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!"
the darkness, save for the occasional flash of headlights that flickered before Vivienne's eyes. Percival, with lips pressed together and eyes as cold as ice, stared into the abyss
seemed to
yet Vivienne heaved a sigh of relief as she said, "Mr. Wolf, trust me, I will heal your aunt." Percival's grim expression softened slightly. He shifted, leaning his head against Vivienne's shoulder.
the hatred bubbling up inside him toward
Ellington heiress, she would be placed in an unknown hospital with professional care to at least keep her alive.
moment Percival had pulled back the covers, even he couldn't suppress the
where that foul stench
stained blanket was Holly's withered body, wounds festering and crawling
that moment, Percival
that those people were still useful. But the agony he felt for Holly and the hatred for the Abernathys set his heart ablaze with
into Vivienne's stomach, his clenched eyes hiding the torrent
flashed in her eyes.
couldn't recall the last time he had seen such a
lineage was formidable, but was
Vivienne cared about, they couldn't just hand their life over
phone rang then, and he glanced at the caller ID before saying,
"Hand it over."
passed the phone
cool yet tinged with anger,
done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she knew Gavin must have stirred up more
graves. They've taken the ashes and are threatening that if we don't
grip on the phone tightened as she inhaled deeply. "How is Kaitlyn holding
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