He Forced Me to Kowtow 10,000 Times on the Snowy Mountain Chapter 01

He Forced Me to Kowtow 10,000 Times on the Snowy Mountain Chapter 01

The scions of the East Coast Elite Social Circle had rented out the entire Mount Whitney Backcountry Range campground, all to watch me finish ten thousand pilgrimage prostrations.

Three years prior, an avalanche had struck. Hale Thorne was convinced I’d sliced through the safety rope, leaving his first love crippled from the waist down.

He parked her wheelchair up on the high ground amid whipping snow.

“Only one last prostration left. Strip off your jacket and set it under Liora’s feet to cushion them, then kneel down and lick the slush off her shoes. Do that, and your penance will be complete.”

The old-money scions around us roared with laughter, whipping out black credit cards to place bets.

“Ten million bucks says this lapdog’ll strip down to her underwear just to beg Hale to forgive her!”

Hale twisted his rosary beads between his fingers, staring down at me from above.

“You hear that? Take it off. This is the ninety-ninth time you’ve begged to get back with me. I’ll take pity and grant you an official title today.”

Everyone expected me to grovel like I always had before.

I unbuckled my safety harness and hurled his rosary beads right over the cliff.

“Hale. I don’t want your forgiveness anymore.”

My brother Rian had gotten sick from selling plasma on the unregulated black market to pay off our settlement bills. He’d died the night prior.

I had nothing left to live for.

…

“Wow, new tactic now? No more kneeling, just throwing things?”

Cackles burst out all around me again.

“Hale, I’ll add another five million. She’ll be on her knees begging again within ten minutes. Those beads were a gift from you—she’s definitely gonna regret tossing ’em.”

“I’ll match that five million bet. She’ll cave eventually, this is her ninety-ninth plea for reconciliation after all.”

Bets flew out left and right, one after another.

I stood right at the cliff’s edge, my knees crusted thick with dried blood scabs.

For three years, I’d trekked the Mount Whitney Backcountry Range all the way from Newport, dropping to the ground for nine thousand nine hundred ninety pilgrimage prostrations total.

Liora Cross sat in her wheelchair, hitching the blanket throw higher over her legs, her tone voice sweet and falsely soothing.

“Rynne, don’t be stubborn. The wind’s brutal out here. If you freeze to death up here, Hale will be so upset.”

She paused, leaning in to hiss quietly.

“Besides, you haven’t finished paying for your crimes yet.”

Hale nodded toward his assistant. A mug of spiced hot cider was pressed into my face.

“Your hands are split open from the frost. Drink this first. I’m punishing you, not trying to kill you out here.”

My knees buckled weak, but I didn’t reach for the mug.

Wind-driven snow pellets stung my cheeks hard.

My pants, soaked solid with dried blood, had frozen stiff against my calves.

Hale’s gaze locked onto mine. “Finish that last prostration, and this whole mess ends.”

“I’ll bring you back to Newport and make you my girl for real.”

I tucked my hands back into my coat sleeves. “No need.”

The hand-tied paracord bracelet Rian had woven for me snapped at my wrist, leaving only a tiny frayed red thread stub.

Hale set the cider mug down on a boulder and readjusted Liora’s blanket.

“You freezing, Liora? We can head back to the tent if you want.”

Liora grabbed his sleeve to hold him back. “I’m fine, I just hate seeing Rynne suffer like this.”

“Her brother’s waiting for her down at the trailhead—don’t be too hard on her.”

My fingers curled tight inside my coat pocket.

“He died last night.”

The laughter cut off for a split second, then someone scoffed loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Here we go again.”

“Last month she said her foster mom was dying, the month before that she claimed the youth shelter ran out of food.”

“Now she’s even making up her brother’s death for sympathy.”

“Hale, her act’s getting more and more ridiculous.”

Hale’s brows drew tight, snatching a pack of tissues from a server and holding them out to me.

“Don’t joke about your own family. That’s not like you.”

I pulled a crumpled official paper from my inner pocket and held it out to him. The death certificate’s corner was soggy from melted snow.

Hale barely glanced at it before tossing it back into my chest with a mocking huff.

“Rynne Vey, your lies are getting more elaborate by the day.”

“You think I held back that settlement money yesterday just to let Liora blow off steam?”

“It was only one day. I don’t believe one delayed payment killed him.”

I stared straight at him, a thick, blood-tinged cotton lump wedged in my throat.

Right, just one single day.

But that day, Rian’s body had broken out in bleeding lesions, curled up on the hospital bed too weak to even whimper in pain.

I’d dropped to my knees begging every staff member at Monticello Regional Medical Center to spare him cash for treatment.

I’d thrown away every shred of my pride.

And Rian had seen all of it.

My little brother worshipped the ground I walked on. He’d never endure seeing me crush my pride just to beg strangers for spare cash.

He’d waited until the nurses stepped out to change his IV bag, dragged his bleeding body to the hospital rooftop, and jumped.

Now Hale looked down at me like he was handing out charity.

“Enough. Your punishment’s over.”

“Once we get off this mountain, I’ll arrange top-tier overseas medical care for your brother.”

A hollow, bitter laugh bubbled out of me.

“It’s too late for that. There’s no point anymore.”

Hale’s jaw hardened.

“Rynne, cut the drama.”

“It’s freezing up here, and Liora didn’t pack enough layers. Take off your shell jacket and lay it under her feet.”

I glanced down at my jacket.

It was the birthday gift Rian had saved three months straight to buy me.

He’d told me the backcountry winds were brutal, and this jacket would keep me warm through every storm.

But he was gone now.

This jacket couldn’t shield me, and it couldn’t have shielded him either.

Rather than let it get dragged through this humiliation alongside me, I’d give it up to end all of this.

I dropped to my knees and unzipped the jacket all the way down.

The crowd erupted again.

“There we go! I’m upping my bet!”

Frigid air flooded straight against my skin.

I walked over to the wheelchair and folded the jacket neatly beneath Liora’s feet.

“My brother bought this. Don’t get it dirty.”

Hardly anybody knew Liora showed up in Newport with zero clout. I was the one who pulled her into Hale’s elite crowd.

Every time the rich scions mocked her humble roots, I’d always stepped right between her and every cruel jab thrown her way.

Years later, she was the darling of every old-money heir in town.

And I’d become the villain who’d ruined her legs, per her telling.

Liora’s fingers twisted tight under her blanket.

Hale shot me a cold, sharp glare.

I stepped back a pace, and a small receipt slipped out of the jacket’s pocket, fluttering down onto the snow and flipping over to expose handwriting.

It read: For my sister. The backcountry wind bites hard, so bundle up tight. Don’t pretend you’re never cold.

I bent to grab it.

Liora flinched hard, pulling her feet back like I planned to attack her.

Hale instantly stepped in front of her, clamping a firm grip around my wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You already crippled Liora once—are you gonna strike her right in front of me?”

I stared at the skin he’d squeezed raw.

“Let go. I just need to pick up the last thing my brother left me.”

Hale froze for a heartbeat, then loosened his hold on my wrist.

I pinched the soggy receipt off the snow.

Heavy footsteps crunched fast from the trail entrance.

A park ranger hauled a beat-up canvas sack over his shoulder, hurrying toward us.

“Anyone here named Rynne Vey?”

“The funeral home down the trail sent me with this—said it’s the deceased’s personal belongings.”

Every pair of eyes locked onto that tattered sack.

I reached out to take it.

The second my fingers brushed the fabric, a rough frayed cord stub poked out through the opening.