Leopold and Matthew had just finished loading the Abernathy family into the van, including Cormac, when the stench inside hit them like a wave, almost driving them back out the door. But seeing Vivienne and the others frozen by the bedside, Leopold steeled himself and stepped inside.
The woman on the bed was a shadow of her former self, her hair tangled and matted like weeds upon the pillow. Her face was streaked with dirt, and it looked like the Abernathys hadn't bothered to clean her in ages. If it weren't for the faint rise and fall of her chest, Leopold might have mistaken her for a corpse.
Wait a minute!
Those features...
How come she looked a bit like Percival?
Realizing this, Leopold's pupils dilated, his finger pointing shakily at the woman on the bed.
Then he glanced at Percival, whose stony face was unreadable, and noticed the air around him growing colder and heavier. Leopold took a step back, feeling as if his throat had been seized. He couldn't manage to utter a complete sentence.
Finally, it was Vivienne who broke the silence. "Mr. Wolf, let's get her out of here first."
She was genuinely shocked. They had only come to fetch a witness back to Rivenwood, and here they were, stumbling upon the very person Percival had spent years searching for.
Mr. Wolf's aunt, the Ellington heiress-Holly Ellington!
"Gavin Abernathy!"
flash of headlights that flickered before Vivienne's eyes. Percival, with lips pressed together and eyes as cold as ice,
to
the man spoke. His voice was hoarse, almost eerie in the pitch-black setting, yet Vivienne heaved a sigh of relief as she said, "Mr. Wolf, trust me, I will
hatred bubbling up inside him toward Gavin and the entire Abernathy
assumed that even if Gavin didn't care for his aunt, out of respect for her status as the Ellington heiress, she would be placed in an unknown hospital with professional care to at least keep her alive. But the reality was starkly different! In this remote village, there were
pulled back the covers, even he couldn't
that foul stench lingering
was Holly's withered body, wounds festering
moment, Percival felt a murderous
were still useful. But the agony he felt for Holly
into Vivienne's stomach, his clenched eyes hiding
through the thin fabric, Vivienne swallowed hard, her hand gently caressing his hair as a chill flashed in her eyes. "Mr. Wolf, the dead do not deserve our hatred." Matthew
the last time he had seen such a chilling expression
was formidable,
just hand their life over to
at the caller ID
"Hand it over."
the
yet tinged with anger, came
has the Abernathy family done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she knew
having calmed Kaitlyn, joined Draven, "Ms. Vivienne, Gavin had people dig up Mrs. Littleton's parents' graves. They've taken the ashes and are threatening that if we don't hand over the secret recipe within three days, they'll scatter her parents' ashes
she inhaled deeply. "How
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