Chapter 2

2: 2

How was this possible?!

I looked up before I could stop myself and started counting.

One, two, three...

Sure enough, one man was missing.

My heart dropped hard.

The next second, the whole room burst into even louder laughter.

"Ha, I get it now! The guy she matched with found out it was her and bolted straight into the ice-water cell to hide!"

"I'm dying. A minute ago she was so smug, ready to walk off with someone, and turns out nobody wanted her at all!"

"Talk about asking for it. She's got the fate of an ice-water cell her whole life, doesn't deserve one bit of warmth!"

The mockery came at me from every direction.

I was cold all over, humiliated past the limit.

And every trace of panic and anxiety in Oswald's eyes drained away in an instant.

In its place was complete, relaxed indifference, with a thread of contempt, like he was watching a joke play out.

He spoke lightly, his tone loose.

"You went and checked everyone. No one matched you. Satisfied now?"

I clenched my fists, my eyes red, staring at this man I'd loved for years.

"Oswald, are you just going to stand there and enjoy the show? You want to watch me freeze to death in that cell?"

The ice water in that cell had already ruined my body from the inside.

The doctor had warned me over and over. I could not touch that ice water again.

The eighteenth time was the limit.

One more soak, and my damaged constitution would be beyond saving, even by the miracle springs of Northshore.

The price was permanent infertility, with no cure.

But Oswald didn't have the patience to even hear me out. He stood and gently took Paige's hand.

"It's almost midnight. One night, and it'll be over before you know it."

"Worst case, I'll bring you back alone in half a month. Just you and me, all right?"

With that, he turned to lead Paige into the warm hot-spring suite.

Eighteen rounds of swallowed grievance and despair broke loose all at once.

I grabbed his sleeve and yanked hard.

"The players at the game table aren't all here. This round doesn't count!"

"Oswald, if I don't get to soak, neither do you and her!"

Without another word, I called the referee over.

He checked the rules and ruled quickly.

"A player is missing from this round. The round is void. All players suspend the game and move to the ice room to wait for tomorrow's rematch."

The moment those words landed, Oswald's face turned black.

"Lottie Henson, how can you be this selfish?!"

"Just because you're throwing a fit, you're going to drag everyone into a penalty?!"

I gave a cold laugh.

"When I took seventeen rounds of ice-water torture for you, half-dead each time, why didn't you call yourself selfish?"

"The ice room isn't even half as cold as the cell. If we're freezing, everyone freezes together!"

Get through this one night, and everything between me and Oswald from these past few years would be settled, done, nothing left between us.

The guests around us erupted.

"Why should we indulge her? We matched fair and square. Why should we sit and freeze for her!"

"Poor Oswald, stuck dating a girl this dramatic and this selfish. Who could stand it!"

Paige's eyes went red.

"Oswald, the doctor really did tell me I can't get cold... I'm finally almost healed, I can't be frozen..."

The next second, Oswald's cold gaze pinned itself on me.

"Tonight nobody's going to the ice room... except you!"

"Lottie Henson, get in that ice room and think hard about what you've done!"

I froze where I stood, the pain in my chest unbearable.

"On what grounds?! The rule is everyone gets penalized. On what grounds is it only me?!"

But before Oswald could answer, the staff dragged me straight into the ice room.

The bone-deep cold hit me at once.

There was nowhere to hide. I could only curl up in the corner, shaking.

Not long after, Paige posted on social media.

"Just like the childhood sweetheart I grew up with. He always puts me first ~"

The photo was of her and Oswald in the hot spring, soaking together, close.