Chapter 193: WHEN THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN CONTACT WITH RIVER?
If he were in a different situation, Arthur would also find that what he said was absurd. It was an accusation that he didn’t think thoroughly. He blurted out whatever crossed his mind.
"Get your mind straight," Ranon said coldly. He stared at him right in the eyes. "It’s so bold of you to barge into my place."
However, Arthur had lost all of his reasoning. He couldn’t think clearly with the result in her hand. It was River. The dead body was his daughter.
How could she die? Hazel was supposed to be in contact with her in the past few weeks. It didn’t make any sense that she had been dead for four months.
Yet, the fact was right before his eyes.
The hard truth was there, waiting in the morgue, cold and no longer breathing. His daughter, whom he had trained from such a young age.
He always thought she would come back. She was angry, and he could understand; thus, he didn’t try to push harder.
When he kidnapped Hazel, he only wanted to know more about River and gauge her situation. But who would have thought the next time he met her would be under these circumstances?
"Let me see her." Arthur walked backward to lean against the wall. He was exhausted, mentally and physically.
It was like a nightmare, and he was running from it.
"My wife is sleeping," he repeated, and soon after, Nolu and three other bodyguards rushed in.
They saw the scene and were terrified. Not because of the blood-stained floor, but because they had failed to prevent Arthur from coming in.
The assassin was no longer young, but he held decades of experience. And right now, he was driven by a pure impulsiveness; therefore, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to get what he wanted.
"RANON!" Arthur roared. "I AM GOING TO SEE HER! GET HER HERE NOW!" Anger flared in his eyes.
Meanwhile, Ranon’s four men charged forward. They were also angry because Arthur managed to break through their security. It was a humiliation.
Arthur tackled the first man who reached him, but he was outnumbered, and it had been a long time since he had hand-to-hand combat. He couldn’t keep up with the youngsters, not to mention his leg was shot by Ranon.
Being pinned down by two men, Arthur couldn’t move. He yelled at Ranon and demanded to see Hazel.
On the other hand, Ranon strolled across the room and approached him. Using the back of his gun, he hit Arthur’s head so hard that he lost consciousness. It caused another open wound on his forehead.
"Take him away."
Arthur should know better than to come here willingly.
***
Arlo spat blood on the floor as he panted heavily and cursed loudly at Michael. He was still hungover, and going straight into a fight after a rough night with alcohol was not a good idea.
"You can at least be decent and get your son back. He is a Barlowe." Michael couldn’t care less about the family.
But strangely enough, he liked children, despite how he grew up. He always imagined being a cool uncle for River and Arlo’s children.
"Shut up!" Arlo growled. He pushed himself from the floor and swayed towards the door. He had more important things to do than waste his time with Michael.
It was clear that he was not going to go to Lozen’s residence and take Aubrey and his son with him. He was going to find the information about the DNA test that Arthur had conducted.
They should have known the result by now.
However, before he could enter his car, his father called and told him to come back home immediately.
***
Ranon stayed with Hazel the whole time. He was trying to make sense of the situation and how emotional Hazel was.
However, when she woke up, Ranon couldn’t postpone the news of the dead body’s identity.
"The result has been out, right?" That was the first thing Hazel said when she opened her eyes and found Ranon sitting next to her.
She pushed herself into a sitting position and looked at him closely.
"Tell me."
"The body is River," Ranon confirmed the thing that Hazel had expected.
Hazel went through a lot of emotions in a span of a few seconds before she finally nodded. "Okay," she whispered.
It was not easy for Hazel. She was not even clear what she should feel. She was dead, and that was expected, but why would she be this upset?
Why would she cry for something she had known long ago?
She did not easily cry, but it felt as though there were bricks pressed down on her chest. It was heavy and suffocating. She felt as if she was dying once again.
Her nightmare would always be about the time she was under the water, and the truth was, she had been there all this time.
Alone and decomposed. In the dark and cold water, under the bridge, where she was killed.
Enraged and helpless were not the words that were strong enough to describe her feelings. Thousands of feelings weighed her down.
She curled her body and hugged herself, trying to soothe the pain, but it was a vain attempt. The pain was there, and it would always be there.
She was going to live with it.
Her baby felt her emotions, too, because she was very active, but Hazel couldn’t feel it anymore. What was currently happening overwhelmed her to the point she didn’t even realize when Ranon picked her up and cradled her body.
He pressed her head against his shoulder and caressed her back in a soothing motion.
"It’s okay. It’s okay..."
Hazel kept shaking her head. Ranon didn’t understand. There was nothing ’okay’; it would never be ’okay’ for her.
In the end, Hazel cried for hours, and Ranon didn’t know what to do to ease whatever pain she was going through.
Tears kept streaming down her cheeks and stained his clothes, no matter how many times he wiped them, and this was another form of torture for him.
When Hazel finally calmed down a bit and fell asleep again, it was already morning, but even so, her sleep was adorned with nightmares.
Gently, Ranon tucked her in and kissed her forehead before he got off the bed and went outside to call Lucian.
***
The discovery of a mysterious body in Aspen City didn’t even make the news. Everything was wrapped under the radar since there were so many powerful people involved in this.
Nobody knew about it, except those people who were involved.
However, it became a crucial moment for the Lozen family.
Their enemies feared Arthur’s first daughter, but now they learned she was dead. The news circulated fast among their association, and the Lozen family faced a setback.
"Where is Arthur?" Elise asked. She rapped her fingers against the table, mimicking her husband’s habit.
She was on the phone with Deryl, asking about Arthur’s whereabouts because she couldn’t contact him, nor had he returned for the past two days.
"I don’t know. I have people look for him. Two days ago, he went to Talbar City," he said. "He was checking on something in Central Hospital."
"Hm..." Elise thought about it and then asked for more details about what Arthur was doing there. "Tell me everything."
It was very rare when Elise wanted to know what Arthur was doing or anything related to his job, but Arthur had never made a clear statement that Elise was not allowed to know what was going on around them.
Therefore, Deryl told her everything.
"River. So, the dead body is really River?"
"That’s what was mentioned in the DNA result."
Silence stretched out, and when Deryl thought Elise had hung up the call, she spoke calmly. "Did Jack make contact with you recently?"
"No." Deryl lied through his teeth.
Lie was their second language; hence, they could do it without any problem. It sounded very natural the more you practiced.
"Okay."
Only then did Elise hang up the call. It was not clear whether she believed that or not, but she had her own suspicion regarding this whole situation.
***
"Are you sure about this?" Ranon asked. He watched Hazel put on some makeup so she wouldn’t look like a ghost.
It helped a little, but you could see the exhaustion in her eyes and how red they were because she spent the whole night crying. Even in her sleep, she was still whimpering.
"Yes, I want to see the body." She glanced at Ranon from the mirror as she put on her lipstick. "You promised me."
Indeed, Ranon had promised her that he would take her to the morgue once she was discharged. It was not an easy thing to do because there were a lot of people in the shadows who attempted the same thing.
They wanted to be sure that River was really dead.
"When was the last time you were in contact with River?" Ranon couldn’t help but ask the question. It was the same thing Arthur wanted to know, as he demanded to see Hazel.
Currently, his men have taken him to the outskirts of the city. Ranon would visit him later.
"You can’t answer this question?"
They agreed to stay out of each other’s business, but everything between them had been tangled together, and now the situation had escalated to this point.
Arthur wouldn’t be the only one who would look for Hazel if they knew River had been in contact with her.