Chapter 171: Chapter 171: Love?
She lifted her chin and spoke proudly.
"Silas is willing to walk ninety-nine steps. Why can’t I take one step toward him? He never once said he wanted to leave me. So why should I leave him? Others may not accept me, but Silas does. He stays beside me because he loves me, and I will stay beside him because I love him."
Her voice was trembling at the end, but her words did not break.
Ivy gave a cold laugh. It was sharp like broken glass.
"That is not love. How can you call it love when you are willing to let him die just by staying near him? That is selfishness."
Patricia only shrugged.
"Maybe it looks selfish to you. But to me, it is love. Even if I die, I want to die beside him. Even if he dies, I want him to die beside me. Love is not always clean or perfect. Sometimes it is messy. Sometimes it hurts. But it is still love."
Her eyes gleamed with stubbornness as she continued.
"Besides, a jinx may only be an idea. Sometimes people believe in coincidences so strongly that they turn them into a curse. A belief repeated again and again becomes reality. Perhaps this jinx is only that. If we stop fearing it, maybe it will stop controlling us."
Ivy’s lips trembled. Her heart twisted painfully.
’Is she saying... the jinx only became real because I believed in it? Is she saying I cursed myself and everyone near me because I was too scared?’
Patricia stepped closer, her voice low but firm.
"If you truly loved Silas, you would not have left him. You would not have broken his heart. Do you know how much pain he went through when you walked away? He was broken, Ivy. So broken, he thought of dying. What use was your sacrifice then? You left him to protect him, but you almost killed him anyway."
The words stabbed Ivy’s heart.
Her hand slammed on the desk with a loud crack. "Enough! Stop!"
Patricia flinched but didn’t step back. She kept her soft smile, though her hands were trembling at her sides.
"I will not stop," she whispered. "Because someone must tell you. Your love is not greater than mine just because you call it sacrifice. Love is not leaving. Love is staying, no matter what happens. That is what Silas gave me. That is what I give him."
"You don’t know a damn thing!" Ivy shouted, her high-pitched voice scared Patricia to the point that she almost collapsed on the ground in fear... Ivy looked very unstable.
However...
Biting her lips hard, Patricia chuckled, "Then you tell me. Otherwise, in the future, whenever you try to approach Silas, I will block you and not let you meet him."
She appeared calm and still maintained her gentle attitude, while her lips were curled into a faint mocking smirk. However, in her heart, she was praying.
’Please... please god. If you are listening, protect me from her.’
(A/n: (ᵕ—ᴗ—) Bro, just run away.)
Ivy felt agitated in her heart, "I saw him being killed because of me! Because of my jinx! Why the f*ck would I still be near him? Do you even know how I felt when I lost him? I..."
"Stop." Patricia raised her hand, and her teeth were almost chattering in fear, yet she held her fort. "Ivy, there is no such thing as absolute. I heard from Silas that you have saved Stephen, who in your visions had died, right? If you can change his ending, then why not Silas’s? Well, technically, you have already, by making him end up with me."
Ivy felt anxious and counterattacked, "I can change it because it was man-made, but Silas’s death..."
Towards the end, Ivy was stunned. No... Wasn’t Silas’s death... in a way man-made too?
The primary murder was the Ravencroft family and her. In this life, she had already captured the Ravencroft family, and even she was cautious.
So... the possibility that Silas will die just like in her previous life... has been reduced by a huge number.
If surmised... Ivy realized that she was acting foolishly.
Silas wouldn’t die as long as she stayed away from any life-threatening situation. Only in a life-threatening situation would Silas think of sacrificing his life...
As for her monthly periodic misfortune... as long as she keeps track of them, finds the pattern, and stays away from Silas during that period... won’t everything turn out fine?
"Ivy... you need to understand one thing... You can’t make decisions on behalf of Silas and expect him to listen to it while pretending to say that you love him." Patricia’s sarcastic tone made her words sound particularly harsh.
"I..." Ivy began but couldn’t counterattack Patricia’s words. She wasn’t pretending... but it was indeed a fact that she had ignored Silas’s opinion.
She had adopted the attitude of ’I am doing it for your own good,’ but what seemed good for Silas from her perspective wasn’t necessarily what Silas thought...
Ivy closed her eyes in dismay as her heart sank.
’What have I done... Silas sacrificed himself for me... yet I pushed him away... I hurt him repeatedly... Even after being reborn... I wasted 2 months because of my rigid thinking... ’
"Anyways." Patricia’s gentle voice snapped Ivy out of her daze. "I owe you a thanks. Thanks for being so foolish. If you still don’t understand... then I can only thank my lucky stars."
Just as she turned to leave, she paused and smirked, "By the way, Ivy, since I gave you such a valuable piece of advice... shouldn’t you at least tell me the criteria to become a permanent resident of this base?"
Ivy stared at Patricia blankly to the point that the other woman almost ran away but still held her ground.
"10 gold bars." Ivy spat and then ignored her. She had no energy to deal with her now.
Patricia elegantly walked away, but once she reached outside the office, she collapsed on the ground.
Patricia: (0 × 0) Mommy! So scary.
Martha (who was keeping an eye): ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ What was going on?