When the Ice Refused to Melt Chapter 05

When the Ice Refused to Melt Chapter 05

I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious when I slowly came to, dazed and cold. I could faintly hear voices outside the 

room. 

“Kael… I’m sorry, I was just joking around with her. I told her I 

left the box in the morgue, and she actually believed me… Now the police are involved. They’re saying I could be charged with unlawful imprisonment. What do I do?” 

Then came Kael’s low, calm voice. 

“I’ve already signed a statement with the police, on behalf of 

the family. It won’t go any further. Don’t worry.” 

I lay on the icy hospital bed, listening to them speak so casually about it, and felt like something inside me snapped. 

Serene had left me to die in that freezing morgue, and Kael… he just smoothed it over with a signature? 

Fury surged through me. I grabbed the glass medicine vial beside me and hurled it at the door with all my strength. 

It shattered loudly. 

Seconds later, the door opened, and Kael walked in with Serene trailing behind him. 

“She almost killed me in there,” I said, my voice low and steady. “And you signed it away like it meant nothing?” 

Kael looked at my pale face and the disarray I was in. There was a flicker of something unreadable in his expression. 

“Arden, Serene didn’t mean it. She was just being immature. 

She thought it was a joke. She didn’t expect you to take it seriously.” 

“A joke?” I let out a sharp laugh. “You know me, Kael. You know my temperament. You think I’m going to let this slide?” 

He sighed, pressing a hand to his temple. “What do you want then?” 

I didn’t even look at him. I turned to the soldier on duty and said, “Bring me a 45–pound weighted vest and ankle weights. Now.” 

Soon enough, the equipment was delivered. 

I pointed at the pile of weights and looked Serene in the eye. 

“You. Put these on, and run six miles around the hospital’s 

training field. Do that, and we’ll call it even.” 

“What?!” Serene’s face went pale. She looked helplessly at Kael. “Kael, I can’t… my health, the doctors said I can’t exert myself like that.” 

Kael immediately stepped in. “Arden, stop this. You know her 

condition. That could kill her.” 

“She didn’t think about whether it would kill me when she 

locked me in a damn morgue!” 

Serene stood frozen, eyes welling up. Her lips quivered as she 

looked between the weights and Kael. 

Kael took a deep breath. He pulled off his military jacket and began strapping the sandbags to his body. 

“I’ll do it. If this is what it takes, I’ll do it for her.” 

“Kael, no! Your injuries-” 

“I’ll be fine.” 

Watching him put on those weights for Serene’s sake, 

something in my chest tore open. The pain was raw and immediate. 

Once Kael finished securing the gear, he looked at me, his tone firm but tired. 

“I’ll run in her place. After this, I hope you stop making things difficult for Serene.” 

I said nothing. I just stared at him coldly. 

Kael turned and headed toward the training field. 

But just as he turned his back, I suddenly grabbed Serene by the arm and, with all the strength I had left, kicked her into the 

nearby manmade lake. Its surface lightly covered with a thin layer of ice. 

“Ahh-!” 

Serene screamed as she plunged into the freezing water. 

Kael spun around at the sound. His expression shifted 

instantly. 

“Arden, what are you doing?!” 

I stood at the edge of the lake and looked him dead in the eye. 

“She seems to like freezing, windowless morgues. I figured I’d give her a bigger one.” 

Kael’s eyes blazed with rage, but there was no time to argue. 

He leapt into the lake after her. 

But in his rush, he didn’t see me standing too close to the 

edge. His elbow slammed hard into my shoulder, sending me stumbling backward. 

I lost my footing and hit my head hardly against a decorative 

stone behind me. 

Pain exploded at the back of my skull. Warm blood rushed down my neck, staining the cold stone beneath me. 

My vision went dark. 

I saw Kael in the lake, holding Serene tightly in his arms, 

gently trying to keep her afloat, not even glancing toward me. 

Clenching my jaw, I pressed my hand to the bleeding wound and forced myself to stand, step by painful step. 

I walked away without looking back. 

Later, I got seven stitches in the ER. 

One of the nurses sighed as she bandaged me up. “How did you even get hurt like this? Where’s Major Varyn?” 

I closed my eyes. I didn’t answer. 

Even while I was hospitalized, I overheard whispers among the 

nurses. 

They said Kael hadn’t left Serene’s side for days. He even slept 

in the chair next to her bed while she had a fever. 

I lay in bed, listening in silence. There wasn’t even a single 

tear left in me. 

Before the stitches were removed, I discharged myself. 

As I walked out of the hospital with my suitcase, my phone 

rang. 

It was Grant Wynter, my father. 

“The divorce is finalized,” he said coldly. “It’ll be in the paper tomorrow. Everyone will know it’s over. And I’ll give the 

medication to Kael.” 

He paused, his tone warning. 

“Once you get the divorce papers, I want you out of here. Don’t come back and embarrass me again.” 

I listened to his cold voice, and my heart felt… nothing. 

It was flat and hollow. I spoke into the phone, voice steady. 

“You disgust me, Grant.” 

I didn’t wait for a response. I hung up. 

I picked up my suitcase and left without a single glance back. That day, I boarded a flight overseas. 

From that moment on, there was no Arden in Valleria.