Shivering, Natalie opened her eyes and sat up. She immediately sneezed.
“Are you awake?” A man’s weak voice called out.
Natalie paused in the middle of rubbing her arms for heat. She looked toward the direction of the voice.
Sean was staring at her from where he was sitting at the entrance of the cave.
“When did you come to?” Natalie asked.
Turning his head to look out the cave, he replied, “I’m not sure. It should be around the time the sun rose.”
“Oh,” was her only response, as Natalie curled herself into a ball to converse heat.
It was difficult to generate any warmth owing to her drenched clothes. Thus, she continued to shiver from the cold.
At this rate, I’m going to come down with a fever. We have to find some way to get out of this mountain. If we don’t get help soon, we’re going to die here.
She was jolted from her thoughts by a question from Sean. “Did you bring me here?”
Lifting her gaze, Natalie nodded at him.
Sean looked at her with an indecipherable gaze. “Why?”
“What do you mean?” She was confused by his question.
Smirking mirthlessly, Sean elaborated. “Why did you save me? I kidnapped you and forced you to jump off a cliff with me. You should be treating me like your sworn enemy. How could you be so stupid as to save me? Aren’t you worried that I’ll use you to blackmail Shane again once I’m back on my feet?”
Natalie scooted backward and leaned against the wall of the cave. Looking at the pebbles next to her feet, she replied, “I do hate you. After all, you tried to kill me. I’m lucky to be alive. When I saw you lying unconscious on the ground, my conscience would not just let me leave you there alone. That’s why I saved you.”
I’m not a saint, but I’m not going to leave someone to die either.
Sean scoffed lightly, and she thought she could sense the mixed emotions in his tone.
“You’re the stupidest woman I’ve ever met,” he sneered.
Stupid enough to save her enemy. She’s also the kindest woman I’ve ever known.
Natalie did not feel insulted by his words. I don’t see the point in getting angry. We should be focusing on staying alive.
“Before I forget, Mr. Sean, I’d like to know how we survived in the first place.”
The cliff they had jumped off of was incredibly high.
No one could have survived that fall under normal circumstances.
Yet, we survived with all our limbs intact. How was that possible?
She had to figure out what actually happened. During the fall, she had fainted from her fear of heights and only regained consciousness moments after she landed on the ground.
Sean looked at his dislocated arms and crooked left leg. Pain flashed through his eyes before he recounted the incident. “We were lucky that a tree growing on the cliff broke our fall before we crashed to the ground.”
“Huh?” Natalie was surprised.
We were that lucky?
“We were on the tree for quite some time until the branch supporting us cracked. We survived that fall since the tree wasn’t that far off the ground,” he added.
Natalie nodded her head in understanding with a bitter smile on her face. “Ah. Lady luck was shining upon us, or we wouldn’t be alive after that fall.”
Though Shane remained silent, he could not help but sigh in relief at their luck as well.
Sean had been convinced of their imminent death when they plunged off the cliff. He had even been glad at the thought of his death; he would not need to worry about Shane coming after his family after the discovery of the will.
When I’m dead, I won’t know what’ll happen to them.
Little did he expect that he would survive that fall.
“Achoo!” Natalie sneezed again from the cold.
