Sacrificed in the Rain for Her Lover

As an exploration geologist, I'm caught in a landslide during a mission, and one of my arms is crushed. Before we set out, our exploration team has accurately predicted the weather. There's no chance of heavy rain that day. It isn't until I overhear my wife, Diana Nelson, talking to a doctor friend that I learn the truth. "Diana, you knew Adam was going out on a mission that day, yet you spent a fortune on creating cloud seeding just to get him injured and eventually cost him an arm. You really went too far for Flynn." Diana frowns. "Who told him to care so much about that exploration project? The only way the project can go to Flynn is if Adam gets disabled. "Otherwise, Flynn will be sent to Nambara. You think I can bear to let him suffer in a place like that?" What she doesn't know is that the Nambaran assignment will go to either Flynn Cooper or me. Before leaving, I put my medical report, which states that I've lost my reproductive ability, into a box. The day Flynn makes a name for himself, the box will be delivered to Diana as a gift. Chapter 1 Adam's POV "Don't forget, Diana. Adam's lifelong dream has always been to start his own exploration team. Now that he's lost an arm, can you bear to—" My wife, Diana Nelson, cut her doctor friend off without hesitation. "He's had it easy his whole life! He wanted to marry me, and he did by just sweet-talking my family. Then he went on to make a name for himself in the exploration team. "But Flynn didn't come from a good background. How could I just stand by and watch him get sent to Nambara?" Separated by nothing but a door, I could hear the pain in Diana's voice when she spoke about Flynn. The hallway fell silent for a moment before she finally composed herself. "You're an orthopedic surgeon, but that's not why I came to you. Do me a favor and find a drug that can numb the nerves. I want to make sure Adam's arm never regains any feeling." Her doctor friend realized there was no talking her out of it and sighed deeply. "As your longtime friend, I'm telling you this because I don't want you to regret it." Hearing the truth, I broke down in tears. I didn't know the woman I had loved for six years had been this unwilling to be with me. She was even willing to sacrifice one of my arms just to clear the way for Flynn Cooper's future. What she didn't know was that the storm had taken more than an arm from me. It took away my ability to have children, too. A young nurse who had overheard the conversation looked at me with pity. I numbly shook my head and forced the words out through the pain. "Put the diagnosis in a box for me. She deserves to know." The nurse wrapped the surgical tissue in gauze. Just as she was about to open the door, Diana walked in. The smell of blood reached her, and she instinctively covered her nose. Only after the nurse left did she lower her hand. When she saw the tears streaming down my face, she gently came over and wiped them away. "Oh, Adam. Please don't cry," she said softly. "You might have lost an arm, but you still have me. I'll be your other hand. I will never let you suffer." Ironically, she was the one who had caused my greatest suffering. I frantically dug my nails into my right arm, but it was limp and useless, like a slab of dead fish. I couldn't feel a thing. Diana quickly covered my arm and pulled me into a tight hug. "Stop it, Adam! I promise things will get better!" If I hadn't overheard what she said in the hallway earlier, I might've been so moved that I would've kissed her. But the truth had found me. The woman I had loved for six years was nothing but a cold-blooded monster. Just then, Diana's doctor friend came in with a syringe. I fought desperately to break free from her arms, but she held me tighter. "It's okay. It's okay. The doctor is here to treat you. You'll be better in no time." Somehow, her gentle voice was completely devoid of warmth. Like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, I finally stopped fighting. Chapter 2 Adam's POV The second the doctor drove the needle into me, I saw the pity in her eyes. After the injection, I gradually lost all feeling in my body and eventually passed out. As my consciousness slipped away, I vaguely heard Diana sigh. "I'm sorry for doing this, Adam. I swear I'll make it up to you someday." When I opened my eyes again, she was already asleep beside my bed. Just then, I got a call from my team leader, Julian Mercier. "Flynn submitted the exploration data yesterday. Looks like the assignment to Nambara will fall on you… You can serve as the team's chief coordinator over there, but with your arm…" My grip tightened around the phone as I wiped away my tears. "I'm willing to take up the assignment. I just need your help to erase my identity from the records." Julian was stunned and asked me why. After all, as far as he knew, Diana had spent six years doting on me as my devoted wife. There was no way I would willingly leave her. Funnily enough, we had both been fooled. I forced a smile. "I can make a difference in geology wherever I go. I just want to devote myself to the profession." Julian was relieved to hear that and immediately agreed to help me revoke my legal identity. I looked at Diana, sleeping peacefully