Hannah was praying like mad, hoping Steven would answer the phone. But she only got the same cold automated message again, "The user you called has turned off their phone, please try again later."
When she couldn't get through, she tried Steven's Facetime, but still no answer. Hannah angrily left a voice message for Steven, "Steven, are you even human? You wanted to marry me, and the decision was yours to make, so you need to take responsibility. Now that your ex is back, am I a stain on your life that you want to get rid of? I'm telling you, even if I die, I won't let you off. I'll haunt you both. Neither of you will end well."
In the midst of this tension, Jarvis was amused by Hannah's words. He said, "I've met Steven a few times, and knew he was ruthless, but didn't expect he'd treat his past lover like this."
Though Jarvis' words were flippant, they poisoned Hannah's heart. Did her heart ache? She asked herself again. It ached terribly.
But she had no right to feel pain. When Daniela returned to the country, Steven had divorced her, the stand-in. She had no relationship with him now. Why should she hurt over the way someone irrelevant treated her? She kept telling herself this to soothe the pain.
Jarvis asked, "Did I hit a nerve?"
Hannah shook her head, "Jarvis, Daniela only wants to hurt me, I'll give her a call and have her let you go, then they can come after me."
Jarvis scoffed, "Even if we just met and there's no emotional connection, and I might not shed a tear if you died. But leaving a girl alone in this situation, I don't think any man would do that."
Hannah's eyes welled up, "Jarvis, thank you!"
A stranger was willing to protect her like this. Where was the man she loved deeply? Perhaps, he was one of the masterminds behind this incident. Perhaps, he was somewhere watching this life-or-death game.
Jarvis held her hand, "Hannah, if we make it through this, you need to love yourself. Don't waste your feelings on someone not worth it."
Hannah said, "You too, you know there's no future with Nelly, yet you're still hovering around her. We always see others stuck in love, call them fools, and advise them to pull out. But when we fall too, we realize how hard it is to escape."
Jarvis said, "I'm different, I still have hope."
Hannah asked, "What hope?"
Jarvis said, "I heard Cornelia's man got poisoned, and it's incurable. You've seen how weak he's become, who knows how long he'll live. Maybe soon, I'll hear of his death, then I'll have Cornelia call me husband and their kids call me dad."
Hannah said, "First we need to live longer than them. Concentrate on driving, see if we can shake them off. Be careful."
Just then, three cars ahead suddenly braked hard, Jarvis couldn't avoid them in time. Even though he braked, the car was still going too fast and crashed into the car ahead.
BANG! A deafening sound echoed.
Their car hit the one ahead, and then the cars behind piled up. A series of crashes, one after another. Their car, once in perfect condition, was wrecked in an instant.
Hannah felt her legs pinned down. She tried to move, but couldn't. She tried to open her eyes to see how Jarvis was, but she couldn’t see anything. Blood poured into her eyes, blurring her vision like a vast sea.
She tried to speak, asking about Jarvis' condition. But she couldn't make a sound, everything around her was getting darker and becoming blurry.
In her haze, she thought she heard someone speaking.
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