Chapter 230: HE WANTED TO BE SAVED
Hazel was sleeping next to him. She looked exhausted and didn’t stir at all when Ranon tightened his embrace around her.
He was thinking of a wild theory in his head, but there was nothing that made sense to him. Hazel couldn’t be River. How could that be possible? Even if she had undergone extensive surgery to change her face, she couldn’t change her height.
Not to mention, there was no record that Hazel had been away from her family for a long period of time. Such a surgery would need a lot of time to recover, so her family would have noticed if she had gone missing.
There was no record of such a surgery, either. Even those performed by shady doctors.
Therefore, Ranon had to cross out that option. But that was the only thing that made sense, in a way, for him to explain Hazel’s weirdness and the relationship between her and River.
That peculiar taste is something else—the more he looked into it, the more he saw River in Hazel. The way River was described perfectly matched Hazel’s current behavior and antics.
But at the end, it didn’t matter for Ranon. He placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and closed his eyes to fall asleep.
Whether she was River or Hazel, she was the woman that he wanted.
With that thought, Ranon put all his worries and questions to rest as he fell asleep. He was thinking about stopping his investigation into this matter and instead focusing on what he had in front of him.
***
Aubrey stared at Arlo; he was sleeping peacefully. It had been two months since the incident, and he was still recovering. The stab on his kneecaps put him into extensive therapy so that he could walk normally again.
But there was a chance that he would remain limp for the rest of his life. The stab was very deep, and when the person pulled out the scissors, they did so in the most ruthless way possible, which exacerbated the damage.
For what happened to Arlo, Aubrey didn’t feel the slightest pity. If anything, she wanted to thank whoever that person was.
Even though she would be happier if they just killed this scumbag, she thought that living with a limp would torture Arlo even more, since he cared so much about his image.
However, his mood had been very dark. Obviously so; his best friend was killed right before his eyes, and he couldn’t seek justice by calling out Ranon.
There were many things to consider. Involving the police and opening a murder case against Ranon Leighton wouldn’t benefit either of them, especially with Arlo’s underground activities. Ranon knew about it, and without a doubt, he would use the knowledge.
It would put them in a lot of unnecessary trouble.
That was what Aubrey learned from eavesdropping on the conversation here and there. But it was not Ranon who had stabbed Arlo. There was someone else there, a woman, but Aubrey had never caught them mentioning her name.
At that moment, Bryer started crying, which woke Arlo up. He glared at Aubrey for not moving quickly enough to soothe her son in the next room.
"Shut him up, or I will!" Arlo snapped before he pressed his palms against his ears. His mood was very sour. He snapped at Aubrey and Bryer often as if the sight of her and their son alone could spike his blood.
Aubrey wanted to strangle that man in his sleep if she could, but she needed to think of her son if she were not there.
In the nursery room, Bryer cried his heart out. His face turned very red as Aubrey tried to nurse and calm him down.
Surprisingly, she didn’t hate her son. He was the best thing that happened to her, after all the wrong decisions she had made.
***
"He did that to get attention," James said to Wena, who had been crying for hours because of Carl’s attempt to kill himself. "He knew that you would check on him at a certain time; that’s why he calculated the timing."
Wena suddenly stopped crying when she heard her son’s words. She slapped him so hard, that she thought she had broken her old bones.
"You should be ashamed of yourself!" She screamed in his face. "This is not how I raised you! You’ve failed to be a son! You’ve failed to be a husband! And now you’ve failed to be a father!"
James straightened his back. It was rather humiliating to be slapped by his mother at his age.
"Stop meddling in my business and family, Mom." James didn’t raise his voice, but you could hear the hatred that seeped in every word he said.
They continued with this conversation without knowing that Carl had been listening to everything. He woke up some time ago but pretended to be still sleeping because he didn’t want to deal with any of them.
His father’s accusation about him calculating the time was not exactly wrong, because that was what he did.
His mind was twisted. He didn’t want to die, but he didn’t want to live, either. He wanted to feel something since the numbness ate him alive.
The truth was, when he cut himself, he wanted to be saved...
***
Hazel was watching Peni dress Ashlyn when Ranon entered the room. He was wearing casual attire for lunch with the Leighton family.
It had been a few months since Hazel met any members of his family, and she planned to continue that way. Unfortunately, things didn’t always go as you planned.
Today was Denzel’s birthday, but they would only have lunch for the family, and it wouldn’t look good if Hazel sat this one out, even though Ranon had given her the option.
’It’s okay. I need some drama in my life so I won’t get bored.’ That was what Hazel said.
"Are you ready?" Ranon asked. He smiled when he saw Peni put a matching color on Ashlyn. Both mother and daughter were wearing yellow dresses.
"I’ve been ready for hours; your daughter takes longer to dress up." Hazel pointed her finger at the baby.
"It’s okay; she can take her time," Ranon said, walking across the room and picking their daughter up. "Everyone can wait."
Hazel narrowed her eyes. "We will get problems if you keep spoiling her growing up." She was not bitter, but she remembered how Arthur raised her. And the way Ranon acted very gently with his daughter felt strange.
She questioned herself: Was Arthur this affectionate with her when she was around Ashlyn’s age and only being tough with her when she grew up?
"She will grow up just fine." Ranon stretched out his other hand for Hazel to take, while he held Ashlyn with one hand. He kissed her cheek, and the three of them went to the Leighton family’s house.
Hazel knew that Denzel was bitter whenever seeing Ranon carrying Ashlyn instead of Hazel. In his mind, she was the mother, and it was her duty to take care of the baby.
The old man was still upset because they hired a nanny for Ashlyn, and Hazel’s image would never be good in his eyes, no matter what she did, which Hazel didn’t even bother with.
"How are you, Alfred?" Hazel greeted the head servant in the Leighton family’s house.
"I am great, Mrs. Leighton, thank you for asking," he said in a cheerful voice. They then talked lightly about Ashlyn as they entered the living room; everyone was already there.
Ranon had five other siblings, but Hazel had never met Terra. She lived abroad with her family and had never returned, even for Ranon’s wedding.
From what Hazel learned, there was a huge fallout with Denzel, and ever since then, she had never set foot here.
Laurel was so close to following that example, but apparently, she and her father tried to be civil with each other, saving what was left of their relationship, since Denzel was already very old and sickly.
When they arrived, Laurel was already there, playing with Eilon, who perked up when he saw Ranon and Hazel come in.
"Little baby!" Eilon said. He stretched out his arms to touch Ashlyn. "Cute!"
Ranon squatted down so his little brother could see Ashlyn, and from the corner of her eyes, Hazel could see the disapproving look that Denzel gave to her, because it was Ranon again who was carrying the baby, and not her.
In her defense, Ranon insisted on doing it.
However, what amused Hazel was the blatant jealousy that Ema displayed. She was not being secretive about her feelings. She hoped this woman wouldn’t corner her and start talking nonsense again.
Surprisingly, everything went well. The initial topic was the children, but the conversation veered toward the business that Ranon would take over, as they had come to an agreement.
During the conversation, however, Ashlyn started making a fuss because it was time for her to eat, so Hazel went to the other room to breastfeed her.
Laurel didn’t come with her this time because she was playing with Eilon. While Ranon, Denzel, and Daniel were talking about business, Ema was sitting next to her husband silently, glancing at Ranon now and then.
It took Hazel around an hour or so to be in that room, because after she breastfed Ashlyn, she took a nap, and the baby was sleeping with her too.
When Hazel woke up, she gathered Ashlyn in her arms and went out to find Ranon so they could go home. But as she walked past a slightly open door, she saw Daniel standing there.