Even in Darkness She Chose to Rise (Tatiana and Jasper) novel Chapter 425

A flight accident!

“Hold on tight,” Jasper commanded, his voice steady despite the chaos.

“Are we going to die?” Tatiana asked, her voice trembling as the wind whipped around them.

“No.”

“But-”

“I’m not letting your two hundred thousand dollars go to waste.”

MAX 650

Finished

The next instant, the parachute ripped open completely, and they plummeted straight down. Tatiana squeezed her eyes shut, hearing nothing but the roar of the wind in her ears.

Miraculously, they crashed into the canopy of a large tree, the thick branches breaking their fall and preventing them from being smashed into the ground. Any other instructor would likely have lost control during the descent and met a gruesome end.

“It’s okay. We’re alive.”

Tatiana opened her eyes and looked down; they were suspended about two meters above the forest floor. She gauged the distance, unbuckled her harness, and dropped nimbly to the ground.

The instructor followed suit. Before he landed, he pulled away his face gaiter, revealing his true identity.

The moment she saw that face, the gratitude that had been bubbling in her throat vanished. Her expression turned icy, and her tone became sharp.

“You certainly have a lot of free time, running around moonlight as a skydiving instructor.”

Jasper let out a helpless sigh. “Tatiana, I wasn’t intentionally stalking you.”

Tatiana didn’t believe him for a second. How could there be such a convenient coincidence?

However, he pulled a small logbook from his pocket–a skydiving record–and handed it over. She skimmed the pages; the entries were dense and frequent, spanning several months with jumps recorded every three or four days.

“Are you insane?” she asked instinctively. She had no idea he had become obsessed with extreme sports.

Jasper avoided the subject, offering a simple explanation: “The club invited me to consult. I didn’t track you here; it truly was a coincidence.”

Tatiana remained skeptical, but the records were genuine. Perhaps it was just a fluke?

What she didn’t know was that while Jasper wasn’t lying, he was being selectively honest. After she had left him, he had been spiraling in a pit of agony. He began seeking out adrenaline to numb the pain, and skydiving had become one of his few escapes. He had initially turned down this club’s invitation, but that same mysterious text had urged him to attend. Just like the marathon, he had trusted the message—and it had led him to her. He had personally pulled rank to replace the instructor originally assigned to her.

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18:40 Thu, Jan 8 ệ ở

Chapter 425 Hunter or Prey

50

Finished

“Where exactly are we?” Tatiana asked, moving past the coincidence for now. She looked around at the dense, unfamiliar forest. During the emergency descent, they had lost track of their coordinates.

They were unharmed thanks to Jasper’s expertise, but this was no accident. Jasper looked up at the shredded parachute hanging from the branches, his gaze darkening.

“Jasper, do you have a signal?” Tatiana asked, her urgency overriding her usual polite distance.

“My phone is dead.”

She held her own phone up to show him. The screen was flickering violently, filled with static and digital artifacts. He pulled out his own device; it was reacting the exact same way.

They shared a look and spoke in unison: “Magnetic interference.”

This was extremely rare. Neither of their phones was a standard commercial model; for them to be completely bricked meant there was a powerful interference field nearby. Was it natural, or man–made?

Jasper’s expression tightened. “We need to move. Now.”

Tatiana understood the gravity of the situation. Without another word, she followed his lead, and the two of them vanished into the thicket.

Shortly after they left, several men emerged from the woods. When they saw the parachute snagged in the trees, their expressions shifted.

“We’ve got rats in the house.”

“Perfect. I was worried I’d die of boredom today. Let’s have some fun. Don’t report it yet–let’s play a little game of cat and mouse.”

The men, arrogant and carrying hunting rifles, fanned out to begin their search, viewing themselves as the ultimate predators.

Suddenly, Tatiana stopped and grabbed Jasper’s arm. “Shh.”

Both of them went still, even slowing their breathing. The sound of boots treading on dry leaves was faint— easily missed–but Tatiana’s hearing was extraordinary.

“Someone is following us,” she whispered.

They exchanged a look of grim realization. Moments later, one of the hunters caught up to the spot where their tracks seemingly vanished. “Did they grow wings and fly?” he muttered, scanning the area with his rifle leveled.

The hunters had made a bet–ten thousand dollars to whoever found the “rats” first. This man was short on cash and desperate for the win.

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