Chapter 9

Ashley touched Lance's body as she wished. She boldly ran her hand over his bare skin and even started kneading while releasing a sigh of satisfaction. Then, she touched a sensitive spot that made Lance's entire body jolt. His grip on the steering wheel loosened, and he lost control of the car. The car they were in smashed through the guardrail and plunged straight into the river beside the road. Following a dull but booming splash, icy river water surged into the car in an instant. Sienna, dazed and dizzy from the crash, grabbed the emergency hammer with sheer survival instinct and desperately shattered the window glass. Water poured in like a torrent. She struggled and managed to get out through the broken window, but she could not swim. "Help… Lance, help!" she called out desperately, choking on the freezing water. Lance got out of the car as well. Seeing Sienna floundering in the water, he immediately started toward her. But from the other side, Ashley screamed in terror. "Lance! Save me! I can't swim! I'm going to die! Help me!" Lance froze. He looked at Sienna, who was sinking fast, and then at the shrieking Ashley. He felt torn and anguished over who to save first. In the end, he gritted his teeth and turned toward Ashley. Sienna watched him turn his back on her decisively. The last flicker of hope inside her was utterly extinguished. … When she woke up, she was once again lying in her own bed. Lance sat beside her, his hair still damp and his face pale. Both his eyes were bloodshot with fear and exhaustion. The moment Sienna opened her eyes, he held her hand anxiously. "Thank god you woke up, Enna! I was so scared! I'm sorry, I saved Ashley first because she can't swim at all. I thought you could hold on a little longer while she was about to sink. I had no choice… "She once did me a great favor. Afterward, I called for rescue and went right back for you…" Sienna stared blankly at the ceiling, not really listening to his explanation. Her heart hurt so much that it no longer felt painful at all. Just then, Lance's phone rang yet again. "Lance, where are you? I'm so scared… I feel unwell again… Can you come over?" Ashley's fragile voice whimpered through the speaker. Lance looked at Sienna with guilt and hesitation on his face. "Enna, I…" "Go," Sienna said, closing her eyes. Lance hesitated for a moment and murmured, "I'll be back soon. Rest well." He left in a rush. In the days that followed, Lance never came back. Occasionally, when Sienna opened Instagram, she always found new posts from Ashley. Sometimes, it was Lance asleep beside a hospital bed. Sometimes, it showed two intertwined hands. Other times, it featured the silhouette of Lance peeling an apple for her. Every post was set to be visible only to Sienna. She scrolled through them with a heart so numbed by the pain that it stirred nothing inside her at all. One day, Sienna returned to school to collect her graduation photo. When she walked along the familiar tree-lined path, she heard a cat's faint and desperate cry from the old building nearby. Following the sound, she found Ashley on the second-floor balcony, torturing a tiny kitten. The small creature trembled and cried in terror. "Stop!" Sienna rushed forward, shoving Ashley aside to rescue the kitten. But Ashley clung stubbornly to the cat's leg, refusing to let go. As they were struggling, Ashley suddenly smiled faintly and flung herself backward. She toppled off the balcony. Sienna froze in shock and instinctively reached out, but caught only the edge of Ashley's clothing. In that split second, a figure darted from below and caught the falling Ashley in his arms. It was Lance. The impact made him stagger and fall, but he managed to catch Ashley and break her fall, leaving her unscathed. He checked on Ashley anxiously. "Are you alright? What happened?" Trembling and wide-eyed, Ashley clutched his shirt and burst into tears. "Lance, Sienna… I think she was angry because you saved me first when we fell in the river, so she pushed me…" Sienna, who had just rushed downstairs, arrived just in time to hear this accusation. Rage made her whole body shake. She exclaimed, "You're lying! I didn't push you! You were abusing the cat! I tried to stop you, and then you…" Ashley cried even harder. "Lance, she pushed me, and now she's slandering me. I've always loved small animals. How could I hurt a cat?" Lance immediately believed her, his eyes turning sharp as he glared at Sienna. "I saw you standing on the balcony when Ashley fell! "You already pushed her once in the hospital, and now you've gone and pushed her off a building? If I hadn't been there to catch her, she could have been ruined forever!" "I told you I didn't push her! She jumped herself! Why don't you believe me?" Sienna argued fiercely. Lance countered coldly, "I saw it with my own eyes. How can I believe you? Everything I've done for her, from saving her to caring for her, was only to repay a debt of gratitude! That's all! Why can't you be more tolerant? Why do you keep bullying her again and again?"