.

The two people I cared about most had joined forces to deliver the most fatal blow!

Why?

I closed my eyes and pulled out my phone, scrolling to a number.