"I'm almost there..." Marisol thought. However, no sound came out when she opened her mouth to scream. Only then did she realize her entire face had gone numb from the freezing wind. Her muscles were stiff, her jaw barely able to move, and her throat felt scorched from all the running. She couldn't get a single word out. Suddenly, her whole body felt heavy, her head spinning. The main road and the life-saving cars that were so close seemed impossibly far away.She really couldn't run anymore. She wanted to put the child down from her back and tell him to run quickly—even if just one of them was saved, that would be good. Just then, tires screeched up ahead, sharp and jarring, and the car doors flew wide open.Several huge black guard dogs burst from the vehicles, snarling and sprinting past her, charging straight at the men chasing them.She recognized them—those were Raymond's dogs.Then, about a dozen men leapt out of the cars, armed with kitchen knives, mops, frying pans, a
Those suspected kidnappers were dangerously close now.Marisol didn't dare make a call and risk drawing attention, so she quickly pulled out her phone, switched it to silent, and sent rapid messages to Alinta, Julius, and Raymond Barnes, the bed and breakfast owner. She even included her live location, praying that someone would check their phone early and call the cops in time.But that still wasn't safe enough. Next, she immediately switched to the text message interface, quickly typed out her current location and the situation, added the local area code at the end, and sent an emergency text to 911.In the past, while collecting design materials, she had worked as a journalist and ventured into some remote mountainous and forested areas to interview and investigate local cultural traditions, encountering dangerous criminals more than once, so she had quite a bit of experience.No matter who saw the message first, it'd still be a shot at survival. After that, she'd just have to tru
"Oh, I see." Alinta nodded, but then caught something odd. "Wait, aren't you getting divorced? Why do you care about Julius?" Marisol answered casually, "He's... kind of a special case. I'll explain later."Julius had just finished setting up the fireworks and was walking over to them. ...Alinta was the type who didn't dwell on things—once she got into play mode, everything else flew out of her head. The three of them lit the fireworks one by one, each bursting into dazzling colors that lit up the entire sky. The brilliance of it all was breathtaking.Halfway through, they even set out a whole roasted lamb.Marisol and Alinta stayed on the side, lighting fireworks and watching them explode, while Julius kept handing over slices of lamb. They drank, ate, laughed, and sang—an all-out celebration.The sky bloomed with firework after firework, washing away the weight of the past and lighting the way for a new beginning. The night was full of laughter and joy.Since they were out
Emilia was having a leisurely philosophical discussion with the head priest over afternoon tea. Halfway through her enjoyment, she saw Marisol and Julius walk in. They then pulled her toward the door after expressing apologies to the priest."What's the rush? Why are we leaving so early? There's nothing to do when we get back anyway." She was quite puzzled."What do you mean nothing to do? There's so much to do!"Marisol pulled her out of the sanctuary before lowering her voice, "Great-aunt Emilia, are you really content visiting just one cathedral? Visiting several would give us more blessings."Emilia was stunned—that actually made sense. But something felt odd about this. Wouldn't the saints and blessed figures get angry if they visited too many places?She thought about it, but after visiting cathedral after cathedral, Emilia stopped questioning it. It was better to pray first and think later. After all, she gave generous and substantial donations!She became more and more en
Marisol was slightly dazed and crouched down to pick it up. Turning to the front, she saw several small golden words embroidered crookedly with gold thread on the prayer sachet.It wrote, "May Sol be blessed with peace and joy for all eternity."The wind rose in an instant, and the chimes rang loudly. They echoed in Marisol's heart as all the noisy figures around her faded into nothing.At the same time, the Muller and Sorensen families had arranged to come to the cathedral together to light candles, as they did every year because of Elizabeth and Darlene's longtime friendship.Nevaeh hadn't participated before since she had been abroad, but this time she came along. The group walked up from the cathedral gates.Lucian, walking alongside Keane and Charles, suddenly heard the sound of wind chimes. His heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively looked toward the sound. However, he saw only the winter jasmine tree with its full branches of fluttering red silk ribbons and the bustling
Early on Renewal Day morning, Emilia took Marisol and Julius to St. Wisdom Cathedral to light candles and pray for blessings after exchanging holiday greetings and finishing breakfast.On the way, Marisol occasionally took out her phone to check. Besides holiday wishes from various friends, there were no other messages.She had gotten up early to not only offer holiday greetings to Emilia but also to video call Elizabeth's side to exchange greetings and check on her.However, Andre hadn't sent any messages. Perhaps he had stayed up late for the midnight celebration and wasn't awake yet?Well, she didn't mind. She hadn't held much hope anyway. Marisol turned off her phone screen and stopped checking.…The car drove into Long Mountain in the western suburbs. The three then got out of the car, walked through the misty, dark green mountain forest, passed through the stained glass archway at the entrance, and entered the cathedral.Yellow winter jasmine bloomed along the path. The p