Crossroads

Hearing someone calling her, Stephanie turned around. That person forcefully grabbed her and pinned her against the riverside railing. "Hey, let go!" she yelled as she angrily pushed the man away. "Kevin, let go of me..."

"Steffi, calm down. I need to talk to you," Kevin said as he looked at her with a troubled look while gripping her wrist. "Look, you'd better leave Dominick..."

"Kevin, my affairs are none of your business. We're already divorced!" Stephanie replied angrily while struggling to pry his hand off hers.

Kevin looked into her eyes and said, "I was wrong about the divorce, and I was wrong to have someone take those scandalous photos of you at the club back then. But Steffi, Dominick really isn't right for you. I've investigated and found out that he agreed to marry you only because you look like his deceased girlfriend. He just treats you like a substitute, and he even disliked it when you kissed him that day..."

Stephanie snapped, "I told you, it's none of your business!"

She had been feeling gloomy and irritated for the past few days, and hearing Kevin say this now only infuriated her even more.

Stephanie retorted, "Did you come here just to mock and ridicule me? Kevin, I've warned you, if you dare to bother me again, I won't be nice..."

She was a karate virtuoso. As soon as Stephanie finished speaking, she grabbed Kevin's right arm. Turning around, she pinned him against the railing and leaned forward, trying to teach him a lesson.

Unexpectedly, as Stephanie suddenly pressed down Kevin, he stepped on a round stone.

Somehow, he lost his balance and fell into the river with a loud splash.

Stephanie was momentarily stunned when she saw the dark splashing river.

A second later, she screamed in shock at the river, "Kevin!"

With only some dim streetlights on the shore, Stephanie couldn't see the river's surface clearly.

She continued to shout in panic toward the river's surface, "Kevin!"

Just then, Stephanie heard a faint call for help. "Help... Please help me..."

She was extremely anxious as she hadn't intended to push Kevin into the river. Stephanie then remembered that he couldn't swim, With a nervous expression, Stephanie thought that even though she hated him, she didn't want him to die. She quickly took off her shoes, climbed up the river railing, and leaped into the water below.

The river water in February was bone-chillingly cold, making her shiver as she paddled around. "Kevin, where are you..."

in save you Stephanie kept shouting. "Kevin, where are you? I'm coming to

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With the dim lights from the road, she saw some bubbles emerging on the right side of the river. Her eyes lit up and she immediately swam toward them.

"Hang on there, Kevin." In this life-or-death moment, Stephanie wrapped her arms around Kevin's waist.

Gritting her teeth, she exerted all her strength to swim toward the riverbank with Kevin in tow.

As Stephanie pulled him out of the water, a trail of ripples formed on the surface of the river. She then anxiously dragged Kevin to the shore with all her strength. Once they had gotten onto the riverbank, Stephanie nervously slapped his face. "Wake up! Kevin, please wake up. Don't scare me..."

However, he was still unresponsive. Kevin's face was pale and lifeless, while his eyes were tightly shut.

Stephanie's eyes began to redden with panic as the cold night wind blew over her body, which had been soaked in the river water. With shaking hands, she performed CPR on Kevin, pressing down on his chest over and over again.

She pleaded, "Kevin, wake up. Please wake up!" Stephanie anxiously pondered, "What if he really dies?"

As Stephanie frantically called out to Kevin, she raised his chin with her right hand and leaned down to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Soon after, Kevin, beneath her, choked a few times and coughed up a mouthful of river water.

Kevin opened his eyes and gazed at her with his blurry vision. He then called out her name with a hoarse voice. "Stephanie..."

Upon seeing that he had woken up, Stephanie almost burst into tears with relief as she genuinely believed she had accidentally killed him just now.

As Kevin saw the excitement in her tearful eyes, he suddenly felt an indescribable emotion welled up inside him.

Although he passed out in the river just now, he could feel Stephanie's concern and nervousness, which was more touching and impactful than any coquettish act from another woman.

Kevin admitted, "Steffi, I've wronged you before. I was wrong, I really was. Back then, my mother pressured me to marry you, and in the three years we were married, I never really looked at you. I deserve to die..."

He then suddenly pulled Stephanie tightly into his embrace.

At that moment, their clothes were soaked through. The river they both had been in was cold, and the night breeze was chilly, but their bodies pressed together felt intensely warm.

Kevin continued, "Steffi, I never cheated during our marriage. Claire suddenly appeared two months ago with a child. She was my ex-girlfriend, and I didn't know she had been pregnant when she left the country back then. When she suddenly came back, that's when I...

"I've wronged you. Can you give me another chance? I will take good care of you. I really don't mind the fact that you've been violated by other men..." Stephanie was still a bit disoriented. Just moments ago, she jumped into the river in a panic to save Kevin. Stephanie was scared out of her wits and now was chilled to the bone, causing her mind to be foggy. When she was embraced so tightly by him, she

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found herself lacking the strength to push him away.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Kevin's words echoed continuously in her ears. Stephanie then remembered that he had never confessed to her so tenderly before.

She mused, "If he was forced to marry me three years ago, then those sweet promises were fake. But now his words seem much more genuine. It's just that some of what he's saying is strange...

