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!"
their car in the darkness, save for the occasional flash of headlights that flickered before Vivienne's eyes. Percival, with lips pressed together and
to crawl
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
the hatred bubbling up inside
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
even he couldn't
that foul stench lingering around the Abernathy property came
was Holly's withered body, wounds
that moment, Percival
were still useful. But the agony he felt
to bury his head deeper into Vivienne's stomach, his
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 glanced up through
the last time he had seen such a chilling expression on Vivienne's
ancient warrior lineage was
hurt a person Vivienne cared about, they couldn't just hand their life over to the Grim Reaper without
and he glanced at the caller ID
"Hand it over."
the phone
tinged with anger, came
Abernathy family done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she knew Gavin must have stirred
had people dig up Mrs. Littleton's parents' graves. They've taken the ashes and are threatening that if
on the phone tightened as she
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