Finnegan now had bodyguards, a driver, and a luxury car to ferry him wherever he wanted. He was no longer the little boy with impaired vision who was abandoned by his family. He had ruled with a merciless hand to get to where he was today as the head of the Churchill family.
I curled up in a corner of the car, hugging my own arms as I occasionally glanced out of the window. I realized that the scene outside was quite familiar to me.
Eventually, my hunches were right. This was the chapel in the caves that I'd often come to in the past to pray for Finnegan's speedy recovery.
I glanced at him. He was toying mindlessly with his buttons.
For those past three years, he hadn't stepped foot out of his room because he refused to. Therefore, his skin had been so pale he looked like a ghost. As of now, some color had returned to his cheeks and complexion, making his prominent facial features stand out. He looked healthier than ever.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, signing to him.
Finnegan understood my question. He just chuckled dryly and said, "You'll find out soon enough."
For some reason, I had a bad feeling in my stomach. Ever since Finnegan recovered from his disease, he'd always hated being in close proximity with me. But today, he had talked to me for quite a while and even let me ride in his car.
A short while later, the car slowed to a stop at the foot of the mountain. Since it was a workday, there weren't too many people or visitors around. Moreover, Finnegan had purposely given out orders to clear the area, so there was barely anyone there.
I shakily got down from the car and looked at the cave entrance on the top of the mountain. It was hard for me to imagine that I'd actually climbed all the way up there years ago to pray sincerely for Finnegan.
"Winter," he said, calling out to me.
I looked at him and saw him staring down at me.
"Get down on your knees and climb all the way up there. Beg for Colette's forgiveness."
I was stunned.
I thought I'd heard him wrongly as I stared at him in disbelief.
"I do not wish to repeat myself," Finnegan said impatiently.
I shook my head, my eyes wide and fearful as I took a step back. Climb up those steep steps on my knees? I had never kneeled before anyone other than at my parents' funerals after they'd passed away.
Also, Colette was just their foster daughter. She wasn't an elder in my family. Why should I kneel for her and beg for her forgiveness like that?
Most importantly, I had done nothing to her! She had tumbled down the stairs by herself!
The bodyguards started pulling me toward the stairs, and I tried to explain myself. "N-No. It wasn't me…"
Finnegan thought that I was just trying to make up excuses for myself. "Winter Brooke, you've always been a haughty bitch who bullied Colette because of your status! But I see that you still haven't learned your lesson even after your family went bankrupt! You're still as evil and heartless as ever!"
I shook my head harder as my eyes turned red. "Finnie…"
"Stop calling me that!" he thundered, his voice laced with disgust piercing through my heart like a sharp knife.
So, he had always thought of me as someone like that.
The Brooke family had been quite influential when I had been just a kid. As the eldest daughter, I behaved quite haughtily at home and looked down on Colette, who had looked frail and weak back then. As the "daughter" of the house, I often told her off for the tiniest things that she did wrong.
Eventually, people realized that I didn't like her, so the school bullies started taking advantage of the knowledge and cornering her. When I finally found out about it, Colette had already been pushed into the water and looked like a wet mess.
I immediately jumped into the water without a second thought. However, we had only been about seven or eight years old then, and neither of us knew how to swim. Instead of rescuing her, I needed rescuing myself. Very soon, I began to sink in the water as it went up to my neck and covered my nose.
Just as I thought I was about to drown, the two brothers from the Churchill family dived into the water to save us both.
Finnegan was the one who saved me. From that day onward, I would tag along behind him like a loyal puppy, referring to him as "Finnie".
This had continued all throughout my childhood and younger days. Time passed in the blink of an eye.
…
When Finnegan saw that I was being very uncooperative, not caring whether or not I got hurt in the tug of war and refusing to listen to orders, he told the bodyguards to step aside and spoke to me instead, saying, "I heard that you're surviving on stale bread from some bakery near your place."
I lowered my head in shame. Although everyone knew that my family was bankrupt and that I, Winter Brooke, had fallen from grace, I still felt deeply ashamed and embarrassed when confronted by Finnegan, my longtime crush.
He threatened me in the most casual tone ever, "Wanna bet that the bakery closes down forever from tomorrow onward?"
I immediately whipped my head up and stared into his piercing eyes. I knew then that he wasn't joking.
Gordon had had a young daughter who passed away in a car accident many years ago. He had felt sorry for me because I reminded him of his daughter, who would have been around my age by now if she hadn't passed away. That was why he had been looking out for me.
I owed him too much. And yet, he was going to get dragged through the mud because of me.
I tried to defend myself. "I… really… didn't… push… her…"
Speaking and expressing myself was the hardest thing for me to do now. I got so anxious that my eyes turned red.
Colette had fallen by herself! It was the truth. Why wouldn't he believe me?
