The terrifying howl of the blinding blizzard only got louder. Stella sensed something wrong and stepped in front of the men. “What’s wrong with you?”Only then did the man seem to realize something and took off their masks.One of them said intermittently, “I don’t feel right. It is as if the further you walk in, the more difficult it is to breathe.”Stella, too, noticed that it was a little hard to breathe, so she called them off.They unexpectedly had the same feeling as Stella, so it meant the situation wasn’t good.“We came here many times. These things don’t normally happen.”The leader said to Stella, “Let’s keep going. We will be fine once we get to the resupply point.”Battered by heavy winds and snow, Stella hesitated a bit. “Or we should go back.”But some of them insisted on going forward. “If we go back now, the path might already be blocked by the snow, and we may encounter danger. Let’s just continue on. At least there is a supply point up ahead. We can go there t
Weston’s face turned grim. He picked up the protective gear and headed out without saying anything.The captain hurriedly stopped him. “Mr. Ford, what are you doing?”“I’m finding her.”“No. You’re not an expert. With all this snow, you could get lost.”“Are we just going to sit here and do nothing?”“We’ve already sent a search team…”Earlier, they had only sent out two men to search for Stella’s group. Should they encounter difficulties, two men would not be able to help much. “Gather all the men immediately. Get all the experts and begin the search. They might be lost or just resting halfway. Anyway, I want to know that they are safe.”The captain knew that the woman Weston cared about was in the group. Saying nothing more, he rushed to arrange a few search teams as quickly as possible.Weston followed them, intending to join the search for Stella.The captain, however, hesitated a little. “Mr. Ford, it may get dangerous. We can’t guarantee your safety if you insist on fo
“But if we stay here, we’re doomed to die…”No one responded to Stella’s words. The rest of the group had no energy to move forward anymore. Perhaps it was due to the big mental blow because of their lapse in judgment. None of them were confident to rescue themself.Stella could only save herself. “We don’t know where we are. No one else knows either. If you’re going to stay here, give me the compass. I want to get out.”Rather than staying here and waiting for death, she could increase her chance of survival by searching outside. However, the rest of the group was down in the dumps and had no energy to refute her words.Stella pursed her lips. She left one compass for them and took the other one, and got ready to leave.At the same time, at the foot of the mountain…Roger arrived at the camp by car. As soon as he came down, he went to Bradley and asked him, “Where is Stella?”Bradley recognized Roger, who came to him in anger and demanded Stella’s whereabouts. From the reaction
Though the cave was warmer than the frozen wasteland outside, she was still shivering with cold.Stella found some dry branches and tried to start a fire, but she was running low on resources.Stella took a look at the snowstorm outside and let off a flare. She had set off a few along the way, but no one had found her.Stella observed the surroundings and calculated that she could still last another night.After some time, however, she suddenly felt something moving outside and was immediately alerted.Stella heard about the possibility of encountering wild animals in the mountains at night. Could it be a wolf or something?Stella’s heart pounded anxiously at that thought. She grabbed the wooden stick, wanting to explore outside.At the same time, the snow above the cave suddenly collapses. The rocks and soil were falling inside.The blizzard outside was getting worse. Seeing that the cave entrance was about to be blocked, she had no choice but to force herself to crawl out.S
Stella saw nothing but blinding white. She also seemed not to hear a single word that Weston said.As her vision blurred, her senses of the surrounding deteriorated.Weston moved the snow away and found where she had fallen. When he pulled her up, he realized something was wrong with her. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”Stella’s eyes were blank. She was looking ahead with an unfocused gaze. After a short silence, she shook her head again.“I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”Weston frowned at her. When he was about to say something, he heard a sharp voice from the other side.“Sis!”Stella turned in the direction of the voice incredulously, but she could not see anything but white. It was not until a tall shadow appeared in front of her that she felt a familiar feeling come over her.“Roger, is that you?”Roger could not be bothered with his former identity as Miguel. He grabbed Stella’s hand at once. “It’s me… Are you alright?”His anxiousness was all over his face. It was as if the
They did not see clearly at first. “Boom!” A noise sounded as the place they were standing before collapsed, revealing sharp protruding stones underneath. If they had reacted a little slower, they would’ve been buried under the snow pile.Stella was still in shock. When she saw Roger disappear from where he was standing, she asked, “Where’s Roger?”Stella was in a daze. Her vision was very blurry, so she was unable to see sometimes. She lost sight of Roger after all that happened in a flash.Weston held her waist. “Don’t go there yet. There’s a good chance that he fell inside…”“If we go there now, we’ll fall with him.”Stella refused to listen. “But Roger is still there…”Weston held her firmly. When he saw her blank eyes, he observed her closely. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”He had noticed something was wrong with her, but his priority was to get her out. There was clearly something wrong with her eyes.Weston lifted his hand and waved it in front of her eyes, but she did n
