Warning: This chapter contains content that may not be suitable for some readers
"What are you going to do about Nancy?" Ivy asked with her arms still clinging around his waist. Jason sighed. "You have been hanging out a lot with Nick lately haven't you? The both of you are in sync in the way you both think." Jason whined as Ivy chuckled at the sense of his jealousy.
"I could sense someone had too much vinegar last night…" Ivy cupped his face in her palm as he chuckled. (Vinegar was a symbolic of being jealous cause it's sour.)
"I will always have you as my priority and no one could replace that place of yours in my heart," Ivy said with conviction as Jason kissed her forehead.
"I know… Don't worry about Nancy. She has been recovering. Nick and I had discussed it and it's important to keep you by my side for now. Nancy could fend for herself. At most, Nick and I would visit her occasionally… Speaking of which, I haven't given you a good scolding for lurking so dangerously over the Manes' project! Do you know what could have happened to you? Do you know those illegal underground minions are worse off than anyone else? What if Jeremy had gone ruthless on you, Ivy?" Ivy could feel Jason's anger as she hugged him to calm him down.
"I was scared too but I knew my daddy needed help. I just had to find a solution… I…" Jason hugged her tightly at the sound of Ivy's shaky voice. Ivy was caught off guard by her emotions. Now that she could openly tell him about her issues and feelings, one after another was overwhelming for her.
"Don't ever do that again… Promise me, always find me, Marcel, or Nick for help. Don't act alone." Jason gave her a stern warning as Ivy nodded.
"Let's head back down. You could come to my hotel to wash up first? You won't want your family to see you in this ugly puffy face state hmm…" Jason suggested as he wiped her tears away.
"Hmm… Let me drive home and leave the car there. You will tailgate me only then we head to your hotel?" Ivy suggested as Jason agreed before she alighted to fetch her car.
As the rain was pouring heavily the night before, Nancy's investigator reported to her about Jason spending the night with Ivy on the hilltop only the next morning as he couldn't get any reception from the hilltop. Nancy was beyond furious and out of control about it as she vowed to take back what was hers.
She hadn't noticed Nick who was asleep by her bedside the night before. She thought for a moment and was convinced that he must have arrived when she has fallen asleep. She had never expected to see him again after he had attempted to take his own life during their breakup. The guilt she had for him was not something she wanted to dwell on at all as she sneakily took Nick's car keys from the bedside table and ran off after retrieving her belongings and changing to her normal attire. She made her way to the airport and took an hour's next flight to Landsfield.
Nick who was woken up by the nurse much later to tell him about Nancy's checkout, noticed his car's keys were gone. He frantically searched the hospital for Nancy and his car but to no avail. He called Jason but his phone went to voicemail. He then went back to the nurse for her belongings to check if she still had her passport kept there only to find that Nancy had emptied out all her belongings from the hospital. Nick's heart was pumping hard with fear as he started to imagine all the reckless acts Nancy could come up with. He was confident that Nancy must have gone to Landsfield as that was the only place she knew Jason would be in.
Nick had no choice but to call Ryan and explained the entire situation including Jason going to the hilltop to look for Ivy. When Ryan was informing Uncle James and Jin, Uncle James' minions then reported that the investigator they had been looking into was actually Nancy who hired him. Ryu who had just woken up in the safe house heard of the bad news instantly dialed Ivy's number but it also went to voicemail. As Nick was rushing to get on the next flight out, the siblings drove all the way up to the hilltop in the hope to warn Ivy and Jason while Uncle James had arranged for his minions to continue monitoring the investigator.
Nancy who had arrived an hour earlier than Nick knew Jason would be back at his hotel later in the morning. She decided to head over to the hotel to wait instead of driving up to the hilltop. As for Jin, Ryan, and Ryu, they drove all the way up to the hilltop only to find an empty space.
When Nick landed in Landsfield, Ryan told him to head over to Jason's hotel to see if the couple would head over as Ryan updated him that the brothers had missed the couple and they were still uncontactable. Ivy and Jason's phones were already out of battery at that point in time when they happily drove to his hotel.
Nick was anxiously waiting at the hotel lobby and had not noticed Nancy was lurking around in a car. The moment he saw Jason's car drive into the valet, Nick was extremely relieved. He managed to capture Ivy's playful moments with Jason when they alighted and knew Jason's plan worked out. Deep down, he was sincerely overjoyed for both of them.
However, Nick had never expected the moment Jason pulled Ivy into his arms to share a kiss for the first time when they alight, a car was charging at the couple at high speed from their opposite direction. Ivy's heart-thumping sweetest moment was quickly turning into a panic attack as all she could hear was a loud roaring engine but her brain couldn't determine what was going on when the moment she opened her eyes and all she could see was Jason's worried face.
Jason who saw Nancy as the driver of the car had his heart broken into pieces when he heard the fast-approaching roaring engine of her car. He knew Ivy was in a very dangerous spot at that moment. Jason had no choice but to hug Ivy in his arms to shield her before he felt the force of the car hitting his back and sending them both flying off to the opposite road's wall where Ivy's head was protected by Jason's right palm to lessen any impact of hitting the wall since they were facing sideways.
