Chapter 5

“I told you, what happened to Mia was an accident, but that can’t be your reason for leaving me!”

“Compensation?”

I looked at this man I had once loved to my core, repeating the word.

“Ryan, what could you possibly compensate? Can you bring Mia back to life?”

“Can you turn back time, and choose to save her that day instead?”

He was speechless, only able to futilely emphasize: “That’s different! Rescue operations have procedures and judgments! I—”

“Don’t talk to me about your procedures and judgments anymore!”

I finally exploded, screaming out all my pain and despair.

“Your ‘judgment’ was that my sister’s cry for help needed verification, but Miss Valerie’s frozen bracelet was a top emergency!”

“Your ‘procedure’ was to keep your entire rescue team standing by while *you* drove dozens of miles to play hero to a rich heiress!”

My voice was shrill, attracting the curious stares of the neighbors.

A flicker of embarrassment crossed Ryan’s face. He tried to cover my mouth.

“Lower your voice! Don’t air our dirty laundry in public!”

I violently shook off his hand, tears finally streaming down my face.

“Dirty laundry? Ryan, *now* you care about dirty laundry?!”

“When you treated Mia’s life like a joke, did you ever consider it would come to this?”

“While you smugly enjoyed Valerie’s thanks and the media’s praise, did you ever spare a thought for the girl slowly taking her last breaths in the blizzard?!”

“I told you I didn’t know she was there for *me*!” He was enraged now too, veins bulging on his forehead. “If I had known, I would have gone to save her first!”

“Really?” I retorted with a cold laugh. “But you *didn’t* know. You didn’t even spend a second thinking about it.”

“You just *assumed* she was some reckless idiot, not worth a hero captain like you prioritizing her rescue.”

Ryan fell silent instantly, the fire in his eyes slowly dying, replaced by a deep sense of helplessness. Perhaps only at this moment did he truly realize that the problem between us was no longer something an apology or compensation could fix.

It was a human life, a chasm my sister had carved with her very existence, a gulf we could never bridge.

I slowly, one by one, peeled his fingers from the handle of my suitcase. His hand was warm, strong, once my most cherished harbor.

But now, I only felt cold.

“Ryan, let go,” my voice was calm again. “We’re truly over.”