The floodwaters surged faster and fiercer.
Olivia was helping a crying child to the shore when Emily suddenly stepped forward. “Come on, Olivia, you’ve always been pampered–why don’t you go back? Let me take the kid.”
She reached out to grab the child, but the little one only cried harder.
Smack!
Olivia slapped Emily’s face. “Emily, this isn’t the time for games – lives are at stake!”
Emily covered her face, her eyes burning with resentment.
After Olivia got the child safely ashore and turned to rescue others, she suddenly felt a strong shove
from behind.
に
“Ah!”
She plunged into the rushing current but managed at the last second to grab Emily’s wrist, pulling her down into the water as well.
“Olivia! Emily!”
Jack’s voice came from a distance.
But the flood was too strong; the two women were swept away more than ten feet in an instant.
“Captain! The two women are being swept downstream!”
Jack rushed over just in time to see their figures bobbing in the flood.
Emily cried out, “Jack! Help me!”
Olivia, however, was already choking on water, pale and silent.
A lightning bolt flashed, illuminating Jack’s determined face. Without hesitation, he dove toward
Emily.
At the very last moment before being swallowed by the flood, Olivia caught sight of his choice.
She suddenly felt utterly exhausted.
Let it be.
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She released her grip on the drifting log and let the raging waters carry her away.
Olivia slowly came to as someone wiped her face with a warm towel.
“Captain Rivers, you haven’t slept in two days. I’ll stay with Olivia.”
“No need,” came Jack’s hoarse reply.
Before the nurse could insist, someone burst in. “Captain! Miss Ross has a fever again. She’s been
calling your name nonstop!”
Jack hesitated, then stood up. “Take good care of her.”
His footsteps faded away.
When Olivia woke again, dusk was settling outside the window.
A round–faced female soldier sat by her bedside, letting out a relieved sigh. “Finally awake!”
Olivia’s eyes instinctively flicked toward the door.
The soldier quickly smiled, reading her mind. “Don’t misunderstand. Captain Rivers saved Miss
Ross first, but he came right back and rescued you too. He’s been taking care of you ever since. He
just went to check on her a moment ago. If you want to see him, I’ll call him for you.”
“No need,” Olivia’s voice was dry. “I want to know–have all the evacuees been moved?”
The soldier blinked. “Yeah, thanks to your help. You moved the most people during the flood. The whole unit’s impressed.”
She hesitated, reluctant. “But… are you really going to finish your retraining and head home soon?”
“Yes, I have to leave,” Olivia whispered.
But it wasn’t home she was returning to–it was the countryside, where she would marry.
After sending the soldier away, Olivia forced herself to get up and pack. Her suitcase was nearly
bursting, yet the cherished photo of her mother was conspicuously absent.
“Looking for this?” Emily’s voice, laced with a familiar taunt, drifted from the doorway as she waved the yellowed photograph.
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“Give it back!” Olivia snapped, standing abruptly as her vision blurred.
But Emily didn’t budge. Instead, she took two steps back, pulled a matchbox from her nurse’s pocket, and lit a match with an audible snap.
“Fine. Here you are.” She held the flame to the edge of the photo, letting it catch.
Olivia’s breath caught. Her vision went red. In a flash, she lunged forward and slapped Emily hard across the face.
Smack!
Emily staggered back, the photo slipping from her fingers as flames consumed her mother’s face.
Olivia tried to snatch it away, but Emily raised her hand, letting the photo burn to ashes that scattered across the floor.
Eyes blazing, Olivia grabbed Emily’s collar and slammed her to the ground.
“Olivia!”
Jack’s voice thundered from the doorway.
In the next instant, he pulled Olivia away, causing her to stumble into the table.
He glanced down at Emily, who was covering her face as tears streamed quietly.
“Jack, don’t blame Olivia. It’s my fault. I knew she hated me, but I was worried about her health and came to see her secretly. That’s why she got angry.”
