In The End, All Ties Are Severed

“Yvonne, what are you doing?!”

As expected, Jason’s furious voice rang out behind her. He strode over as his eyes blazed in anger. “Why are you picking on Cindy?!”

Yvonne’s first instinct was to laugh. She wanted to tell him, “Cindy has always been the one bullying me. When have I ever bullied her?”

But when she looked up and met Jason’s eyes, she saw that beneath the anger, something else flickered.

Was he hoping for her to be jealous?

Yvonne lowered her gaze and hid her twitching hand behind her back. Her voice was calm. “She chased off the man who tried to talk to me. Why shouldn’t I give her a hard time?”

The flicker in Jason’s gaze extinguished immediately. It was replaced by a cold and cutting indifference.

“You should be punished.”

At his request, a waiter brought over drink after drink. Yvonne immediately knew what he meant. Her hands clenched tightly as she took a slow step forward. She picked up a glass and poured it over her head.

“Keep going.” His voice was cold.

She poured another. And another. The wine soaked her hair and trickled down her face. People began to gather and watch the spectacle.

“Isn’t that Yvonne? Serves that vicious woman right!”

“Jason used to dote on her so much. She brought this on herself.”

Yvonne stood there drenched as she shivered uncontrollably.

Jason looked away from her and walked away with Cindy in his arms. He ordered just before he left, “Watch her. She’s to stand here for ten hours.”

Sticky alcohol clung to every inch of her. She stood like a caged animal on display.

It was past midnight when they finally let her go.

She stumbled across the deck and saw Jason returning, clearly drunk.

Yvonne wanted to avoid him, but she suddenly heard the sound of him falling, followed by silence. She was worried, so she turned back to check on him.

Jason collapsed outside of his room, and his face was flushed with an abnormal red.

He had a fever.

Yvonne’s heart clenched. She dragged him inside with great effort. She poured him some water and wiped his face down. After settling him in, she got up to find a doctor. But Jason suddenly clutched the hem of her shirt tightly.

“Don’t… go…”

Her heart sank. In the end, she stayed.

She replaced the cold towel on his forehead over and over again. Not once did she close her eyes throughout the night. He drifted in and out of consciousness until the first light of dawn. Only then did the fever finally break.

Yvonne felt like she was about to collapse as well. Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was Cindy.

Her expression tensed the moment she saw Yvonne. But Yvonne simply pressed the towel into her hand and said hoarsely, “When he wakes up… tell him it was you who looked after him.”

With that, she turned and left, limping as she went. She had only made it a few steps when everything went black, and she collapsed to the floor.

They stayed on the cruise for seven days. That day, Yvonne fainted on the deck and woke up again. She had a high fever and barely made it back to her room.

The fever burned on and off for three days. Luckily, during those three days, Jason was also looking for her.

The doctor on the cruise brought her medicine as part of his job, emotionless and perfunctory. She had just murmured her thank you when the door burst open and Jason stormed in.

He walked straight up to her and frowned when he saw her sickly appearance.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Yvonne’s fingers curled faintly. “It’s just a fever.”

Without warning, Jason grabbed her wrist. His voice was low, and if one listened closely, there was the faintest tremble.

“That night… was it you who looked after me?”