Pain

Blaine was still staring out that window when Ariel walked out of that room, thinking about everything she had told him, unable to look her in the face.

Aoi, Aoi, Mün’s wife had set Ruby up all those years. Or perhaps it was her parents, but she was aware. 

She had to be aware that her parents were paying a man to take Ruby away from him so that they could get married without any problems as soon as they turned twenty.

He brought his hand up to his face, thinking about Ruby, how she must have hated him the whole time, and came to hold him in contempt.

It took him sometime to finally get out of that room, and when he did, he could not find Ariel anywhere.

He ran into Mr Grigor, who was holding his grandson. “Did Ariel tell you where she was going to?”

“She had to pick up something at the Sullivan mansion.” 

“What?” His eyes widened in disbelief. “And you let her go? What is so special about her clothes to go back there for?”

How could this man of all people allow such a silly mistake? 

But the man was frowning at him now. 

“You still think Ariel is so materialistic that she would go back to that house so late for her purses and trinkets.” The man’s frown deepened now, and he saw Oliver turn to watch both of them.

The man lowered his voice as he continued, “She went back for something really important.”

“What?”

“I don’t know if I should really be telling you about this.”

“Levant. Please.” Blaine groaned in exasperation. 

But as the man told him all about the vault Ruby’s body was still being preserved in, his eyes bulged and almost fell out of his head.

He knew now that the man had every right to hesitate telling him about this. 

“She needs a document that gives her ownership of the place. It is in her safe at Kan Sullivan's house,”

“I have to go there,” he said, turning to run upstairs to get dressed.

“No! Mr Grigor said so strongly that Blaine halted.

“What?” 

“Something is off. Sullivan's movement has been sketchy since last night. I believe he is sending a hit out on you,” Mr Grigor said.

Blaine stared at him for just a second longer, before he said, “And you expect me to leave Ariel with such a man?”

“Your guards are with her. And Sullivan will never harm her. That's why she could go there alone.”

“You told her this then?” Blaine turned fully to him, wondering if that was why she left without telling him, because she knew he would really stop her.

“My girl cannot afford to lose another person,” the man said, his lips pressed together now in a flat line, and Blaine stared at him a moment longer before he turned back upstairs in defeat. 

He just had to trust the guard he hired. They said she was the best, and just like he had assured Ariel earlier, no one could ever hurt her with the woman around.

He just had to trust her abilities and Ariel's awareness and foresight. 

But when he opened his laptop and began to listen to the device he had fixed in the unit Ophelia now lived alone, he knew it had been a bloody mistake to let Ariel go anywhere alone.

Not on a day like this, after she had exposed Ophelia to the world. 

He jumped out of his bedroom and ran all the way downstairs. 

Luckily, he did not find Mr Grigor in the living room anymore. Although he would have gone out regardless. 

As he fell into the backseat of his car, he tried to call Ariel and warn her, but it showed her number was engaged. 

Who the hell could she be talking to? Sullivan?

“Step on it,” he slammed down on the headrest of the chauffeur’s seat, and the man bowed and pushed on the accelerator till they were just a little below the speed limit. 

Still, he was impatient to get to her in time. 

The house here was miles and miles away from Sullivan's, and although she had left not long ago, he was unsure whether he would be able to catch up with her on the road. 

He dialed her number again, but he got the same response. Engaged. 

He typed out a quick text and sent it to her, hoping she would read it.

He could barely sit still now, frightened out of his mind.

He really could not bear to lose Ariel now. His world would really crumble. 

“Is there a shortcut somewhere?” He was just asking the chauffeur when the man suddenly slammed on the brakes, and Blaine looked up at his face in the rearview mirror to see the man had gone deathly white. 

He saw his guards hurrying out of the cars behind even as his chauffeur quickly pressed the automatic lock on the car. 

But the people who had ambushed them were a literal army, and as Blaine watched them pouring out of the trucks all over, he knew that Sullivan had outdone himself tonight. 

He really planned to make sure there was no way Blaine made it out of this alive. 

I was walking into Oliver's nursery, ex-nursery now, since he would never return here when I stubbed my foot against a wall, hard. 

I yelped and winced and when I looked down, my toe was bleeding. It seemed I had lost half a nail. 

“Fuck,” I gasped as I stared at all the blood. 

I had definitely not stubbed my toe as badly as that to cause all that damage.

Cherry, the tough-looking bodyguard with a sunny name that Blaine had got me ran into the room, attracted by my first shout. 

Her eyes scanned the whole room, and only when she was sure there was no external danger did she really look at me.

“Are you OK?”

I winced, shaking my head. 

Now that the shock was gone, I was beginning to really feel the pain, and it hurt like a bitch, vaguely reminding me of the morning I had Oliver. 

I limped towards the chaise in the room, groaning and describing the part of the house where she would get the first aid box. 

But Cherry didn't leave my side. 

Instead, she rang for a maid who came running. As they poured alcohol over it and bandaged it tightly, I felt my head swimming.

This hurt. 

This hurt so badly. The pain was absolutely horrible, and I only began to breathe well again after the painkiller I took kicked in.

I stood up finally, and left the nursery without taking anything. I was not a superstitious person, but I believed my gut. 

And my gut told me this night was dark. Something horrible was happening at that moment or about to happen.