He Forced Me to Kowtow 10,000 Times on the Snowy Mountain Chapter 04

He Forced Me to Kowtow 10,000 Times on the Snowy Mountain Chapter 04

The campground was locked down tight by the Throne family’s security detail. I got blocked three times trying to sneak through the service access.

I hauled myself over the perimeter fence instead.

My knees slammed hard against loose gravel, splitting my old wounds wide open. Blood soaked through my pant legs.

I didn’t slow down for a second.

Harsh pale lights blazed at the funeral parlor down the mountain.

Soren Mead stood waiting by the front doors.

He gripped an insulated thermos in one hand. When he saw me hobbling toward him, legs streaked with fresh blood, he pressed the thermos into my hands and dropped to his knees to examine my wounds.

“Drink something warm first. I already picked up his ashes for you.”

He pulled a simple wooden cremation urn out from behind the front counter.

It was tiny, light as a feather.

My hands shook nonstop the second I took hold of it.

The urn had no paint on its surface. Rian’s name was scrawled across the side in permanent marker.

“He stopped by earlier to ask about pricing,” the funeral attendant flipped through their logbook as she spoke. “Said his sister was drowning in debt, told me to grab the cheapest option so he wouldn’t burden her.”

I pulled the urn tight against my chest and pressed my forehead to its lid.

Soren didn’t rush me to speak or move.

He simply draped his coat over my shoulders and stood quietly beside me.

We were childhood friends from the youth shelter.

He later studied wilderness emergency medicine. For six years, he’s been posted at the rescue station at the foot of the Mount Whitney Backcountry Range.

He was the first to reach me after the avalanche three years ago.

His voice dropped to a soft murmur.

“He didn’t stop calling out right up until the end.”

“What was he saying?”

“That his sister wasn’t a penitent who deserved all this.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Tears burned hot behind my lids. I clamped my jaw shut hard, refusing to let them spill out.

It was the dead of night when I carried the urn back to camp.

The entire tent compound blazed with warm light.

Hale stood beside the campfire. His eyes dragged over the thick man’s coat slung over my body, then locked onto the wooden urn pressed to my chest.

Zane whistled loud from behind him.

“Whoa, Hale—look at that. She’s wrapped in some guy’s coat and carrying that wooden urn back with her. This little performance’s all too familiar, right?”

Hale ignored him entirely.

He strode over to me with a cold, stony expression, stopping half a step away.

“So you weren’t begging me for help at all. You just found another person to grovel at.”

I was drained to my bones, too worn out to bother explaining anything.

“What’s that thing you’re holding?” He nodded toward the urn.

“My little brother.”

He let out two sharp, mocking huffs, clearly unconvinced.

Liora rolled over to the campfire wrapped in a thick blanket, her assistant pushing her wheelchair.

“Rynne, don’t act like this. It’s cruel to fake an urn and ash just as a trick. It dishonors your brother.”

Zane slapped his thigh and laughed loud. “She even dragged out a prop urn for this stunt. I’ve gotta give her credit—I’ll drop ten million on this bet.”

The other scions hooted, pulling out their phones to race to place their wagers.

I squeezed the urn tighter against my ribs.

Hale stretched out one hand toward me. “Let me see it.”

I stepped backward.

“Rynne,” his tone sharpened with impatience, “how much longer are you gonna keep throwing this tantrum?”

“You’re parading a fake urn and claiming it’s your brother’s ashes. When did you turn into this?”

He took another step forward.

At the exact same moment, Liora shot out a hand to block him.

“Rynne, please don’t be like this. Hale’s only worried about you…”

Her sentence cut short when the wheelchair slid forward abruptly, rolling right over my torn open old wounds.

Hale’s first instinct was to steady Liora.

I crashed backward hard into the deep snow.

I threw my hands down to break my fall, terrified of crushing the urn.

But the urn still slipped from my grasp, slamming into a jagged rock and sending its lid flying.

Rian’s ashes scattered all across the snow, spreading thin across the white drifts.

My legs gave out. I barely stood a second before collapsing to my knees in the snow.

My brother’s ashes mixed in with the powdery snow all around me.

I scrambled to scoop up the ash, but it slipped through my palms and scattered in the wind—each handful grew lighter.

Hale’s rosary beads snapped clean out of nowhere.

The beads scattered across the ground, several rolling right into the ash mixed with powdery snow.

I bent down, gathering handfuls of snow mixed with ash, and tipped every bit back into the empty urn.

I couldn’t tell where the snow ended and Rian’s remains began.

Liora sat in her wheelchair, glancing down at the fine dust speckling the toes of her shoes.

A slow smile tugged at her lips as she spoke. “You claimed this was your brother’s ashes, didn’t you?”

“Now he’s knelt alongside you before the sacred mountain, just like you always do.”

I froze mid-motion.

I lifted my palm full of snow mixed with ash and locked eyes with Hale.

“Is this another sin I’m meant to atone for?”

His face blanched for a heartbeat, lips parted as if he might speak.

Liora latched onto his wrist, her voice trembling thin.

“Hale, my legs hurt so bad. The wheelchair hit a rock earlier, and I’m terrified Rynne resents me…”

Hale’s attention snapped to her instantly.

Just that single glance.

I understood everything then.

From three years ago to this very moment, his first instinct was always to soothe her.

I tipped the leftover ash and snow from my palm back into the urn, brushed snow off my knees, and stood.

“Rian, I’m taking you home.”

I turned, clutching the half-empty urn to my chest.

Liora’s voice warbled out in a sob. “Hale, it wasn’t on purpose. The way Rynne’s looking at me terrifies me.”

Hale stepped in front of me to block my path, his voice low and heavy. “Rynne. Apologize to Liora.”

I halted in my tracks and looked him dead in the eyes.

Snow swirled blindingly all around us, and I let out a sudden hollow laugh.

“She scattered my little brother’s ashes across the snow. You want me to apologize to her?”

The hollow, lifeless look in my eyes struck him hard. He glanced away awkwardly, his voice still cold and uncompromising.

“Yes. Apologize to her.”

“Apologize right now, and I’ll call the medical center at once. We’ll fly in the world’s best overseas specialists to treat him.”

“You’ve always wanted to be my wife, haven’t you? We’ll get married the second we head off this mountain.”

He spoke as if he was granting me a long-withheld favor.

Three years ago, I’d begged to hear those words, driven half-mad waiting for them.

But Rian was scattered across the snow now.

I pried his fingers off my arm one by one, clutching the urn tighter to my chest.

“Hale Thorne. It’s far too late for that.”

He finally realized how shattered I was. “Rynne. Where are you going?”

I didn’t look back, walking past the fluttering prayer flags at the camp’s edge toward the snow cliff.

“Rian, I’m here to take you home.”

The next instant, I threw myself from the ledge, clutching the urn tight to my chest.

A raw, agonized scream ripped out of Hale behind me.

“RYNNE!!”

He lunged to the cliff’s edge, crashing to his knees in the snow. His outstretched hand grasped nothing but frigid wind.