Chapter 816

"I... I don't know what you're talking about."

"Tsk, tsk. Must sting," Penelope said, shaking her head with a look of pure mockery.

With that, she turned her back to the woman and rested her head on Theodore's shoulder. He naturally slipped his arm around her waist.

"What's her deal?" Penelope asked him in a hushed whisper.

"I don't know what her deal is," Theodore replied smoothly.

"How could you not know?"

"I honestly don't."

Annoyed by his cryptic answers, Penelope pinched his arm.

Theodore chuckled softly. "She's Heath Haynes' sister."

"Heath Haynes?"

Theodore pointed toward the stone pier in the distance. Penelope followed his gaze and saw a frail teenage boy standing at the very edge. She instantly recognized him as the boy who had darted into traffic and been knocked down by her car.

"He's the one I've been playing games with lately."

Penelope watched the boy. He was wearing jeans and a white button-down shirt. He was so gaunt that the fierce ocean winds looked like they might blow him over, yet he stood there stubbornly. Suddenly, his body began to lean forward.

"Oh no, he's going to jump!" Penelope gasped.

Theodore froze. Seeing that the boy had already stepped one foot off the ledge, Theodore's expression turned predatory. He sprinted toward the pier at full speed. Heather Haynes finally noticed her brother's erratic behavior and shrieked, sprinting frantically after them.

Penelope was incredibly confused by the whole situation but instinctively ran after them.

Just as Theodore reached the stone pier, Heath threw himself into the churning water.

The horrifying sight made Penelope stumble to a halt. A second later, her legs gave out completely when Theodore dove straight in after him without a moment of hesitation.

The waves were violent and towering. It felt like an eternity before Theodore broke the surface, fighting against the current as he hauled the boy toward the shore.

Penelope scrambled back down to the beach. As soon as Theodore reached the shallows, she waded in to help drag the boy onto the sand.

Heath was unconscious. Theodore pumped his chest forcefully until the boy coughed up a massive amount of seawater. As Heath weakly opened his eyes and saw Theodore, he immediately turned his face away.

"I hate being saved."

His voice was hoarse and barely a whisper.

In that moment, Theodore was consumed by a suffocating wave of anger. "You want

to die, but someone else wanted to live! Why..."

He cut himself off abruptly. It looked as if a tidal wave of unspoken emotions was crushing his lungs, leaving him breathing heavily, unable to force out another syllable He simply stood up and stared down at the boy on the sand.

Penelope stepped up beside him and followed his gaze. The wet fabric of the boy's shirt clung to his chest, exposing a prominent surgical scar-the undeniable mark of open-heart surgery.

Heather stumbled over, collapsing

next to her brother in the sand. Her panicked worry quickly morphed into relief, and then into blinding fury. She broke down, pounding her fists, against the boy's shoulders.

"Why are you doing this?! Why do you want to die so badly?!"

"Do you have any idea what we sacrificed to save you? What we did to keep you alive?!"

"Heath, you're going to drive me crazy!"

Facing his sister's blows and

hysterical tears, the boy remained utterly apathetic. He didn't even look at her. Instead, he turned his head back toward the violently crashing. waves that could swallow a person whole.

He stared at the ocean with a chilling longing. Penelope knew with absolute certainty that if no one was there to stop him, he would jump again.

This boy had zero fear of death. Absolutely none.