Chapter 7
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.
“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.
She released her grip on the drifting log and let the raging waters carry her away.
Chapter 7
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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
“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.
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“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 fare
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.
