Chapter 3

Jocelyn Reed’s POV

On the first day after Lily Vance returned to the country,

Theodore summoned me with a phone call to a deep-diving club downtown.

The moment I pushed open the door to the private deep-diving area, the damp air rushing toward me made my breathing abruptly seize.

Ahead was an extreme deep-diving pool fifteen meters deep.

My body trembled slightly beyond my control.

I had severe underwater claustrophobia.

Because in my world, the man I loved most, Ethan Cole, had lifted me onto the shore during a flood. He himself had been swept into a whirlpool, and to this day he still lay in the ICU in a vegetative state.

“How long are you going to stand there?”

Theodore’s impatient voice cut through my instinctive terror.

I looked up and saw Theodore sitting on a lounge chair by the pool, his arm around the graceful Lily Vance.

The group of rich heirs who had laughed at me in the private room last night were all gathered nearby, ready to watch the show.

Lily nestled against Theodore’s chest, eyes glistening with feigned tears. She gestured toward the pitch-black pool bottom in a whiny, sugary tone. “The custom diamond earrings you gifted me two years ago slipped out of my hand down there. They’re your very first present to me—I can’t bear to lose them.”

The water pressure at the bottom of the deep-diving pool was enormous. Normally, anyone going down had to wear professional scuba gear.

But Theodore did not call a lifeguard. Instead, he looked straight at me.

“Jocelyn Reed, aren’t you always saying that to marry me, you’d be willing to do anything?”

Theodore pointed to the bottom of the pool, fifteen meters down. “Lily’s earrings fell in. Go down without a wetsuit and without an oxygen tank, and retrieve them.”

The people around us sucked in a breath.

“Holy shit, Theodore is going this far? Diving fifteen meters bare-handed? If she hasn’t had professional training, her lungs could burst, right?”

“This isn’t about finding something. This is Theodore laying down the rules for Lily!”

I bit hard on my paling lower lip, my nails nearly digging into my palms.

I looked at Theodore’s arrogant face, my voice a little hoarse. “I don’t know how to dive.”

“You don’t know how to dive?” Lily gave a soft laugh from the side. “If Ms. Reed doesn’t want to retrieve them, then forget it. After all, they’re only a pair of earrings worth a few million. It’s just a shame… Theodore told me yesterday that next month’s wedding is going to be held on an island. If Ms. Reed is even afraid of this little bit of water, I’m afraid the wedding can’t happen, can it?”

She was using the wedding to threaten me.

That was my greatest weakness.

Without the wedding, my mission would fail completely, and Ethan Cole would never wake up.

Theodore looked at my rigid body, and a trace of mockery flashed through his eyes. “Exactly. If you can’t retrieve them, next month’s wedding will be postponed indefinitely. In any case, Theodore Shaw’s wife cannot be a useless woman who isn’t even willing to do this tiny thing for me.”

In Theodore’s eyes, I loved him to the bone. As long as he said the word, I would even throw away my life, let alone get into some water.

I looked at the blood-red countdown on the panel and closed my eyes.

“Fine. I’ll retrieve them.”

I did not even take off my coat. I went in wearing my white shirt and suit pants.

Under the shocked, eager-to-watch stares of the crowd, I jumped without hesitation into the fifteen-meter-deep pool.

“Splash!”

The icy water instantly swallowed me over my head. The violent sensation of weightlessness crushed my chest like madness.

I almost convulsed underwater. My ears screamed with sharp pain from the water pressure.

The air in my lungs was squeezed out bit by bit, and a strong taste of blood rose in my throat.

I could not die. I could not fail.

Ethan Cole was still waiting for me.

Forcing myself to hold on to my last breath, I found the glittering earring at the bottom of the pool.

“Splash!”

I broke through the surface and grabbed the handrail at the edge, climbing onto shore.

I was in a miserable state. My soaked clothes clung tightly to my body. I shook all over from the cold and coughed violently.

The surroundings fell silent for a moment. Even that group of rich heirs was frightened by my ruthless, life-risking resolve.

With a trembling hand, I held the earring out to Theodore.

Word by word, I asked, “The wedding will go on as planned, right?”

Theodore looked at my bloodless face, and his expression shifted.

But he quickly suppressed that strange feeling. He took the earring, turned around, and gently put it on Lily.

“Of course. After all, you’re so obedient.”

Theodore did not even hand me a towel. He only cast a cold glance at the water dripping beneath my feet, his brows tightly furrowed, his tone full of disgust.

“You made the floor filthy. Go dry your clothes yourself.”

After saying that, he wrapped an arm around Lily and, surrounded by the crowd, left the deep-diving area without looking back.

In the empty venue, a cold wind blew through.

I collapsed onto the floor tiles, clutching my arms tightly, my head filling with wave after wave of dizziness so intense it felt like it would split open.

[System Alert: Wedding progress remains unaffected. Countdown: 28 days.]

Listening to the voice in my mind, I pulled a weak smile at the corner of my mouth.

Then my vision went completely black, and I lost consciousness.