Chapter 200: DESPAIR AND RAGE
"Let’s talk about it when you have recovered." Ranon changed Ashlyn’s diaper while the baby was making incoherent sounds. "We have plenty of time."
"But we can start discussing it," Hazel said. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be away.
On the surface, she looked normal. There was nothing that had changed about her, but deep down, something had shifted.
The hatred she felt had become more unbearable as she remembered her dead body in the morgue. It was not fair for her if she let those people who were responsible for her death live freely without any consequences.
Hazel knew it was not right, but the bitterness in her heart grew stronger with each passing day, and she didn’t want to let it consume her, unintentionally hurting the baby or Ranon.
She must be crazy if she did that, but she knew she was so close to going insane with the anger she tried to suppress.
"Something is on your mind?"
"Huh?" Hazel startled when she felt Ranon’s touch. He looked at her with concern in his eyes, as if he was trying to figure out something, but ended up not being able to find anything. "No."
"Does it hurt?" Ranon nodded to her chest, where the pumps were etched to her breasts.
"No," Hazel replied. While the situation was more uncomfortable than hurtful, the level of pain she felt was different. Right now, she was close to numb. "I am fine."
Ranon looked at her, trying to find a crack in her façade, but it was too perfect; he couldn’t see through the wall she had built.
After that, Ranon collected the small packages of breast milk, labeled them with the date, and saved them in the freezer for later use.
Normally, Ashlyn would wake up around midnight, and Ranon would take care of the baby. But tonight, he felt extremely sleepy; even the baby’s cries didn’t wake him.
Instead, Hazel got out of bed. Her expression was devoid of any emotion as she calmed the baby and breastfed her.
Ranon was sleeping, and there was an indecipherable look on her face when she looked at him. "I am sorry," she said in a low voice to no one in particular.
And with Ashlyn in one hand, Hazel went to check Ranon’s phone. She had bugged his phone before, and mostly all of her information came from him, but it had been a few days since she had seen it.
Tonight, Hazel was going to go through everything. She not only checked Ranon’s phone, but she also searched his study, going through his laptop, all the documents Lucian and Ares had left for him, and his safe.
He usually put important files there.
Thankfully, Ashlyn was not a fussy baby; she latched onto her mother and played with her hair. She would only make a few noises here and there before continuing to eat.
While many people might find what she did was adorable, Hazel couldn’t feel the same. She had detached herself from her baby.
And by the time Hazel had gathered all the information she could get from Ranon, Ashlyn had fallen asleep in her arms.
The information Hazel found shocked her. She sat down on the floor, her brows furrowed as her mind was running miles away.
The Lozen family had fallen. The Barlowes and the McKennas had joined forces to destroy them.
According to the report that Ares had gathered, Elise was killed in the basement of the Lozen residence, while Aubrey was saved and was currently staying with the Barlowes and her baby.
The police were investigating this matter, but they were prone to label this as a robbery that had gone wrong.
Of course, Hazel knew the police were unreliable. There were so many dirty cops there whom the people from the underground controlled.
[Arthur Lozen has gone MIA.]
This was the only information Ares could obtain about Arthur. After Ranon released him, they didn’t keep track of him; thus, they were not sure whether Arthur had fallen into his enemy’s hands or where he was right now.
However, he couldn’t have been in the Lozen residence during the attack, since the disaster happened almost at the same time when Ranon released him.
It would take a few hours to get to the scene.
Hazel clutched her chest; she felt a stabbing pain in her heart as she learned all of this. The Barlowes and now the McKennas...
They had betrayed her family and eradicated them swiftly.
Hazel’s hands were trembling when she read another report about what happened to the Lozen people. Some of them were killed, while some of them had turned their loyalty and followed the McKennas.
Many people died mysteriously on the street, with the news reporting it as gang skirmishes. This happened frequently, so it was seen as nothing out of the ordinary.
However, those people around them knew better.
The Lozens were no more.
Although she had not been particularly fond of her family, they were still a part of her. They were her family, her identity. And now, there was nothing left.
They destroyed the family, and within a few years, they would be forgotten, as if they had never existed, while those traitors lived without facing any consequences of their actions.
No one would avenge the Lozens, or so they thought...
Hazel bit her lips and closed her eyes; the bitterness and rage grew, and Ashlyn could feel the turmoil from her mother.
The baby woke up and cried, but Hazel was still shaking with the reality; she didn’t do anything to comfort the little one.
Ashlyn cried until her face turned very red, and only then did Hazel snap out of it and rock her back and forth, but her mind was not there.
"I am sorry," Hazel whispered to the baby. She couldn’t bring herself to love her daughter when her heart was void of affection. No love was left inside her. She was filled only with thoughts of vengeance.
She realized she was not the mother that Ashlyn deserved, so it would be better for her to leave as soon as possible.
***
"You killed my mother!" Aubrey screamed at the top of her lungs at Arlo; she glared viciously at the man before her eyes.
She must have been blind to love him, and now he had destroyed her family.
"I didn’t. I wasn’t even there," Arlo replied, facing Aubrey without any emotion, even as the mother of his son was consumed by grief and anger.
"Is that your excuse?! You betrayed my family! You and the McKennas!" Aubrey snarled. She hated the calm expression that Arlo wore.
She wanted to claw his face, desperate for any reaction from him; she wanted him to feel the pain she was currently feeling.
Her mother...
Elise had not been a good mother; she had never tried to be one. But at the end of the day, she was still her mother, and learning of her tragic death filled Aubrey with sorrow and despair.
"You destroyed my family!"
Aubrey’s scream echoed throughout the walls. The noise woke Bryer, and the baby began to cry. It was not a good idea to have this conversation in the nursery room.
However, Arlo didn’t seem to care about it. Even when the baby cried, he only glanced at him, making no attempt to comfort the little one.
Seeing his indifference shattered Aubrey’s heart even more. If she could, she would send Arlo to River. Let both of them die.
"I am not the one who destroyed your family, Aubrey," Arlo said. He gritted his teeth when he spoke again. "Your family was doomed ever since they lost River."
It was akin to a blade that lost its edges. That was how the Lozen family had become after River’s disappearance.
It was not like there weren’t other capable people to carry on the missions, but it was Arthur who had become too distracted to the point that he failed to adjust.
He relied on his daughter too much.
This was also something Aubrey had noticed; it was her point of contention because her father cared about River more than he cared about her.
What an irony, as people thought she was the apple of Arthur’s eye.
"You don’t care about me or the baby, right? Why would you take us here?!" Aubrey picked Bryer from his crib and rocked him to calm him down, but at the same time, she kept screaming at Arlo.
She couldn’t stop herself. She wanted Arlo to show some emotions, even if it were anger, but there was nothing—he showed nothing.
"You should have let us die that night! You don’t want us anyway!" Aubrey saw red as Arlo only stared at her. In a moment of rage, she grabbed a vase and threw it at him. "Say something!"
She wished the vase would hit his head; she wanted him to feel pain!
However, Arlo dodged it easily; still, there was no emotion on his face as he turned around and walked away from her.
But Aubrey gave a second attempt. She grabbed her phone and hurled it across the room. This time, since Arlo had his back against her, it hit his head with a loud thud.
The moment he turned around, Aubrey was stunned to see the murderous intention in his eyes. She flinched as he strode towards her and the baby.
His jaws clenched tightly, and his hand hovered near the holster of the gun at his hip.
"You are right; I should have killed you," Arlo said coldly, closing the distance between them.