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!"
in 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
to crawl
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
bubbling up inside him toward Gavin
the Ellington heiress, she would be placed in an unknown hospital with professional care to at least keep her alive. But the
moment Percival had pulled back the covers, even he couldn't suppress the rising bile
where that foul stench lingering around the Abernathy property
and stained blanket was Holly's withered body, wounds
moment, Percival felt
useful. But the agony he felt for Holly and the hatred for the Abernathys set
Vivienne's stomach,
as a chill flashed in her eyes. "Mr. Wolf, the dead do not deserve our hatred." Matthew glanced up through the rear-view
last time he had seen such a chilling expression on Vivienne's
was
someone hurt a person Vivienne cared about, they couldn't just hand their life over to
then, and he glanced at the caller ID before saying,
"Hand it over."
passed the
voice, cool yet tinged with anger, came through,
has the Abernathy family done now?" Vivienne didn't need to guess; she knew Gavin
ashes and are threatening that if we don't hand
the phone tightened as she inhaled
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