The Ice-Cold General Learned Regret in the Language of Roses Novel

The next second , Nora spun around as if she couldn't take the shock , then bolted away in tears . Ethan's face went rigid . He pulled out of her almost instantly , snapped , " Wait here , " and then took off after Nora without a moment's hesitation . Scarlett slid down the cold wall until she hit the floor , the sticky warmth and raw , tearing pain between her legs still clinging to her . How ironic . The woman he actually cared about only had to see them together before he panicked and ran after her . What did he think she was , a whore ?

She staggered to her feet , smoothed down her rumpled dress , and walked out of that disgusting little corner one slow step at a time , like a puppet whose soul had been yanked out . She had barely stepped out the club's back door when a shout rang out from above her . " Someone just jumped ! " She instinctively looked up and saw a figure drop straight from the club's upper floor . " Thud ! " With a heavy , sickening thud , the body slammed straight into Scarlett , pinning her where she'd just stepped out the door . Agony tore through her body in an instant .

Warm , viscous liquid splattered across her face and all down her body . In the split second before everything went black , she vaguely saw that the person who had landed on top of her was Nora , the same woman who had just run off sobbing . When consciousness finally crawled back , the first thing she registered was the thick , stinging smell of hospital disinfectant . Half - awake , she felt herself being wheeled toward an operating room , a nurse's anxious voice ringing in her ears . " Both women are in critical condition - they both have intracranial bleeding and multiple fractures .

But we've just taken in a wave of car - crash victims , the blood bank is running dry , and there's only one operating room left . If we delay surgery , one of them could die . General Foster , who do we operate on first ? " 16.67 % The next moment she heard Ethan's voice , hoarse and strung tight . " We save them both . Can't we transfer one of them to another hospital ? " " We can't , General Foster ! Neither of them is stable enough to move . You ... you have to make a decision . " A suffocating silence followed .

Scarlett forced one eyelid open and saw Ethan at the OR doors , jaw clenched tight , his face twisted with a kind of torment she'd never seen on him before . At last , as if the words were being dragged out of him , he forced them out one by one . " Operate on ... Nora first . " Operate on Nora first . She'd already seen the truth for herself , but hearing him make that choice out loud still crushed her heart so hard she could barely breathe . Instead , she ... laughed . Beneath the oxygen mask , the corner of her mouth lifted in the faintest curve , cold all the way to the bone . Of course .

So this was how it was going to be . Then the darkness swallowed her again . She had no idea how much time had passed when she finally drifted back to consciousness and found Ethan sitting at her bedside . The second he saw her eyes open , he leaned over her . " You're awake . How do you feel ? Does anything still hurt ? " Scarlett slowly turned her head , dodging his touch . " Back outside the OR , you'd already decided my life didn't matter and chose to save her instead . So why bother acting like you care now ? " He clearly hadn't expected her to have heard ; his whole body went rigid .

He stayed silent for so long that Scarlett almost believed he wasn't going to answer at all . " Nora used to travel with the unit as the coordinator for our USO - style entertainment team ," he said quietly . " She got seriously ill later on , and her health's been fragile ever since . In that situation , if she hadn't gone into surgery immediately , she would've died for sure ... so I chose her first ." He paused , then looked back at her . " After that , I scrambled to find an open OR at another hospital and got you into surgery as fast as I could . Scarlett , I never gave up on you .

" Scarlett listened to his explanation with a blank face , feeling nothing but frozen emptiness spreading through 16.67 % her chest . She let out a short , bitter laugh . " Ethan , if she was just some former colleague from your unit , just a frail subordinate who needed looking after , then why did seeing us together push her into a meltdown - why would she jump ? " Ethan fell silent again . She watched his throat work as he swallowed , and it was a long time before he spoke , his voice low . " Nora used to be in love with someone she could never be with , for all kinds of reasons .

She's been bottling it up for years , her moods all over the place . Seeing us together that night at the club ... maybe it pushed her over the edge . " Scarlett just watched him , watched the hard lines of his jaw , the calm , unruffled look in She'd never realized he could lie this smoothly . She remembered it perfectly : not long after they married , she'd been curled up in his arms , idly fiddling with the buttons on his uniform as she said , half joking and half serious , " Ethan , I hate being lied to more than anything .

My mother spent her whole life trapped in one lie after another from my father , and it ended up costing her life . If you ever lie to me , I'll walk away without looking back . " He'd bent his head to kiss the top of her head then , his voice rough . " I won't lie to you . " Now it was lie after lie after lie . For Scarlett , love had always been just a bonus , something nice on top of a life she could build on her own . If it worked , she stayed . If it didn't , she moved on . And if moving on didn't work either , she could still be dazzling on her own and live a damn good life .

So the moment she knew for sure he was lying , he was out of her life for good . 16.67 % admin