Chapter 2
811 Words
A loud crash shattered the silence. The two people inside the infirmary instantly pulled apart.
The moment Jonathan saw Flora, panic flashed across his face.
"Flora, why are you here?" he blurted out.
Her heart felt like it was trapped in a crushing grip. The pain made her whole body shake. After a long moment, she finally forced the words out.
"I really came at a bad time, didn't I?" she asked in a trembling voice. "Did I ruin your fun?"
Jonathan's throat tightened.
"Flora, it's not what you think. Nina got hurt, so I brought her here to treat her injury. We... nothing happened between us."
Did he really think she could not see what was right in front of her?
Nina's cheeks were still red from earlier. She hid behind Jonathan like a scared little rabbit.
Jonathan quickly took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Nina, go back to the dorm. I'll deal with this."
As he spoke, he reached for Flora's hand.
She instantly stepped away in disgust.
Seeing Nina about to leave, Flora moved in front of her and blocked the door.
"Stop right there," she snapped. "Since when does treating an injury mean taking your clothes off? Jonathan, do you think I'm blind or stupid?"
Her frosty eyes swept over Nina's face.
"If you're so good at acting innocent, why not go tell Bryan, our captain, everything yourself?"
The second those words fell, Nina lowered her head and rushed toward the exit.
Flora had only just raised her arm.
Nina suddenly fell hard onto the floor. Right beside her lay a pair of ice skates. The sharp blade sliced across her palm and left a long, bloody cut.
Blood immediately spilled out.
Nina burst into tears and cried pitifully.
"Flora, I was wrong. Please don't be mad anymore, okay? I'm begging you. Please don't tell Bryan."
Jonathan's face darkened immediately.
"That's enough, Flora," he said coldly. "Stop making things difficult for her."
"If you want someone to blame, blame me. You know how stressed we've been before the competition. We just..."
He talked about betraying her like it was some tiny mistake.
Somehow, she had become the unreasonable one.
Flora looked straight into his eyes and spoke slowly.
"This is normal to you then?"
Nina stretched out her bleeding hand and weakly grabbed Flora's pant leg. Her voice sounded soft and shaky.
"Flora, don't blame Jon. This is all my fault," she whispered.
Jonathan avoided Flora's eyes. Then he bent down and carried Nina into his arms.
"Flora, stop causing a scene. I'm taking Nina to the hospital first. Go home and wait for me. I'll explain everything when I get back."
The moment he finished speaking, he turned and left without looking back once.
He never noticed that the shattered fish tank glass had already cut into Flora's leg. Blood had soaked through her pant leg.
Flora stood there motionless and watched him disappear into the darkness. Then she slowly dragged herself away like an empty shell.
Before she got far, she heard two teammates whispering nearby.
"I think Nina got hurt just now. Jonathan looked so worried that his eyes were red."
The other person quickly glanced around before lowering his voice.
"You didn't know? I've seen them together a few times lately. They've been secretly meeting in the infirmary. Things between them looked pretty intense. I didn't dare tell anyone."
"No way. Isn't Jonathan about to marry Flora? I even saw his post earlier making their relationship official. How did things end up like this?"
"Yeah, nobody saw this coming. Back then, Jonathan almost died for Flora. After her injury, he even wanted to retire with her. Bryan talked him out of it after a lot of effort. Who would've thought he'd change like this?"
Every word stabbed into Flora's chest like a knife.
So, this was not the first time.
There had already been many times before tonight.
Snow suddenly filled her mind.
Back during high-altitude training, they had once run into an avalanche. Jonathan had given all the cold-weather gear to her. He nearly froze to death because of it. Even before passing out, he still held tightly onto her hand.
"Flora, as long as I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you," he had whispered weakly.
A deep ache slowly spread through her chest. It felt like someone was carving into her heart with a knife.
In the end, the new replaced the old.
Flora could not even remember how she made it home.
That night, she sat alone in the dark for hours without moving.
Jonathan never came back.
The next morning, she quietly made a phone call.
"I agree to enter a marriage as the Keenan family heiress," she said softly. "But I have one condition. My adoptive mother has to come with me."
- Writer
