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!"
trace of light, leaving their car in the darkness, save for the occasional flash of headlights that flickered before
seemed to
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 heal your aunt." Percival's grim expression softened slightly. He shifted, leaning his head against Vivienne's shoulder. "Vivienne, I do trust you. It's just... I can't
control the hatred bubbling up inside him toward
out of respect for her status as the Ellington heiress, she would be placed in an
had pulled back the covers, even he couldn't suppress the rising bile
where that foul stench
Holly's
moment, Percival felt a murderous
But the agony he felt for Holly and the hatred for the
allowed himself to bury his head deeper into Vivienne's stomach, his clenched eyes hiding
eyes. "Mr. Wolf, the dead do not deserve our hatred." Matthew glanced up through the
recall the last time he had seen such
warrior lineage was formidable, but
Vivienne cared about, they couldn't just hand their
then, and he glanced at the caller ID
"Hand it over."
passed the
yet tinged with anger, came through, "Young
Abernathy family done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she knew Gavin
Draven, "Ms. Vivienne, Gavin had people dig up Mrs. Littleton's parents' graves. They've taken the ashes and are
tightened as she inhaled deeply. "How is Kaitlyn holding
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