Chapter 8
'Does he hate me?' Valerie wondered.
She shook her head to herself, dismissing the thought.
'No way. Daniel loves me way too much. He'd never hate me,' she thought.
'If I just coax him a little, he'll be trailing after me like he always did,' she told herself.
"Have you made your choice yet?" the man in black asked, his voice cold and impatient.
As the man in black slowly moved his knife toward Terrell, Valerie suddenly shouted, her voice ringing out, "I choose Terrell!"
"I choose Terrell!" she shouted.
Daniel let out a soft, bitter laugh when he heard Valerie's voice.
'Guess I really did overestimate myself,' he thought.
The man in black released Terrell, who immediately threw himself into Valerie's arms.
Then, the man in black dragged Daniel toward the edge of the cliff.
"Valerie, I hope you won't regret this," the man in black said, his tone chilling.
Valerie looked at Daniel in horror.
"No!" she cried out.
The moment the words faded, the man in black shoved Daniel right off the cliff without a second thought.
The freezing water engulfed him, his breathing grew faint, and he could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper, swallowed by the darkness below.
When Daniel woke up in the hospital, his head was splitting with pain.
"Don't move around. You're still hooked up to an IV!" the nurse said.
She glanced at him and let out a sigh.
"When you were brought in, you were already in respiratory failure. The doctors fought for over ten hours to save you from the hands of death," she explained.
Daniel glanced around the hospital room, but there was no trace of anyone else having visited.
The nurse seemed to know exactly who Daniel was searching for, and there was a touch of pity in her voice.
"Terrell got a cut on his ankle. Ms. Guzman was worried it might leave a scar, so she already flew him out to Falkland to get it fixed up by a top doctor," the nurse explained.
"Seriously, I can't figure her out. Her husband was at death's door, but she still had the time to take her brother for medical beauty stuff. Makes you wonder who her real husband is," the nurse muttered.
Daniel lay quietly in bed, not a single trace of tears in his eyes.
Just then, his phone buzzed.
It was a message from Valerie.
She said: [Heard you're awake. Just rest up. I'll make it up to you for what happened. Didn't you always want to go to Jorland with Terrell and me? Once you're better, I'll take you with us. Consider it compensation.]
Her tone was as if she was tossing a treat to her pet dog.
Daniel scoffed as he stared at the message on his phone.
'Guess going on a trip with her is all the reward I get now, huh?' he thought, bitterly amused.
Daniel ripped the IV needle out of his hand, watching as bright red blood splattered across the pristine white sheets.
That same day, Daniel checked himself out of the hospital and headed straight to the embassy to pick up his visa.
When he stepped back into the house he once called home, all he felt was pure disgust.
Daniel took out a gift box, slipped a tie clip with a built-in recorder inside, and made his way to Valerie's meditation chamber.
He removed the sacred figure from the main altar and replaced it with the gift box.
Then, he had his lawyer bring over a divorce agreement, signed his name without a second thought, and left it on the cushion.
With everything done, Daniel grabbed his suitcase and walked out of the house that had once trapped the proud, flamboyant man he used to be, not even glancing back.
At the airport, Valerie stepped off the plane and checked her phone, still not a single message all day.
Then she pulled out the tie that came as a freebie with the suit she'd bought for Terrell, snapped a pic, and sent it to Daniel.
She said:[Got this for you while I was in Falkland, thought you'd like it.]
Daniel had whined to her so many times before, begging her to buy him a tie.
He always said a tie was a woman's way of showing she loved and marked her man as hers.
'Daniel's gonna be so happy when he gets this,' Valerie thought to herself.
But the moment she hit send, Valerie froze in place.
She'd been blocked.
"Valerie, is he mad because you saved me instead of him last time? Shouldn't you go talk to him or something?" Terrell asked, his voice full of concern.
Valerie's brows furrowed, her face instantly frosted over.
"Daniel's being so childish. You're the younger one. He gave you the chance to live, that's just what older people are supposed to do, right?" Valerie scoffed.
"If he wants to sulk, let him. He can cool off for a while. Once he gets over it, he'll be back, sticking to me like glue just like always," she shrugged, totally unconcerned.
Valerie led Terrell out through the exit, completely missing the familiar silhouette heading into the gate behind them.