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
to crawl
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.
inside him toward
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
Percival had pulled back the covers, even he couldn't suppress the rising
now understood where that foul stench lingering around the Abernathy
Holly's withered body, wounds festering and crawling with
that moment, Percival felt a murderous
shred of his sanity reminded him that those people were still useful. But the agony he felt for
into Vivienne's stomach, his clenched eyes hiding the torrent of
as a chill flashed in her eyes. "Mr. Wolf, the dead do not deserve our hatred." Matthew glanced up through the
couldn't recall the last time he had seen
ancient warrior lineage was formidable, but was Vivienne
cared about, they couldn't just hand their life over to
and he glanced at
"Hand it over."
passed the
tinged with anger, came through, "Young Master, there's
family done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she
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 to the
as she inhaled deeply. "How is
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