beside me, and remembered her promise to make it up to me. Unfortunately, I no longer wanted that so-called compensation. My phone chimed again. This time, Flynn sent me a series of chat screenshots. "These data were found on Adam's computer. Now that he's disabled, you can use them to finish the project," Diana wrote. No wonder Flynn had managed to produce the exploration data so efficiently. Diana had handed him everything I had worked on and let him take the credit. "I absolutely won't let you suffer in Nambara. You can't even wear your nice suits over there. I know how much you care about your appearance," she wrote in another message. Then Diana sent him photos of several custom-made suits. She had designed every one to match his tastes. Even the cufflinks were embossed with his distinctive silhouette. I remembered what she had once told me. "If you want new clothes, go shopping with your rich friends. I don't know much about men's fashion." I had been so deeply in love with her that I never noticed the difference in how she treated us. Now, I realized that she was willing to do anything—crippling me, destroying my future—just so he could keep wearing his suits. I dug my nails into my useless arm until tears of bitterness filled my eyes. I cared about my appearance, too. Then, out of nowhere, Flynn made his social media posts visible to me. They were filled with intimate photos of him and Diana, taken throughout the six years of our marriage. Every time she told me she had something to take care of at work, she had actually been going to see him. She had even canceled multimillion-dollar deals just to go to concerts with him, where they passionately kissed on the big screen. Yet when I had happily bought tickets for us, she barely cared to look up. "Concerts are loud and crowded. You should just go by yourself." It all made sense now. It wasn't that she didn't like going. She just didn't want to go with me. Her feelings were crystal clear. There was no point in forcing a love that didn't exist anymore. I swallowed my emotions and booked a flight to Nambara. The following morning, Diana helped me wash up. When she reached my limp right arm, her eyes flickered ever so slightly. After helping me get dressed, she called several highly trained rehabilitation specialists and spent an entire hour carefully going through every detail to choose the right one. At that moment, Julian sent me the details of the exploration assignment in Nambara. Diana leaned over and asked, "Nambara? Who's going to Nambara?" I calmly turned off my phone and smiled. "Julian and I are both relieved that Flynn doesn't have to go to Nambara anymore." She visibly relaxed, then shrugged, pretending not to care. Chapter 3 Adam's POV "I wonder which poor sucker has to go to a place like Nambara," Diana remarked. I lowered my eyes. That "poor sucker" was me. Seeing the gloom on my face, Diana took my hand, her expression turning complicated. "The rehab specialists I hired are some of the best in the field. And you have me, your wife, by your side. You'll get better." If she hadn't told her friend to inject me with a nerve-numbing drug the second I became stable, I might've believed her. "By the way, Adam, the project you were in charge of is having its final inspection ceremony. But since you're still recovering, you should stay home." There was basically no room for discussion. When we got home, she grabbed a jacket and left. The moment she was out the door, I hailed a cab and followed her. … The inspection ceremony was anything but ordinary. The turnout was far grander than I had expected. When my colleagues saw me, they began whispering among themselves. "I've never met an explorer this unlucky. The weather was perfectly fine, and yet a torrential downpour just happened to hit on the exact day he went out on the mission." "If I were him, I'd quit while I was ahead. Who knows? He might end up causing trouble for the rest of the team someday." "I feel sorry for Ms. Nelson. She'll have to spend the rest of her life looking after a disabled man. Now that I think about it, she and Flynn are a much better match." The voices were never-ending. I followed their gaze. Flynn stood at the center of it all, basking in the praise from everyone around him. The terrain was rough, so Diana had taken off his dress shoes and carried them for him herself. He was like a pampered houseplant she had carefully tended. When everyone split off to mingle, Diana helped Flynn into the car so he could rest. "You don't need to feel guilty about taking the credit. Adam can't use the data anymore anyway. As long as we don't tell anyone, it's yours. "Don't worry. There's no way I'd let you go to Nambara. It can be anybody, but I won't let it be you." A smug look flashed across Flynn's eyes. He pressed Diana against the car window. "So, how should I repay you for everything you've done for me? Like this… Or this?" In an instant, her cheeks flushed, and her breathing grew heavier. The heat inside the car rose, fogging up the windows. Despite fighting to hold herself back, she finally gave in. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. Whatever was happening inside the car became harder to watch. I covered my mouth and hid behind a tree, closing my eyes as my heart turned to stone. This was the place where I had barely survived. It was also where I had lost my reproductive ability. Yet Diana was inside that car, lost in pleasure. As the ceremony drew to a close, everyone gradually began to leave. I was about to follow the others when a familiar male voice came from behind me. "Adam, you're the most useless man I've ever met." Flynn stood in front of me with his arms crossed, his body covered in fresh hickeys. A bitter smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. In the end, as much as I hated to admit it, he was the one who came out on top. He kicked my useless arm, his eyes filled with smug satisfaction. "How does it feel to be betrayed by your own wife? So what if you got your wish and married Diana? I'm still the one she can't let go." He added, "Your woman, your career—they all belong to me now. And you, Adam, are nothing but a cripple!" Then, he showed me the video from the day of the cloud seeding. I was trapped beneath the mountain by the landslide, my body covered in wounds. Blood kept flowing from between my legs, washed away by the rain, sealing my fate as a man who would never be able to have children. At that time, Diana was watching with one arm wrapped around Flynn, the other tilting the umbrella toward him. "Enough watching. You'll catch a cold." Chapter 4 Adam's POV The way Diana had carried herself, so calm and composed, was as if the person who had been caught in that disaster had been a stranger. The memory from that day flashed through my mind, and my legs gave out beneath me. Flynn stepped forward in his polished dress shoes and stomped on my one good hand until flesh and blood blurred together. I screamed in agony, and only then did he finally stop. The next second, he picked up the saw from the ground and viciously dragged it across his own palm. Blood immediately ran down his pristine white pants. Hearing the commotion, Diana hurried over. The moment she took in the scene, she glared furiously at me. "Adam, if you have a problem, come at me! Don't you dare take it out on someone else!" Before I could even defend myself, Flynn dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around my leg, begging desperately. "I know losing an arm has been hard on you, but taking over your project was the organization's decision. I had no choice. Adam, if hurting me would make you feel better, break my arm…" As he spoke, he placed the bloody saw against his forearm, as if ready to sacrifice himself to make amends. At that, Diana instinctively snatched the saw away and pulled Flynn into her arms. When she looked back at me, her eyes were full of rage. "I know you're having a hard time, Adam, but that doesn't give you the right to take your anger out on Flynn! He's innocent!" If he were innocent, would that make me the sinner then? Regardless, I knew better than to waste my time defending myself. In the end, I simply looked at Diana in despair and asked, "Have you really regretted none of it?" My question caught her completely off guard. The anger in her eyes faded a little. She pressed her lips together, but still gritted out, "I don't know what you're talking about." A bitter laugh escaped me. At that moment, all the love we had shared over six years vanished without a trace. Diana's eyes fell on my bloody left hand. She was about to say something when Flynn's sobs pulled her attention away. "It's okay, Flynn. I'll take you to the hospital right now." After the two of them left, I borrowed the exploration team's first-aid kit and hastily bandaged my wounds. Under the contemptuous stares of everyone around me, I left alone and headed for the airport. On the way, I called the nurse from the andrology department and asked her to deliver the box to tonight's project launch. Once everything was settled, I received a message from Diana. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I was just afraid that Flynn getting into trouble might drag you into it. Can I come home and apologize to you in person later?" Yet the live news showed her with Flynn, arms linked, as they headed to the project launch. The comments online were filled with nothing but well wishes for them. So, I wished them the same. … Third-Person POV That evening, Diana and Flynn attended the exploration project launch together. As she stared at the unanswered message on her phone, an uneasy feeling began to creep into her heart. She went around the venue as usual, greeting people and handling business, but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't tell if she was worried about Adam Henderson's arm or afraid that he might suddenly show up. Trying to sound casual, she asked Julian, "Adam isn't coming to the launch tonight, is he?" Julian paused, looking confused. "Adam? You still don't know? He should be on his way to Nambara. With Flynn achieving such impressive results, Adam was the only one left to take the assignment." At that, colors drained from Diana's face. She was about to step forward and demand an explanation when a nurse approached her. "Mrs. Henderson, your husband found out that you arranged the cloud seeding. This is a gift he left for you before he departed. He specifically asked that you open it yourself."