When Ivy's mind finally registered they were knocked by a car, it was too late as she watched blood splattering from the wall when Jason's head landed on it as they slide to the ground with him still holding on tight to her in his arms. Ivy's eyes widened as tears of fear streamed down looking right into his reddened eyes and a forced smile when she felt the concussion from the knock of her head onto the wall despite being shielded by his palm.
"If there was any piece of luck left for me, I wish they all would go to her…" Jason was pleading inside him. From her blurry vision, she saw Jason vomiting blood on her while she felt a piercing pain from her pounding head as she lay on his chest looking up at him, struggling to tell her something. "No… Jason…" Ivy called out weakly.
Nancy drove right into the couple without hesitation as Nick screamed frantically while running towards the front of Nancy's car to avoid her from hitting them again. Nancy was furious at the sight of Nick trying to stop her that there and then, she decided to end their fate once and for all as she tried to avoid him but ended up knocking him off the road before crashing right into an edge of a cliff.
Jason knew he was of no hope as he held onto Ivy's hand and told her the words he never took the chance to say to her seriously.
"I love you," Jason said with his remaining last breath.
Ivy was struggling to stay conscious when she heard his last words loud and clear. She couldn't help but let her tears flow while slowly losing consciousness. She could feel his grip on her hand slowly loosening. She desperately tried to tighten the grip. "Jason… I love you too…Hang on… Hang on…I love you too… Do you hear me?" Ivy said weakly but there wasn't any reply as she watched him slowly closing his eyes with a smile.
In her last moments of consciousness, she desperately blinked her tears away to take a good look at Jason who was losing consciousness. She had a bad feeling that if she didn't stay awake long to take a good look she might never make it again to see him.
"Nooooo… Jason, stay with me… Hang on!" Ivy was screaming inside of her when she desperately tightened her grip on Jason's hand. The moment Jason passed on, Ivy could feel his arms totally give way from hugging her as she slowly closed her eyes with the last stream of tears before succumbing into the realm of darkness.
Nick saw the scenes of Nancy's car crash unfold in front of him as his heart ached for the sorrowful fate of Nancy. "No, Nancy! Don't! No!" Nick was screaming inside his mind but he knew it was too late.
He turned to the other side and caught a glimpse of the motionless couple. He made a little pact with the skies that he didn't mind if his life and Nancy's were used in exchange to keep them both alive before he too slowly loses his consciousness.
Uncle James and his minions arrived too late and hurriedly had the four of them rushed to the hospital. The news of the incident was widely covered. As Jeremy heard the news, he didn't expect Nancy to take things to this extent but it only made things easier for him from then on. When Ivy and Jason's family came with Marcel to the hospital, Jason and Nancy were pronounced dead.
Ivy and Nick were both unconscious. Ivy was in a deep sleep and it was only with her own will to fight through to be able to wake up. Whereas Nick would be awake from the effect of his surgery soon. Jeremy quickly put on an act to win over Peter and offered to pay for the hospital expenses for the four of them and hired the best doctors to aid Ivy and Nick's speedy recovery.
Peter knew Jeremy's intention but he was more concerned about his daughter than to be bothered with his business or Jeremy's scheming ways. His company's management was slowly deteriorating with major concerns but yet Peter felt like giving it up. His sons were giving their best to defend the company thereafter with Marcel's help and also with Uncle James' discreet backup help but yet Peter didn't find any meaning or will to keep the business around.
His goal was to protect Ivy from harm and if she wasn't around to accompany him, he felt his life was pointless. The brothers were the most affected as they wanted her to be awake but again they knew if Ivy was awake, she had to be more vital to survive the tragedy considering Jason has passed on.
Sometimes, life could throw hints of someone's else impending death in many different ways but the people by their side, often missed out on them. Nick had never thought that night in Manes was the last drink he would ever have with Jason as he sat on his hospital bed watching over Ivy and hoping that she would be awake soon. The only way he wanted to repay Jason was to keep Ivy safe and sound as she continued on with life after this. However, Nick was also worried that Ivy may not want to wake up at all and it scared him to think about being all by himself enduring this life with every loved one leaving him one by one. Marcel on the other hand could only do his best to help fulfill Jason's last wish which he had never expected Jason's last instruction to him to be a will he executed for Ivy in view of his impending death.
"If I was fated to repeat each life with you just to watch you perish, I would choose to put an end to this vicious cycle this time. Let me change your destiny for once and let me destroy the world which has been harming us, even if it meant perishing with the world forever.", Phoenix's words were echoing in the background as Ivy forced open her eyes to find herself back in her paracosm.
Phoenix was no longer in his mythical form but in his human form as he revealed his face to Ivy. Ivy cried her heart out as she threw herself to hug him. She couldn't quite understand what Phoenix meant earlier but never had she thought she would see Jason again as her heart ached, recalling his last moment. She didn't bother which world was she in but to get to see and hold him again was already a blessing. It had not occurred to her before this that Phoenix was after all a disguise of him.
As she held on tightly to him and wept with all her heart, Jason knew he had successfully changed her destiny in this lifetime. He knew he was already on the right path to end their miserable vicious fate. As he savored every last moment he had with Ivy now, he hoped her agony would lessen as they continue on the arduous journey ahead of them.