Many years later, when Freya remembered this moment, she could still felt that feeling as if she were isolated by the entire world, and she was struggling on a piece of land of wilderness.

Outside ICU-

Freya could not enter. She could only watch her parents behind the windows.

Her mother's injuries were more severe. A pile of instruments surrounded her mother, revealing only her eyes and cheeks.

As for his father, who used to give orders in his company, he seemed to have aged a decade overnight. Now, no matter how she misbehaved, her father was not able to get up to scold her.

It was all her fault. If she had not fallen in love with Chris, she would not have become a model so soon just to prove herself in front of him.

If she had not become a model or loved Chris, she would not have fallen out with her father.

If she had not fallen out with her father, loved Chris, or become a model, her father would not have driven to the TV station in a hurry or had a car accident on the way, waiting here for the coming unknown fate.

She really should not have loved Chris.

Tears streamed down her face, and everything she saw was just a blur, like her world right now. She used to think her happiness was tangible and touchable, but now... she had nothing at all.

"Freya." Candy put a tissue on Freya's hand. "In case you wanted to know, you're in the finals."

"Candy..." Freya's mouth twitched. Then, she responded after a long while. "I'm sorry."

She was going to give up the finals.

It might be a waste of a good opportunity for others to do so, but she was Freya.

Candy nodded because she completely understood Freya's decision. "I'll discuss with the director. Freya, you must hold on. In times like this, you must keep calm. Don't do anything stupid."

"I've been stupid for 10 years or so." Freya wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "And I won't be like that anymore."

When Chris first rejected her, she should have listened to his father and given up on Chris.

Or, if she had listened to his father for the first time to break up with Chris and marry Travis, things would not have ended up like this.

It took some time for Candy to realize Freya's words, and she sighed.

Freya once thought if she ended up with Chris, she would be happy. However, after just one night, she lost everything.

"You should go home, Candy." Freya was still watching her parents in ICU. "Please cancel all my arrangements. I'll pay the default."

"Yes, I will. And you must be strong right now." Candy put her hand on Freya's shoulder. She patted on it and left.

It was silent in the long corridor, and Freya was standing behind the windows. But for the tears oozing out of her eyes, she looked almost like a vivid sculpture.

When she refused to break up with Chris, her father must have been disappointed, right? She had been the apple of her parents' eye, and she grew up to be someone else's scapegoat.

When she thought about how her parents suffered during the accident, Freya felt like a knife was jerking inside her heart. She quickly closed her eyes, but still could not hold back her tears.

It hurt even more than the last time when Chris ignored her because of her leaking the proposal of Everbridge Group. At that time, she did not do anything wrong. However, this time, it was all her fault and she had nearly killed her parents.

Freya clapped her hand over her mouth. She slowly squatted while groaning in pain.

She was like a badly injured beast and she did all those things to hurt herself.

The night outside the window seemed to creep onto her and shroud her with heavy darkness.

If her parents could not make it through the next 48 hours, the sun would never rise in the sky of her future life.

...

Before going to sleep, Joanne received Candy's call. Almost at the same time, Brian pushed open the door and told her the same thing.

Freya's parents had a serious car accident.

Joanne almost jumped off the bed. She grabbed her coat and rushed out. "Send me to the hospital."

Brian stopped her. "Go get changed. I'll pick the car downstairs."

When Joanne had gotten changed in the blink of an eye, Brian had already started the car and was waiting for her. The high-performance car released like an arrow leaving the bow, and Joanne asked while rummaging for her phone. "How did you know?"

"Gavin saw it on the news and called me."

Immediately, Joanne thought of Chris and she dialed his number.

During the entire day, Chris had been busy. After he finished work and was ready to go to the TV station, he received Maya's call.

On the phone, Maya threatened to reveal everything to Freya if he did not meet her right away.

At that moment, the showed had not started yet, and it would definitely affect Freya badly if she knew about it. If she lost tonight's game, she would never make it to the finals.

He had to change his plan and meet Maya first. During their meeting, something came up in the company so he left the cafe in a hurry and dropped his phone there. It was very late after him handling the matter in the company and retrieving his phone from Maya.

He browsed through his call logs and did not see Freya's number again.

Was she celebrating for she had entered the finals?

While thinking like that, Joanne called. He picked it up in doubt. The moment he heard the first sentence, he grabbed the car key and galloped out the room, not even closing the door behind him.