"What did you mean by being violated?" Stephanie furrowed her brows and struggled to push Kevin away. Her eyes then suddenly became clear under the still night by the river.

She pressed him urgently. "Kevin, who did you say was violated?"

Kevin choked out another few mouthfuls of river water. However, a man's physical strength recovered quickly. He got up and looked deeply into Stephanie's eyes. "Steffi, I won't mind those anymore, no matter how many men you were raped by that day...

She suddenly felt as if her head was booming, and she shouted, "What are you talking about? What exactly are you referring to?"

Kevin could see Stephanie's persistence in her clear eyes. He replied, "Your high school graduation trip..."

She wondered, 'High school graduation trip?"

Stephanie was utterly stunned at Kevin's words. She then looked at Kevin with a conflicted and complex gaze. At that moment, Stephanie's eyes were filled with confusion, disbelief, and uncertainty.

She looked bewildered as she murmured, "Are you saying I was violated by that gang of thugs during my high school graduation trip?"

Kevin lowered his head, his face a mix of turmoil, hatred, and guilt.

For three years of marriage, he and Stephanie had lived under the same roof, and the real reason he was reluctant to get close to her wasn't that he disliked her.

Instead, it was because Kevin couldn't forget her high school graduation trip incident. When Stephanie came back with bruises on her body and her clothes torn apart, he thought she was tainted.

"Steffi, you risked your life to save me. It just shows how much you care about me. I really won't mind that incident anymore." He moved closer to Stephanie and whispered a promise to her, "Claire was only after my money. I'll handle her. Please, just trust me one more time."

As Stephanie listened to Kevin's utmost tender promise, her face showed no emotion.

It was as if, at that moment, she no longer cared whether Kevin had cheated on her, whether he had an illegitimate daughter outside their marriage, or whether Claire snatched her husband. Stephanie was utterly stunned.

After a a while, Stephanie finally spoke in a strained and faltering voice. "Kevin, you....

So you..." Kevin just silently looked at her. At that moment, he felt that Stephanie's gaze upon him was unfamiliar, unlike anything he had experienced before.

She took a deep breath and exclaimed, her tone laden with complex emotions,

"Kevin, so it turns out you weren't the one who Chapter 27

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saved me during that high school graduation trip!”

Stephanie's voice was hoarse as she shouted, "When I was in danger during that high school graduation trip, someone came to my rescue in time. I wasn't violated by those thugs, not at all!"

Upon hearing that, Kevin was also stunned.

When he had arrived at the scene back then, all the thugs had already fled. After seeing Stephanie's disheveled clothes, he assumed that she had been violated and left abandoned on the hillside.

"Kevin, you lied to me! You said you saved me, you lied!" Stephanie became emotional and grabbed m Kevin's shoulders tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. "It wasn't you. It turns out it wasn't you... It wasn't you who saved. me that day! Why did you

lie to me?!" She seemed to be mocking herself, as well as recalling the unbearable incident.

She then suddenly pushed Kevin away and slowly stood up, her expression becoming bewildered.

"Who was it then? Who had saved me that day..." Stephanie's lips turned pale as she continuously muttered to herself. She couldn't remember the person's face, but she would never forget that day.

Meanwhile, Kevin sat by the dirty riverbank, looking up at her. Suddenly, it seemed like he understood something.

The reason Stephanie had so desperately saved him just now, and why she loved and cared for him all these years, was all because she mistakenly thought he was the man who had saved her that year.

Kevin didn't know how to describe his feelings now. It was almost ridiculous as if he was being played by fate.

When he suddenly realized what genuine sincerity and emotion meant at the brink of death, he no longer had the right to love her.

It was because the person who saved Stephanie that year wasn't Kevin. He had merely admitted to it without thinking.

Now, the troubling question arose. Who fell in love first, and who owed whom?

By this time, the riverbank had become crowded with many onlookers, and citizens had called the police for Stephanie and Kevin. Soon after, an ambulance also arrived.

When the doctor approached Stephanie to ask about her condition, she looked at the doctor, and hem vision flickered with multiple images. Probably because of the chill in the air or the emotional shock she endured, her vision blurred, and her body went limp before collapsing to the ground.

She was burning up at that moment. The river water in February was bone-

chilling, especially at night. Stephanie was so reckless because she always kept in mind the ordeal.

Later, Stephanie was taken to the hospital, delirious with a high fever.

She had many dreams that night, and the terrifying ordeal of narrowly escaping death during her high school graduation trip became her worst nightmare. And while Stephanie was unconscious, she had unknowingly become an internet sensation.

"Super heroine braves icy river to save a handsome man..." "Beauty's tearful, passionate kiss awakens her lover..." "If a woman

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would go to such lengths, she must love the man so deeply..." These were the exaggerated hashtags in the viral posts, underneath which was the clip of Stephanie jumping into the river to save Kevin..

These videos were captured by passersby along the riverbank, some capturing the moment she jumped into the river, others of her frantic attempts at mouth-to- mouth resuscitation for Kevin.

With various comments and speculations, it quickly became the hottest trending topic.