Stella’s eyes lit up for a moment. However, her vision was still blurry. “He’s here! He’s here!”Hearing that, Weston came to her side. “Roger, are you in there? What’s the situation?”Roger calmed down at Weston’s voice and said to him, “I’m fine. I’m inside a cave. It won’t collapse for a while, so I shouldn’t freeze. Take my sister to safety first!”He had to admit that Weston was right. Staying in place would only lead to death. Going outside was the only hope.Weston’s face sank at Roger’s reply. He told Stella directly, “You heard him. I’ll take you out first.”“No. I won’t go.” Stella said through her gritted teeth, “I would never leave him behind.”Weston’s face turned grim. “He’s stuck inside. We can’t save him at all. He can stay safely inside, but it’ll be hard for us to protect ourselves.”“I can go down there with him!” Stella insisted. “He said there’s a cave inside. We can wait for help there…”“You can’t!” Roger interrupted her suddenly. “There’s only enough r
Stella said, “At least you’ll get out and hopefully come back to save us. I’ll just slow you down.”“Never say that again.” Weston hugged her and kissed her face. His lips were devoid of any warmth.Stella only felt the friction from the kiss and heard the man’s voice trembling slightly above her. “If you want to die, we’ll go together. I’ll never let go of you.”Stella couldn’t tell what she was feeling. The mixed emotions were like a snowstorm that rumbled inside.She took a deep breath and said to him, “Don’t you know? It’s too late…”“It’s too late…” What she said sounded incoherent, but Weston understood her anyway. He froze a little before he hugged her hard.“I know. Even so, I still want to try…”There was a sudden rumbling sound in the distance. Stella became nervous and looked up at him in his arms. “What’s going on?”“It’s probably the snowstorm.”Weston told her, “Don’t stop and keep going. There will be a platform ahead. You can set off another flare. They’ll se
Stella had rarely ever woken up before him.He had always been terrifyingly strong, but their lovemaking last night must have consumed a lot of his energy, leaving him so tired that he was still sound asleep.She stared at him and suddenly felt like doing something naughty. She pinched his nose and held her fingers there, trying to suffocate him. Unsurprisingly, he soon knitted his handsome brows and quickly woke up.He was surprised to see her mesmerizing eyes as soon as he woke up, which made him pause. He then took her hand into his and kissed it again and again.“Are you okay?” he asked with concern, remembering how wildly he ravaged her last night.She had only been willing to be intimate with him because she was under the influence of a drug, yet he had taken advantage of her and had his way with her over and over again last night.Stella did not speak. Seeing her like that made his expressions turn a little colder. He fell silent for a long time before he got up and sl
The moment Stella saw him, she flew into his arms and clambered onto his body. She kissed him again and again, trying to search for his breath so she could explore his body even deeper. All she wanted was to let him extinguish the fire burning inside her.Half an hour had passed, and the effect of the drug on her body was its strongest now.Weston swallowed his saliva. Without any hesitation, he pinned her against the bathroom mirror and kissed her vehemently on her face, her shoulders, then her neck.Stella could not stop herself from letting out loud moans. The sounds she produced only drove Weston wilder. Even the corners of his eyes began to turn red now.Luckily, there was still a thread of reason in his mind. He pushed her away and, while panting heavily, asked her, “Who am I, Stella?”But Stella’s mind was occupied with her primal urges. She ignored his question and grabbed his shirt collar, saying, “Let’s do it…” The sight of her filled Weston with a desire to just give
Weston paused, then simply replied, “Okay.”When he saw her changing into a pair of high heels, he followed her around and asked, “Where are you going?”“Oh, to a private concert.”Then she added, “If you’re going to spend the night here tonight, then please take care of Elias and Emma. But if you have to leave, I’ll ask Roger to come over instead.”“Don’t worry,” he said. “Just go out and enjoy yourself. I’ll be at home and take good care of the kids.”Stella paused suddenly, feeling inexplicably weird about what Weston had just said. It sounded like she was forcing him to stay at home and take care of the kids while she went out to have fun without a care in the world. She turned around to look at Weston, feeling like he was acting like a poor neglected housewife.She shook her head and tried to shake this terrifying thought out of her mind.When they arrived at the concert, Hayden offered his arm to her like a gentleman. They then walked into the private concert together, w
