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!"
darkness, save for the occasional flash of headlights that flickered
to crawl
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. "Vivienne, I do trust
hatred bubbling up inside him toward Gavin and the
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 only a few,
the covers, even he couldn't suppress the
foul stench lingering around the Abernathy property came
that soiled and stained blanket was Holly's
that moment, Percival felt a
shred of his sanity reminded him that those people were still useful. But the agony he felt for Holly and the hatred for
to bury his head deeper into Vivienne's
hair as a chill flashed in her eyes. "Mr. Wolf, the dead do not deserve our hatred." Matthew glanced up through the rear-view mirror at
recall the last time he had seen such a chilling expression on Vivienne's
was formidable, but
they couldn't just
then, and he glanced at the caller ID before
"Hand it over."
passed the phone to
tinged with anger, came through, "Young Master, there's
now?" Vivienne didn't need to
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
she inhaled
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