“That was absolutely worth it! I arranged dozens of media outlets just to catch her downfall, it was perfect!”
Hunter blinked in disbelief. “You set up the reporters?”
“Of course I did.” Eliza grinned and planted a smug kiss on his cheek. “Now the entire Delaware knows what kind of woman Maya really is.”
“No one will ever question your decision again.”
Hunter forced a smile, but unease coiled in his chest.
The image of Maya, wounded and exposed, kept playing in his mind like a haunting reel.
Moments later, he suddenly gripped Eliza’s wrist and yanked her into his arms.
Thinking he was overwhelmed with desire, Eliza giggled, eyes sultry. “What’s gotten into you, Hunter? You already had me three times last night. Want to go another round?”
Hunter remained silent. His fingers traced the curve of her waist, once, twice, then a third time.
But the longer his hand lingered, the colder his heart grew.
He reopened the video. This time, his eyes didn’t just watch. They searched.
And when they found what they were looking for on Maya’s body, his breath caught.
Seeing how fixated he was, Eliza grew irritated. She muttered with a jealous tone, “She actually dared to step out like that with nothing on? How shameless.”
“Good thing she got kicked out. Otherwise, she would’ve dragged the whole family down with her.”
But Hunter didn’t hear a single word.
His eyes stayed glued to the screen, searching for something he couldn’t seem to find.
After a pause, he shoved Eliza aside and rushed upstairs straight into Maya’s now-abandoned bedroom.
He pulled out the old storage box and began flipping through the stacks of childhood photos.
Photo after photo, thick with dust and time, but in the entire album, there was only one of Maya.
It had been taken over ten years ago, during a trip to Delaware by the seaside.
In the picture, he was holding Eliza’s hand, both of them smiling on the beach.
Maya stood far behind them, quiet and distant, holding his swim ring like an outsider frozen in the background.
Like a humble servant, she looked utterly out of place in the photo.
Yet even in that faded frame, it was clear that her shoulders and waist were wrapped in gauze.
Hunter froze. And in the next breath, memories crashed over him like a tidal wave.
That summer, he had snuck away to the back mountain to play. He accidentally tumbled down a steep slope, smashing his abdomen against a jagged rock.
Pain had blurred everything, his vision fading, until a girl appeared and carried him on her back, one shaky step at a time.
The mountain path was treacherous. The agony in his abdomen was unbearable. In a daze, he had bitten down on her shoulder with all his strength.
Her skin tore open. Blood streamed down her back.
But she never made a sound.
Instead, she had whispered, “Don’t be afraid. We’re almost at the hospital.”
When he came to, it was Eliza standing by his side.
The nurse had told him his kidney had been torn open by the impact, and he’d nearly bled out internally.
It was a miracle he had survived.
All thanks to the girl who had carried him through the mountains and given up a kidney to save him.
That girl had a bleeding disorder and nearly lost her life on the operating table from massive blood loss.
Lying in his hospital bed back then, he had asked Eliza if she had been the one who saved him.
For a split second, Eliza had frozen. But she hadn’t denied it.
Hunter’s body went rigid. His breath caught midair.
At that moment, what was left to doubt?
He had spent years believing it was Eliza who had risked everything for him.
That belief had bound his heart to her, and even her death had haunted him like a ghost.
But only now did he see the truth, how blind he had been.
