CHAPTER 168: HOLDING A GRUDGE

Hazel stretched out her body after she finished her meal and fruit. It was close to morning, and Ranon had not yet slept again after he cooked for her. He was there to accompany her eating.

"It’s time to wash your hair," he said, twirling his fingers around her curls. He was adamant that she not cut her hair since he liked it, so he made an extra effort to agree to wash it.

"I am sleepy," Hazel yawned, and she stretched her body again. Now that her stomach was full and her baby seemed to have fallen asleep again, she was ready to get some sleep too.

"Okay, I will take care of your hair after I return."

Hazel yawned again and agreed, but now all she wanted to do was to lie down. She really wanted to lie down on her back, but with her baby growing, it felt suffocating.

Based on what she read, it was normal. Soon enough, she would only be able to lie down on her side.

"Sleep well," Ranon said as he kissed her forehead as Hazel got on the bed.

"Where are you going? Stay with me until I fall asleep." Hazel yawned again, but she tugged Ranon’s shirt and pulled him to the bed with her.

And that was what Ranon did. He climbed into the bed with her and hugged her from behind as she snuggled her back against him.

"Stop moving around and sleep." Ranon hugged her a little bit tighter to make her stop moving.

"I am looking for a comfortable position," Hazel retorted.

"I am the one who is not comfortable here."

It was so rare for Ranon to talk about the past because he didn’t like to talk about his life before he joined the Leighton family. That was not the story that you would enjoy telling others.

Despite that, Ranon talked with ease when he was with Hazel. She listened to him, though she was too busy eating to feel pity for him, but there was no judgment there. She acted like it was not a big deal.

Even though Ranon didn’t tell her the whole thing, it felt nice to talk about it, something that Ranon had never thought about before.

***

"You neglected me when I needed you the most!" Aubrey screamed at the top of her lungs and threw her pillow towards her father. She was livid when she saw her father was there.

She had told the nurse that she didn’t want anyone to visit her, especially her father and Arlo, but it was her mistake to think it was enough to ward off Arthur from coming.

Meanwhile, her mother, obviously, had gone back home at the first chance she got. Though Aubrey was grateful because Elise decided to stay with her during the labor, she hated her for not thinking about her.

Not even a grandson could make her stay.

"Aubrey," Arthur called her tiredly.

"Get out!" Aubrey screamed again; this time two nurses came to check on her, but with a wave of Arthur’s hand, they backed off.

The sight made Aubrey even more livid with the power that her father held.

"Can you calm down so we can talk?"

"I don’t want to calm down! I want you to leave! You have left me before; now you can leave again! Leave!" Aubrey’s face had turned very red as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

However, instead of leaving, Arthur came closer and grabbed Aubrey’s wrist, stopping her from throwing things at him.

Arthur took the pillow from her grip and threw it away. His expression was stern, and this gave Aubrey a start. She looked at her father closely, and upon closer look, she saw bruises on his temple, which she didn’t notice before.

"Tell me..." Arthur’s voice was shaking, and his grip was tightening. Aubrey winced, but there was something about what her father was going to say that scared her. "Tell me... did you shoot River?"

Lying was a second language in their community. It took a lot of experience to know whether they lied or not since that was the first thing that had been subtly taught to them.

However, no amount of lessons could hide the shock on Aubrey’s expression. Not the kind of shock of the accusation, but the kind of shock when your biggest secret was revealed.

The realization shattered Arthur.

Aubrey didn’t outrightly admit that, but her reaction was enough for Arthur to confirm. He knew lies. He lived in it.

"I... I didn’t..." Aubrey stammered. She turned teary eyes. Her anger evaporated and vanished without a trace.

"How could you do that, Aubrey?" The shock made Arthur take a step back, but his grip on her tightened, and Aubrey’s fear made her oblivious to the pain.

"No... I didn’t... I am not..." Aubrey cried, but she couldn’t form a complete sentence. This was her biggest fear.

How could her father know about that? How could her father guess that? Was that even simply a wild guess?

"But... she didn’t die. She is not dead..."

And that was the admission Arthur needed. He let go of her hand as if she was too dirty for him to touch. The look of disgust across his face made Aubrey’s stomach churn. She had never seen her father look at her that way.

If Aubrey indeed was the one who shot River, it meant what Hazel said about Arlo was also right.

Arlo was there, witnessing the whole thing.

Arthur couldn’t kill Aubrey, because no matter what, she was still his daughter, but he could kill Arlo for what he had done and for what he was going to do with his father...

However, Arthur couldn’t carry out his plan, because four days later, Arthur found himself in Ranon Leighton’s hands.

If Arthur thought he could get away easily with only a punch, he was completely mistaken.

After kidnapping his wife, a punch was only a scrap compared to Ranon’s grudge.

***

Four days had passed since Marcus was trapped inside the office, and Carl was trapped in the role that he didn’t want.

"You shouldn’t have done this..." Marcus said with the last thread of his consciousness. He fought back the delicious ignorance that the drug delivered to him.

Carl didn’t say anything as he injected Marcus with the same drug over and over again once he looked sober enough and the drug in his system had worn off.

"You are trembling..." Marcus said derisively to see how Carl’s hand was shaking. "You are going to miss the vein."

"Sh-Shut up..." Carl stammered. His hands were shaking uncontrollably.

"Go back to your parents, boy."

Marcus’s words triggered Carl, and he literally stabbed him. It was not pleasant at all, and he could have broken the needle.

"I said shut up!" Carl was agitated. "I don’t have parents!"

His birth mother cheated, and his father didn’t want him, while his stepmother didn’t want him or his father. How could their family be ruined like this in less than a year? Where had it gone wrong?

"You are laughable," Marcus said before his consciousness slipped away as the blissful oblivion from the drug numbed all the pain.

Carl immediately stood up; he was trembling as he stared at Marcus’s naked body. He was left at the corner of the room as a reminder to those who wanted to leave the crowd that there was a price they couldn’t pay.

And Nelson watched the entire thing; it made him very ill. If it were kept like this, Marcus would die. There was only one way to save him...

***

"We got him," Ares said. "Our man is currently moving him."

"Got it," Ranon said. "I will be there in an hour." He then hung up the phone as he waited for the elevator to bring him to his floor.

Ranon was busy today, and he couldn’t have time for anything that was out of his schedule, but his wife was an exception.

Hazel just called him to say that she ran out of apples. She would love to eat them right now and wanted Ranon to personally buy them for her.

Actually, Hazel could have asked Renna, or Ranon could have asked someone else to bring the apples to Hazel, yet it felt like an excuse for coming home and seeing each other.

However, Ranon was not prepared for what he was seeing.

Currently, Hazel was lying down on the sofa; she used Yara’s thigh as a pillow with a blanket covering her, while the rest of the seven bodyguards he assigned for her were sitting around, too engrossed in watching a true crime movie to the point that none of them even realized that Ranon was already there.

If he were an enemy, all of them would be shot dead by now.

And Ranon’s timing was awful when he decided to speak, as the murderer caught his target and hacked her head with an axe, scaring all of them.

"What are you doing?" He asked coldly, a bag of apples in his hand.

"Ah!!!" All of them screamed in unison.

It was so embarrassing to see seven grown men scream like a teenage girl upon watching a true crime movie. Even Nolu was not an exception.

Once they realized it was Ranon, it didn’t make them feel relief; if anything, their boss was even scarier than the true crime movie.

"Ranon! You scared us," Hazel complained, and the other bodyguards’ faces turned even paler.

"Whose idea is this to watch this movie?" But Ranon knew the answer almost right away.