Stella’s words rendered Weston speechless. She was right. He had been the one to agree to let Stella date other people, so he must seem like a fool saying all those things to her.He withdrew his hands and forced himself to calm down a little. “I have no intention to stand in your way,” he told Stella. “I was only worried about Elias and Emma. Since they’re also here, I think you need to take their feelings into consideration.”The children could sense the strained atmosphere between the adults, so they just waited patiently on the couch with Roger, occasionally poking their heads out to look at their parents.Seeing his kids like that, Weston slowly added, “I’m only here to see the kids, so both of you can go ahead with your date.”Stella said nothing and just took Hayden’s hand and left.When they got downstairs, Hayden glanced at her and asked, “Are you sure you want to just leave him like that?”“I don’t know,” Stella massaged the point between her brows. “I’m not sure wh
Hayden Quirk arrived half an hour earlier than Stella did on their first date.“You’re much earlier than I expected,” he joked as Stella walked in.Stella was actually on time, but she still felt a little guilty when she saw him already waiting for her when she arrived.“The traffic is terrible today,” she said.“Don’t worry about it,” Hayden said, handing her the menu. “Mr. Ford expected me to wait for you for at least an hour.”“I seriously don’t know what you guys are up to,” she grumbled, exasperated, “but I hope it will at least be over soon. Just don’t drag it out and cause me any trouble.”She ordered a few dishes, then handed the menu back to him. Hayden took it from her, ordered a few more signature dishes that the restaurant was popular for, then looked at Stella with a faint smile.“Did you think this is all just a joke?” he asked.“What else could it be?”“I am serious about this,” he told her, his voice suddenly turning grave. “Since even Mr. Ford agreed that we s
Weston raised his eyebrows at Ben’s words. “But he’s divorced. He has an ex-wife.”“What’s wrong with having an ex-wife?”Ben found Weston’s comment strange. “This man has good qualities. Upon investigation, he has a very good personality too. He was an active member during college. He also has an amazingly beautiful resume. It’s normal that a man like him has been married before… Besides, hasn’t Ms. Sealey been married before herself? She even has two children.”Weston’s expression turned cold at once. “Are you discriminating against her?”“I’m not.”Weston said, “Or do you think she can only find a divorced man for her second marriage?”Ben panicked. “I wouldn’t dare!”With Weston’s ridiculous amount of nitpicking, they could find no one that would match Stella.Hayden sat beside and quietly reviewed Weston’s latest psychological health report. As he turned the page, he suddenly said, “I’m actually a little interested in Ms. Sealey.”Hayden laughed a little and turned to Wes
Stella opened her eyes and shot Weston a cold look. Then, she turned her head the other way.Weston did not touch her again. He knew she was probably angry with him, so he stayed silent.A few moments later, he reminded her, “Don’t be angry. That man is unreliable.”Stella propped her chin in her palm. “And what does that have to do with you?”Weston pursed his lips, setting his jaw in a tight line. He said, “I’ve promised to stop pestering you. It’ll be a promise. I’m fine with seeing you with another man, but at least find someone who makes me feel at ease.”“Why do I need your approval when I’m just looking for a date?” Stella found his words funny. “You’re just my ex-husband. Don’t you think you care too much?”Weston rubbed his brow, and his voice suddenly went cold. “If you don’t want me to keep pestering you like I just did, maybe you should listen to me.”Stella questioned, “Are you threatening me?”“No. I’m suggesting.”Stella was lost for words. Then, she suddenly
Stella froze for a moment when she heard the voice. When she turned around, she saw that Weston had appeared behind her at some point.Weston stared at the man behind Stella with a cold gaze and an icy aura around him. Weston had always emitted a strong aura around him. Anyone who saw him would immediately be terrified because of his intimidating aura.The man froze for a moment at Weston’s sudden appearance. He took a step back and quickly steadied himself before greeting Weston, “Mr. Ford.”He still had the same calm and gentle look. “I’m sending Miss Cicily back.”“I know. Don’t ever show up in front of her again,” Weston told him. “You don’t have to send her back. Stay away from her.”It would be a little inappropriate for the man to act a fool at Weston’s straightforwardness, so he tugged at his collar and asked Weston with a polite smile, “Mr. Ford, you should give me a reason, shouldn’t you? I’m having a good time with Miss Cicily.”“You’re the one who thinks she’s having
Stella smiled. It seemed like he had come prepared.Stella enjoyed chatting with the man. He was sincere and introduced himself properly as soon as they started chatting.The man was also a pianist and came from a scholarly family. Although not super wealthy, he was doing considerably well in the middle class. Stella would not need to worry about the quality of life with him, but that was about it. She certainly could not live a luxurious life.Stella had a good impression of him. She also talked to him a little more about piano music.Stella twirled her hair and smiled. She told him with a nice voice, “I’m sure Roger has already told you about my situation.”“I know.”The man looked at her gently and set the coffee in front of her. He said to her, “I’m very interested in you. I think we’re very suitable for each other. Our living standards nowadays have improved quite a bit. Not many look for a partner purely because of material qualities. People with emotional needs will search