Love Showdown, Who Wins?

My grandmother, who had tirelessly raised me, fell critically ill. Yancy promised to rush back and take us to the hospital.

However, I stood in the heavy rain for three hours, scanning the entrance of the village, but his car was nowhere in sight.

Left with no alternative, I hoisted my grandmother onto my back and trudged through the rain towards the hospital. Yet, as I crossed the path, a sudden mountain torrent struck me, causing my head to collide with the rocks, and I lost consciousness.

1

When I awoke, I found myself in the hospital.

My grandmother, risking her own life, managed to push me to safety, but in doing so, she succumbed to the river's depths.

Kneeling before my grandmother's body, I bowed deeply, tears streaming down my face. Then, a call interrupted my grief.

"I won't be able to make it back tonight. Tara's got a stomachache, and I need to stay with her," Yancy's voice came through.

Before I could respond, the call ended abruptly.

"Is this why you disappeared?"

I typed through tear-blurred eyes, feeling as though my love had vanished along with him.

However, his reply didn't come until after my grandmother's cremation.

"She's in such bad shape already. Please, stop acting up," his message finally arrived.

"As we were heading back, passing by the river, we heard cries for help," the man who helped us recounted, his eyes welling up. "Turning, we spotted you drifting in the river, your grandmother clinging to you desperately, shouting for aid."

"When we took you over, we found you were pretty heavy for a slim person. I really don't know how your grandmother managed to hold you up."

Hearing this, I looked at my grandmother who was covered with a white cloth in front of me, and my tears dropped onto the back of my hand, forming a line in the air and then shattered on the floor.

"Rescuing you was no easy task. Unfortunately, your grandmother likely lost her footing and was swept away by the flood."

He continued solemnly. "We wasted no time. One of us took you to the hospital while the other searched along the riverbank. Eventually, we found her downstream..."

He paused, his hand landing gently on my shoulder, a heavy sigh escaping him.

"When your grandmother saw us, she smiled. Saving you meant everything to her," he added softly.

I couldn't contain my grief, throwing myself onto my grandmother and sobbing uncontrollably.

She hadn't slipped, it was because she had a heart condition. Yet she held on to me in that icy flood. Every ounce of strength she possessed went into saving me.

The man told me that by the time they found us, it was late into the night.

More than six hours had passed since I carried her across the path.

The thought of what she endured during those hours was unbearable.

Then, Yancy's call came through.

I hesitated to answer, my eyes fixed on the screen.

But Yancy didn't seem to give up and called again and again.

Reluctantly, I picked up, eager to hear what he had to say.

"I won't be returning tonight. Tara's got a stomachache, and I need to stay with her," his voice came through.

Those words stirred a storm of emotions within me.

Glancing at my grandmother covered with a white sheet, I recall the despair of dying in the flood.

Before I could respond, he hung up.

I was left with a sense of emptiness I couldn't put into words.

Tara White was Yancy's first love.