Chapter 121 The Brave and the Cowardly
If Chloe really managed to pull off the rescue, she would take all the credit, and Sonya would be left in her shadow.
No. She couldn’t let that happen.
Sonya’s gaze locked on another helicopter. “I’m going too!”
“What? You as well?” Willow asked, startled.
“Chloe may know how to fly, but she’s no match for a professional pilot like me. And the winds out there are unpredictable. If she fails, she could endanger herself as well as the people she’s trying to save. It’s safer if I go with her,” Sonya insisted.
In truth, she had to reach the victim before Chloe did.
“Alright then, you can go too!” Willow deliberately raised her voice. “Chloe’s been out of the military for years. Who knows how rusty her piloting skills are by now?”
That last part was meant for Brian.
Wade caught on and gave a firm nod. “Sonya should go as well.”
He quickly ordered a rescue worker to board the helicopter alongside her.
“Curtis, come with me,” Sonya said.
“Me?” Curtis looked startled. “But my hand’s injured. I doubt I can be of much use…”
“You don’t have to do anything. Just the fact that you’re there will put me at ease while I carry out the rescue efforts,” Sonya replied.
Deep down, she wanted Curtis to witness firsthand just how much more capable she was than Chloe.
“Mr. Green, you should go with Sonya,” Willow urged.
She wanted Sonya to be the one who rescued the victim before Chloe did.
Curtis wondered why he had to go at all when even Brian wasn’t required to join.
But with both Willow and Sonya pressing him, he couldn’t refuse. Reluctantly, he boarded the helicopter. Wade figured having more people on the mission would be safer, so he didn’t stop them.
Sonya took the controls, flying the helicopter toward the island with Curtis and the rescue worker on
board.
Willow glanced at Brian beside her. “Brian, let’s go inside. Sonya will have them rescued in no time.” Then he would realize that Chloe was nothing but a show–off and only cared about her image.
But Brian didn’t move. He stayed rooted to the spot, his eyes fixed on the sky where Chloe’s helicopter had vanished, as if he could still see her from afar.
What was it about Chloe that made Brian care for her so much?
“Brian, stop looking!” Willow stepped forward and grabbed his hand. But she froze, her eyes widening as she stared at the right hand she’d touched.
That hand had always been breathtakingly beautiful, yet it was also her greatest nightmare.
It was the same hand that had once nearly gouged out her eyes, the fingers sharp and merciless like weapons. She’d spent years in therapy just to overcome her fear of those hands.
And now that very hand was trembling.
Brian quickly pulled his hand away.
“Brian, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Your hand is shaking,” Willow asked anxiously.
He pressed his lips together, staring at the tremor in his hand.
“Yes, my hand is trembling,” he murmured.
It was fear. Fear that Chloe would find herself in danger while trying to save someone. Fear that he
couldn’t be there with her.
The dread spread through him.
“So, I really do love her,” he whispered into the silence.
Beside him, Wade was taken aback. He’d always suspected that Brian’s feelings for Chloe were unusual, but hearing him say it out loud was a shock.
What about Willow?
Wade’s eyes shifted to her. She was biting down hard on her lip, her face contorted with jealousy.
With a quiet sigh, he pulled her aside. “Don’t cling too tightly to things that aren’t yours. If it’s not meant to be, no matter how hard you fight for it, it won’t come.”
Willow stayed silent, though the resentment in her gaze only grew more intense.
Why? She’d given up an eye, yet the one thing she wanted most remained out of reach. But Chloe, who’d sacrificed nothing, got to have Brian?
She wouldn’t allow it.
Two helicopters flew in formation toward the emergency site on the island.
As they drew closer to the island, the wind turned stronger and more unpredictable, where even the
Chapter 121 The Brave and the Cowardly
slightest miscalculation could send them crashing.
At the controls, Sonya felt cold sweat bead on her palms.
She was an experienced flyer, but most of her experience was as a co–pilot, so the final decisions had still rested with the captain back then. Still, she was confident she could one day make those calls herself. She’d never believed she didn’t have the skills to be a captain.
But now, flying the helicopter alone in the harsh weather, she hesitated and didn’t dare get any closer.
One wrong move in this wind could send them plunging into the sea.
All she’d wanted was to outshine Chloe and stop her from being the one to rescue the people trapped on the island. She’d never meant to risk her own life for it.
“Ms. Miller, why aren’t you moving forward?” a rescue worker on board asked, puzzled.
Sonya’s face burned with embarrassment. “It’s too dangerous. The wind’s too strong. I can’t get through!”
“It’s too difficult?” The rescue worker frowned, then glanced at the other helicopter flying ahead, moving steadily toward the stranded people.
“But that helicopter…”
“That’s them, and this is us,” she snapped, glaring at the worker. “Maybe they just got lucky. Are you
questioning my judgment?”
The rescue worker fell silent.
Curtis leaned closer, trying to reassure her. “Sonya, don’t worry. I know you can get us through this safely.”
Sonya pressed her lips together, her chest tight with doubt. She wasn’t sure she trusted her own skills
anymore.
If she pushed the helicopter any closer, would it really hold?
What if it went down?
Her fingers on the controls felt stiff and numb.
Suddenly, Sonya swung the helicopter around and sped off in the opposite direction. The sudden maneuver jolted both Curtis and the rescue worker.
“What? Ms. Miller, you’re heading the wrong way!”
“Sonya, where are you going?” Curtis asked, confused.
“Chloe already passed gone ahead,” Sonya replied. “Let her handle the rescue. It was her mission to begin
with. There’s no reason for us to take this risk.”
Curtis was stunned. He’d never imagined hearing such words from Sonya. She’d once pulled him from a raging river and stood her ground against a wildfire at the border.
Chapter 121 The Brave and the Cowardly
4/4
He’d always believed a woman like her would face any danger to help others. Yet now, she was walking away as if she were deserting.
In that instant, he felt like something was seriously, fundamentally wrong.
“But back then, when you saved me, when you fought the fire, weren’t those risks too?” Curtis pressed.
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Chapter 122 Brian Grows Uneasy
