The Broke, Mute Boy I Saved Was a Bored Billionaire Chapter 07

The Broke, Mute Boy I Saved Was a Bored Billionaire Chapter 07

Bastien drove recklessly down the mountain and made it back to Blackpine Summit in under thirty minutes.

From a distance, he saw the north run sealed off with caution tape. Several members of the ski patrol stood nearby in reflective jackets, speaking in low voices.

His stomach dropped.

He grabbed the nearest security guard. “What happened?”

His own voice was shaking, though he did not seem to notice.

“A woman fell into a snow hollow,” the guard said. “The paramedics couldn’t save her.”

Bastien tore through the caution tape before the man could finish.

“Tressa!”

For the first time, he made no attempt to hide his voice.

“Tressa!”

“Come out! This isn’t funny!”

“You said you wanted me to get my voice back. You wanted to hear me speak, remember?”

“So listen. I’m talking to you now.”

The wind ripped his words apart and carried them through the valley.

He sounded like he was begging.

—

A physician approached him. “Did you know the woman who died?”

The word died made Bastien’s vision blur.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He staggered back. “She fell. That’s all.”

The physician’s expression hardened. “Who are you, and what was your relationship to her?”

Bastien’s throat tightened.

“I’m her boyfriend.”

The physician raised an eyebrow. “Bastien Rothwell?”

Relief flashed across his face. “I knew she was okay. She told you my name, didn’t she?”

“I found it in a note on her phone.”

The physician gave him a strange look.

“It was her goodbye letter.”

“What did you do to her? She made it clear she didn’t want you anywhere near her, even after she died.”

Pain pierced Bastien’s skull.

“Stop saying that.” His voice rose. “She isn’t dead. Keep this up, and I’ll report you.”

The physician gave him a flat look. “She had advanced bone cancer. The fall fractured her right leg, so she couldn’t climb out.”

—

“By the time anyone found her, severe hypothermia had caused multiple-organ failure.”

Bastien stared at him.

Advanced bone cancer.

Tressa had never told him.

On the nights she lay awake in pain, he had rolled over with an irritated sigh and turned his back on her.

When she coughed up blood, he had assumed she had a bad cold.

She had grown so thin that her face looked hollow, and he had decided she was too cheap to buy herself a proper meal.

He had known nothing.

He had noticed nothing.

While she was suffering, what had he been doing?

Laughing with his friends as they planned new ways to humiliate her.

When she emptied the last of their travel fund just to play along with his cruel little game, what had she been thinking?

Bastien could not let himself imagine it.

His throat felt packed with ice.

This time, no sound came out.

His knees hit the snow.

—

The physician watched him for a moment, understanding dawning in his eyes. “You really didn’t know your girlfriend had cancer?”

Bastien looked up at him, his face stripped of everything but desperation.

“Where is she?”

“Please. Let me see her.”

“She didn’t want you to,” the physician said with a sigh. “Her designated contact was notified. She’s already been taken away.”

“Who?” Bastien demanded. “Her parents don’t care whether she lives or dies. Who else would she call?”

“I don’t know.”

The physician had clearly had enough of him.

“Stop asking. It was her final request. The least you can do now is respect it.”

Bastien stumbled back and nearly lost his footing.

At that moment, the resort manager pushed through the crowd with a tablet in his hands.

“Mr. Rothwell, is this one of your friends?”

Security footage filled the screen.

Veda drove her body into Tressa’s and watched her disappear over the edge of the slope.

There was nothing sweet or innocent in her face.

—

Only malice.

Bastien stared at the footage, unable to look away. His breath caught as the full truth of what Veda had done finally sank in.

Had Tressa been in too much pain to call for help?

How long had she waited for him at the bottom of that hollow?

And he had not even gone back to look.

His legs gave out again.

The wind howled across the mountain.

No one answered him.