Ficorpio
Chapter 1
After I dragged myself out of the snow, I locked eyes with the man who was supposed to be on a business trip in Southport.
Adrian Sterling was holding his ex-girlfriend in his arms.
I watched him calmly. Even his breathing was ragged.
Brushing the snow from my clothes, I used the last of my strength to call for the rescue team.
Then I saw Adrian’s bloodshot eyes as he searched desperately for Sophie Vance, heedless of everything else.
And somehow, I finally let go.
The day I was discharged, Sophie called Adrian to ask for help.
I was the one who suggested he go to her.
His voice shook slightly. “You’re not jealous anymore?”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“Why would I be?”
Adrian had flown to Southport for work, canceling our trip to Fiji.
So I changed my flight and went skiing at Silverpeak Ski Resort with a friend.
The sky over the slopes had turned pink with the approaching dusk.
Night was almost here.
At the cliffside lookout on the mountain run, I fell hard.
The woman beside me and my snowboard became tangled together, and we tumbled down the slope.
I remembered her.
We had run into each other several times over the past few days.
Two days earlier, I had been shopping for ski gear when she tapped me on the shoulder and leaned close.
“Hi, sorry,” she whispered. “I think you might’ve gotten your period. Do you need help?”
My face went burning hot.
“My friend’s coat,” she said.
She handed me a men’s overcoat.
I took it from her. “Thank you.”
She gave me a playful wink. “Don’t mention it.”
She had already changed into her ski outfit and was about to leave when I stopped her.
“How should I return the coat?”
It was clearly a man’s coat, probably belonging to one of her male friends.
She smiled.
“Add me on WeChat?”
So we added each other.
On my first day skiing, I discovered that we had a surprising number of things in common.
We liked the same singer. We even owned a lot of the same clothes.
The next day, in a clothing store outside the resort, we both reached for the same men’s tie.
We looked at each other and smiled, each trying to let the other have it.
The corners of her lips curved gently upward.
“We really do have the same taste,” she said. “Who are you buying the tie for? Your boyfriend?”
I shook my head.
“My husband.”
Her expression softened.
“A friend’s birthday is coming up. I want to give it to him. He really likes this brand. Would you let me have it?”
I smiled faintly. That friend probably wasn’t just an ordinary male friend.
In the end, she bought the tie.
I thought it was strange how much we seemed to have in common. The same interests. The same taste.
We returned to the resort hotel together.
There was a bar on the lower level. My friend had gone to the hot springs, so I went down alone.
And there she was again.
Chapter 2
This time, she introduced herself first.
“Hi. I’m Sophie Vance.”
I smiled. “Hi. I’m Chloe Bennett.”
For a moment, her smile froze.
I didn’t think much of it.
As we talked, Sophie suddenly mentioned her ex-boyfriend.
She seemed drunk.
“The day before he got married, he sent me a message,” she said. “He told me he was getting married, but I didn’t understand then. That was his last chance to choose me.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I still chose to study abroad.”
I didn’t know how to comfort her.
Then her eyes snapped up and fixed on mine.
“Do you think he’ll ever come back to me?”
The question caught me completely off guard.
I didn’t know whether to shake my head or nod.
As I tumbled down the slope, I saw Sophie Vance.
And Adrian Sterling.
For one stunned second, I thought the fall had rattled my brain hard enough to make me hallucinate.
The man who was supposed to be away on business in Southport was standing at Silverpeak Ski Resort.
Tall and rigid, he strode toward Sophie, his brow drawn tight and his face pale with strain.
A snowboard had struck the back of her head. Blood seeped through her hair, vivid red against the unbroken white snow.
I lay sprawled on the slope and met Adrian’s eyes across the distance.
He stared at me, frowning. A storm of emotions flickered through his gaze.
And suddenly, I understood.
The ex-boyfriend Sophie had talked about was Adrian.
The night before, her eyes had shone with tears as she told me, “He and I went to university together.”
“We were both medical students.”
Naively, I had smiled and said, “My husband studied medicine too.”
Sophie had only pressed her lips into a faint smile.
She hadn’t said a word.
My fall had been cushioned by the snow, so I wasn’t seriously hurt.
But when Sophie collided with me, the edge of her snowboard struck the back of her head. She was still unconscious.
After meeting Adrian’s eyes, I pushed myself upright and brushed the snow from my clothes. Then I took out my cell phone and gave the rescue team our location.
When they arrived, they went straight to Sophie.
“I’m a neurosurgeon from Capital City,” Adrian said. “I’ll come with you.”
Sophie was loaded into the ambulance first.
As we rode toward City Hospital, her words kept circling through my mind.
“Adrian and I almost got married.”
“He seems distant, but I’m the only one who knows what lies beneath that cold exterior. He can be violent. He smokes, drinks, races cars.”
“He loves anything thrilling.”
“He was so good to me. During our senior year, my grandmother died in a car accident. He didn’t say much. He just bought plane tickets, took leave from work, and went home with me.”
Chapter 3
“My family always favored sons. My grandmother was the only one who never made me feel unwanted because I was a girl.”
“But I was too selfish. For my career, I broke off our engagement and left the country without even discussing it with him.”
“He said he would never be able to love anyone else.”
“But there was no future for us anymore.”
Adrian had said the same thing to me before our wedding.
He had looked me in the eye and said, “Chloe, I need to be honest with you.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly love someone again. You can accept that, or you can walk away.”
“If you choose to walk away, we can call off the wedding.”
And I hadn’t been able to resist marrying him.
In the ambulance, exhaustion dragged at me until I could barely keep my eyes open.
The nurse kept trying to make conversation, refusing to let me drift off.
“Are you from Silverpeak?”
I shook my head.
“Are you hungry?”
I shook my head again.
“I’m so tired,” I murmured.
She squeezed my hand.
“You can’t sleep. Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.”
“But I’m so tired.”
Everything after that blurred together. I was dimly aware of being wheeled into the hospital, of voices and lights passing over me.
When I woke again, I was lying in a hospital bed.
People were talking outside my room.
“The two patients who came in last night were both injured skiing.”
“The other woman was in much worse shape. Her boyfriend came with her. Good thing he’s a doctor.”
“You mean Dr. Sterling?”
“Dr. Sterling was my senior. We trained under the same attending. The patient is Sophie Vance.”
“They were together in college.”
“Sophie’s family wasn’t well-off. She was always working part-time jobs. Dr. Sterling didn’t want to hurt her pride, so he’d follow her in secret. Or he’d take shifts and work alongside her.”
I pulled the covers over my head and cried quietly.
It was the first time I’d learned anything about Adrian and his ex-girlfriend’s past.
He was my first love.
I’d known there had been someone before me, but I’d had no idea that relationship had meant so much to him.
They had almost gotten married.
Night had fallen by the time the door opened.
Adrian walked in.
His gaze settled on me, and I met his eyes before I could prepare myself.
His expression was calm and detached.
“Weren’t you going to Fiji?”
“I didn’t go.”
He nodded. “Get some rest. I’ll arrange for a private nurse to look after you.”
“I still have something to take care of.”
He turned to leave.
“Is it about Sophie?”
His head snapped toward me, his eyes turning cold.
When he spoke, his voice was controlled, but the chill beneath it was unmistakable. Whatever gentleness had been there vanished, leaving a silent warning in its place.
“Chloe.”
“Don’t cross the line.”