Chapter 128
Blanche collapsed at the cliff’s edge. Someone spotted her and shouted. desperately into the abyss.
“Mr. Simmons! We found Mrs. Simmons!”
“She’s not at the bottom!”
Yet the rope still plunged downward, unspooling faster and faster.
Panic seized everyone.
Blanche lunged forward, clutching at the rope. The rough fibers tore a bloody gash across her palm as it slid through her grip.
Her throat burning, she screamed into the darkness below, “Eddy! I’m not down
there–come back! Please!”
Her voice echoed through the ravine, clear and sharp in the night air. Everyone on the clifftop heard her.
Still, the rope slipped away from her hand, unhindered.
The bodyguards rushed forward, grabbing hold. But the rope only jerked, then plunged even faster.
“The rope is being controlled by Mr. Simmons,” one of the guards said, helping Blanche to her feet. His voice was heavy with grief. “Ma’am, I’m afraid he’s already…”
”
Blanche broke down, tears streaming. She clung to the guard, then to the waiting. rescue team, her voice raw with desperation. “No… He can’t… He can’t be gone…
The frantic voices of the guards and rescue experts swirled around her. Overhead, the search helicopter circled, its blinding spotlight stabbing down at her. Blinking through tears, Blanche sat trembling at the cliff’s edge, Eddy’s face–his smile, the warmth in his eyes–flooding her mind.
She’d only ever wanted to leave him; she never wanted him dead.
He had been her salvation, the one who pulled her out of darkness.
After her mother’s death, he had become her whole world.
Blanche pressed a trembling hand over her aching heart.
She had loved him with everything she had.
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Unopter 128
The grief pressed down so hard she could barely breathe. It felt like something vital was draining away from her, something she couldn’t hold onto no matter how hard she tried. Forcing herself upright, her voice hoarse, she spoke to the dazed rescue captain, “We can’t wait for sunrise and the fog to lift. Send the team down now, with oxygen tanks if you have to.”
As soon as the words left her lips, her vision went black. Strength deserted her, and she toppled, weightless, toward the ground.
Shouts burst around her as she fell into a pair of cold, strong arms. In her mind’s eye, Eddy’s face appeared–troubled, worried, and brimming with love, gazing back at her.
A shrill beep sounded in her ear.
For a moment, a shaft of light broke through the darkness above her.
She thought she heard her mother’s voice calling.
Her mother had held on until Blanche’s eighteenth birthday, throwing her a lavish coming–of–age party–her engagement party, too–entrusting her to Eddy’s care.
Blanche ached for her mother.
Her body felt lighter and lighter, as if she were floating away. Somewhere nearby, a voice choked with pain fought to hold itself steady.
“I won’t let you die, do you hear me?”
Then a roar, distant and furious, “Get the helicopter down! Fly straight to the hospital–now!”
Eddy’s voice, cold as ice.
“Hurry! Her heart’s stopped!”
Inside the helicopter, Eddy barked orders at the pilot, then dropped to his knees beside Blanche. He pressed his hands to her chest, pumping her heart with desperate force.
He covered her mouth with his, breathing life into her lungs.
He kept up the chest compressions, voice breaking. “Laney, think of Healy. Please, don’t give up on us!”
When the helicopter landed on the hospital rooftop, the emergency team was already waiting. Blanche was lifted onto a stretcher and rushed into the elevator.
Eddy kept working, refusing to let go, his hands never leaving her chest.
His mind flashed back to the night before their engagement party. Sheila, Blanche’s mother, had taken his hand and told him, “Eddy, Laney has a hereditary heart condition. The first time it struck was when she caught her father cheating. There will be more episodes.”
Eddy had first met Blanche in the hospital.
From that day on, protecting her became second nature.
Sheila had brought Blanche to Westbridge overnight, because only Westbridge had the best medical team–the only chance to save her daughter’s life.
“She might never be able to give you a child,” Sheila had said. “Eddy, will you still love her?”
He hadn’t hesitated. “I will.”
Sheila smiled gently. “Then I’ll leave Laney in your hands. But, Eddy… meeting someone so extraordinary so young can make you believe she’s the only one for you. You two still have a lot of real–life problems to face. Take your time.”
Sheila sent Blanche to study abroad. “Promise me you won’t chase after her. Let her become independent. If distance can’t break you two apart, nothing ever will.” Tears spilled from Eddy’s eyes, falling onto Blanche’s pale, lifeless cheeks.
The steady beeping of the heart monitor suddenly returned.
Blanche was wheeled into surgery–a bypass for her failing heart.
With trembling hands, Eddy signed the consent form:
In the hospital corridor, the sun slipped slowly down the wall.
People came and went. The hallway emptied.
Eddy stood alone outside the operating room, face ashen and unreadable, waiting.
Ch