When Chris arrived at the hospital, it was already early morning. He could hear a pin drop in the ICU building, and he saw Freya moaning on the floor.

Around her were four white walls and above her were pale lights. Everything was lifeless, and even her figure looked the same...

Chris wanted to meet Freya tomorrow to ask her why she suddenly left last night and why she spent the night with Travis in a hotel after saying that she would return home. At this moment, his tenderness for her put all that behind him.

He never saw Freya like this. Helpless, pitiful, like a deserted animal.

He slowly walked to her. Freya felt heartache when hearing the familiar footsteps.

She used to expect to hear those sounds so much. However, today, she found herself terribly wrong.

Chris reached out to help Freya up, but she tossed his hand and got up herself. Through those watery eyes, he still saw the coldness in her eyes.

He had a bad hunch and when he tried again to hold Freya, she stopped him.

"Freya..." Chris called her name.

"Let's break up." Tears streamed down her face, but Freya's voice was calm without any emotion. "We should've done this long ago."

She should have ended the trouble long ago.

Chris finally confirmed that something he was not aware of happened as well, so he stared at Freya, trying to find something on her face. She slightly lifted her lips. "You don't need to read my mind. I've known everything."

As Chris expected, Freya would break up with him once she found out the truth. However, he did not expect it to be this bad. Now, Freya must have thought that her parents had a car accident because she insisted that she should be with him.

"Freya, I'll explain it to you later, about why I hid the truth from you, but not now. Now, the most important thing is..."

"The most important thing is to break up with you." Freya interrupted Chris, her attitude colder than ever.

Chris hated the words "break up" more than ever, so he stared at Freya and answered her word by word. "I don't accept it."

Freya laughed. "What if I told you I did it with Travis?"

Chris dangerously squinted. "Stop."

"Last night I got drunk. You should know that he carried me into the hotel if you watched the news." Freya said on her own. "Then we did it."

Chris clenched his fist. "Freya, stop!"

Freya looked into Chris's eyes. "Think about it. The things you've done to me, Travis did them to me too. Don't you find it disgusting? Well, I happen to find you disgusting too. So, let's break up."

Chris suddenly grabbed Freya's hand. "I won't let you go even if we hate each other."

"We don't have any connection by law, and do you think you can stop me only because you want to?" Freya sneered. "And, this is not a request. I'm informing you that it's finished between us."

She turned around to avoid Chris seeing her tears.

Chris had to explain now. "Maya's father used to help me. After the leak, he begged me to save his daughter's name."

Freya wiped tears on her face. "So you let me take the blame. You watched how Maya posted those things to hurt me and protected her from me?" She twisted around, her eyes full of hate. "When my dad suddenly told me to leave you, I blamed him for being unreasonable. It turned out that he had known the truth and hid it from me in case I did anything stupid. But you, you actually watched how we fall out because of you."

"I wanted to explain it to your dad and then confess to you."

"There's no need." Freya looked at Chris with a determined mind. "Go now, and don't ever try to find me."

She never thought that one day she would say such things to Chris.

Also, she did not expect that even if in such a situation, her heart still ached because of those words.

Chris clutched Freya's hand. "Tomorrow, you'll face not only your parents' injuries, but also the employees and the board of directors of Norris Group, and even the business and the share price of the company. You don't have any experience, and I can help you keep the company in place. When everything settles, we'll talk about other things."

Freya smiled. "If you'd said that when I called you during their surgery, I would've been happy. But now, do you think I still want your help?"

Chris's pupils seemed to have contracted. "Maya still told you."

"Do you regret leaving your phone to Maya?" Freya looked at Chris sarcastically.

"Don't talk like that." Chris said, "We were in a cafe."

"I couldn't care less if you were in a bed." Freya tried hard to get away from him. "Chris, get off me. Don't show your face again!"

In the past, apart from Joanne, Chris did not know what else he was afraid of losing.

Then, when Joanne married Brian, he thought nothing in the world could make him fear anymore.

Now he knew, he also feared Freya's trying to let him go.

He pinned Freya in his arms and latched onto her shoulders. He seemed to be using all of his strength.

Repulsion, disgust, and all kinds of negative emotions welled up inside her. Freya was struggling to break free, but suddenly, she heard Chris almost begging her.

"Freya, don't leave me."