“Apologize,” Jack said, his voice cold as ice as he stared at Olivia.
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Chapter 8
Olivia stood motionless, staring at the ashes.
“I told you to apologize!” Jack’s voice was cold, sharp.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Olivia’s eyes didn’t leave his. Her voice was steady, biting out every word. “She burned my mother’s photo.”
“It was just a picture!” His jaw tensed, frustration flaring in his eyes. “And that gives you the right to start a fight?”
“Just a picture?” She let out a breathless laugh, her eyes rimmed with tears. “That was the last thing my mother ever left me. The only thing.”
He froze. Before he could speak, Emily let out a sob and clung to his sleeve.
“I didn’t mean to… I swear, I didn’t,” she whimpered. “Even if Olivia doesn’t like me, she say something like that?”
Jack’s frown deepened. His patience snapped.
how could
“I thought maybe you’d finally grown up during the flood mission,” he said coldly. “But clearly, you haven’t learned a damn thing.”
He pointed toward the yard, where the rain hadn’t stopped since morning. “Go stand outside. Stay there until you’re ready to apologize.”
Emily put on her best concerned voice. “She’s too proud, Jack. You know she won’t say sorry. In this weather, she could get sick-
“She can stand there all day for all I care.”
Olivia gave a dry chuckle.
Of course. No matter what, he always chose to believe Emily.
Without another word, she turned and walked out the door. She didn’t even bother grabbing her
coat.
Behind her, she heard Jack Scoop Emily up in his arms, heard him whisper gently, “Does it hurt?” Then the sound of his footsteps retreating.
Rain slammed against her face, mixing with tears until she couldn’t tell which was which.
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The storm didn’t let up–for an entire day and night, the rain poured endlessly.
Olivia stood stiff as stone, soaked to the skin, her clothes clinging to her like a second, frozen layer.
“Miss Hart!”
A familiar voice cut through the rain.
Mrs. Carson, the longtime housekeeper who had served Olivia’s family since before she was born, came running with a large umbrella, breathless and panicked. The moment she saw Olivia’s drenched figure, her eyes filled with tears.
She fumbled out a thick cloth bundle–inside was a stack of cash. “Your father sent me to give you ten thousand. Miss Olivia, please… just go home and say you’re sorry. He’s already arranged your marriage out in Lakewood County–God knows you can’t spend your life out there.”
Olivia shook her head. “That arrangement’s exactly what he wants. No matter what I say, it won’t
change a damn thing.”
Mrs. Carson choked up, wiping tears as they dripped into the mud. She’d served Olivia’s mother since before she could walk, had watched Olivia grow up like her own blood. And now, she could
only grip her sleeve helplessly.
“But you’re his daughter…”
“His daughter?” Olivia’s voice was barely a whisper, bitter and calm. “The day he brought that woman and her daughter into our house, I stopped being his anything. These days, he’s too busy playing daddy to someone else’s child.”
Mrs. Carson cried harder.
Olivia’s gaze drifted toward the wall, where a little wildflower bent beneath the wind and rain—
flimsy, but still holding on.
“I’ll be okay.” She took the money. “No matter where I end up.
“And I’ll make damn sure I live better than any of them.”
Back in her dorm, she changed out of the drenched clothes, picked up the suitcase she’d already packed days ago, and headed out.
At the front gate, one of the young soldiers standing watch looked up in surprise.
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“You’re heading home, Miss Hart?”
Olivia looked out into the misty hills beyond the compound–somewhere out there was a place she’d never been, a “home” her father had picked for her, and a marriage waiting with a stranger
she hadn’t even met.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “Going home.”
The soldier scratched his head, flushing with awkwardness. “Will you, uh… ever come back? Mrs. Jenkins said the cafeteria still has your favorite smoked bacon saved.”
Olivia gave him a bright, easy smile. “Thanks. But no–I’m not coming back.”
“Not ever.”
With that, she turned and walked straight into the rain, never once looking back.
