"Let Cara go," Ethan shouted.
He chose Cara, abandoning Greta.
Almost at the same instant, Andrew burst into laughter, sharp and unrestrained.
He cast Greta a long, meaningful glance, though it was unclear whom he was truly addressing.
"See that?" he sneered. "This is what men are like. Greedy, faithless, and cruel. They swear they love you, but all they ever love is the power and profit you bring them. In the end, it's the childhood sweetheart who matters most."
Greta lifted her eyes toward Ethan.
Yet there was no reluctance in them, no resentment, only a cold, lifeless stillness.
After a single glance, she lowered her head again, her expression unreadable.
The bombs strapped to Cara were removed, and she threw herself into Ethan's arms, overcome with emotion.
"Ethan! I knew it! You would never abandon me!"
Andrew watched the pair with open disdain.
As Ethan tightened his hold on Cara, Andrew spoke again, his voice flat and merciless, "Mr. Price, since you've made your choice, I'll take care of the other woman for you."
Ethan's body went rigid. He snapped his head up and shouted, "Don't—!"
The next second, earth and stone flew as flames roared skyward.
Thick smoke swallowed Ethan's vision.
As he searched frantically through the haze, he saw it. The slender figure that had stood there in silence was engulfed completely, vanishing into the explosion in a burst of fire.
The shockwave threw Ethan and Cara violently to the ground.
He shielded her in his arms, yet his eyes remained locked on the place where Greta had been standing.
He waved over his men and shoved Cara toward them.
"Take her back. Remember—protect her at all costs," he ordered.
"What about you, boss?"
"I'm going to save her."
"But... but Miss Hughes is already gone!"
"That's impossible!"
In his fragmented memories, Greta was the most tenacious woman alive.
She would never die so easily.
Before anyone could stop him, Ethan had already raised his gun and charged toward Andrew.
Bullets tore into the ground at their feet, forcing them back.
Gunfire and bloodshed erupted across the once-quiet cemetery.
Andrew's firepower was overwhelming. Several of Ethan's men fell, and they still couldn't close the distance.
Only when police sirens wailed in the distance did Andrew finally retreat, unwillingly.
Ethan moved to pursue, but a subordinate grabbed him from behind.
"Boss! The police are here! We have to go!"
"No!" he insisted.
Alive or dead, he would see her.
Even if Greta were dead, he would bring her body back himself.
Just as Ethan was about to advance, another bomb detonated nearby.
At the exact moment the blast wave slammed into him, something that had long been sealed tight in his mind was jolted violently open, as if struck by chance yet inevitability.
The memories he had buried surged back all at once, crashing into his consciousness with overwhelming force.
It felt as though he had fallen into a bottomless abyss, his body sinking uncontrollably, deeper and deeper.
The crushing suffocation was tearing at his lungs until the pain nearly split them apart and his will was completely drowned.
Just when he thought he was about to die, a hand caught hold of him.
He opened his eyes and saw Greta.
Ignoring the gunshot wound in her shoulder, she clung to him with everything she had, dragging him toward the surface.
And when he finally broke free and gasped for air, gulping it down in desperate breaths, he reached out instinctively to pull her into his arms, only to realize she was gone.
Ethan jolted awake. The person sitting by his bed was no longer Greta, but Cara.
The moment she saw his eyes open, hers reddened instantly.
"Ethan! You're finally awake. I almost thought I was going to lose you."
She gripped his hand tightly, just as Greta had in the dream, as though afraid that he would fall back into the abyss.
Still dazed, Ethan suddenly felt her lips press against his.
He frowned.
His memories had all returned.
Every moment—Greta saving him with her life in the Red Delta, and that earlier hospital awakening when he had lost control with Cara while Greta stood frozen, the cake slipping from her hands, despair written plainly in her eyes— every single fragment came flooding back with brutal clarity.
He pushed Cara away and tried to get up, desperate to find Greta.
But the image of that figure shattering in the flames slammed into him all over again, draining every last ounce of strength from his body.
Greta was dead.
And the moment he realized that it had been his own choice, his own decision, that had sent her to her death, the hatred he felt for himself was so violent he wanted nothing more than to strike himself until he bled.
"Ethan... " Cara's soft, shy voice cut through his thoughts.
She leaned closer, her cheeks flushed, eyes glistening with affection.
"Thank you for saving me. I'll spend the rest of my life repaying you for this," she said.
As she spoke, she leaned in again and kissed him.
This time, he pulled back.
Cara froze for a split second, then tried to follow his retreating lips, only to be shoved away by Ethan.
"Cara, why did you lie to me last time?" he asked coldly.
