Andrew, Avery, and Michelle return to the dining room table. The servants remove the old food, and the cook prepares a fresh, light al for them instead.
"Are you alright?" Michelle asks Avery, "Shall we ask Andrew to find a doctor for you?"
Avery shrugs indifferently. She doesn't have the energy to pretend to be Michelle's friend right now. Her head throbs and her throat feels raw. She looks at the food and realizes her appetite has vanished. "I think I'll go upstairs to rest," Avery announces.
"I'll go up with you," Andrew says, standing up and grab her wrist.
Avery shakes off his hand, "Can't you leave alone?"
Surprisingly, he lets her go. She smiles to herself, pleased that she's managed to shake him. Instead of going to her bedroom, she creeps up to the study. When she brought Andrew his tiramisu he was talking on a cell phonethe study seems to be the only place in the mansion with a signal. She stands outside the ornately carved wooden door and nervously touches the handle. She breathes a sigh of relief when the handle turnsthe door isn't locked.
She rushes into the room and shuts the door behind her. She powers on her phone and almost cries when she sees she has a signal. For a mont, she hesitates to wonder who she should call.
Evan doesn't believe , so calling him would be useless and humiliating, she thinks. I don't think Gabrielle has her mobile phone, and I have no idea where she is. I could try Bryan, but it's impossible to get in touch with him under the best circumstanceshe cos and goes as he likes and often disappears for days at a ti.
Avery sighs dejectedly. Of course, Charles' na cos to her mind. He always answered her calls, and he was always willing to help her solve her problems. She laughs sadly to herself and decides to search the internet for the contact information for private helicopter service. She's not sure they'll be able to navigate to Andrew's place, but she doesn't know what else she should try.
Robert jumps with surprise and drops the phone onto the plush, scarlet carpet. He's shocked to see the notification alerting him that Avery's phone is in use. He grabs the phone and flies down the stairs to Evan's study. Evan is still sitting in the dark, listening to the recording.
"Mr. Howel," Robert shouts, waving the phone like a victory flag, "Mr. Howel, Avery's phone is transmitting a signal again!"
Evan imdiately sits up. Robert hurriedly passes the phone to Evan, and Evan imdiately punches the special shortcut to call Avery's phone. He raises the phone to his ear. The phone rings twice and then connects.
"Where the hell are you?" Evan demands.
Avery's voice sounds muffled and cold, "Excuse , who is this?"
"Infernal woman, don't pretend that you don't know ," Evan says. "Tell where you are." He gnashed his teeth and balls his hands into fists. He knows that Avery is mad at him for abandoning her, but now isn't the ti for her anger. He needs her to tell him her location as quickly as possible. His n have been combing the forest for days, but they've been unable to find anything.
"I have nothing to pretend," Avery says. "According to you, we're strangers to each other now."
Evan squeezes the phone so forcefully; he worries he'll break it. He whispers gently, "Avery, you know what, I miss you so much."
"You dialed the wrong number," she says.
"Stop that now," Evan commands. "This isn't the ti to be angry. Tell where you are, and I'll pick you up at once. Then you can be angry with for as long as you like."
"No, I gave you a chance to save ," Avery says. "I don't need you now."
Evan loves her pride, but he can't believe she's refusing his help. She's so damned foolish, he thinks. First, she begged to help her, and when I finally do, she flat out refuses . He thinks about her arrogant expression, the way her eyes flash and her mouth turns down at the corner, and his heart thuds in his chest.
"Avery! Shit! You stubborn woman!" Evan lowers his voice, "I know that you love ."
"When did I say that?" Avery asks.
"Just now," Evan says, referring to the recording he's been listening to.
"Are you deranged?"Avery asks. "If that's all you have to say to , I'm going to hang up now."
"You wouldn't dare!" Evan says. He has been staring at his phone day and night, hoping that Avery's phone would finally transmit a signal. Now, he's actually got her on the phone, but she wants to hang upon him.
"You know I dare," she says.
"But you said in the recording that you wanted to find you," Evan insists.
"Well, I regret that," Avery snaps, "I'm having a great ti here. Andrew is very nice to . You don't have to co to get ."
"I know you're mad at , but try to be reasonable," Evan begged. "Think of our child in your stomach."
"Oh, so now you believe that the child is yours?" Avery asks.
"I'm sorry, I lost my mind with jealousy before," Evan whispers.
"Well, that's a nice apology, but so things can't be forgiven," she says.
"What do you want to do?" Evan asks.
Avery doesn't respondshe's already hung up the phone. A robotic female voice informs him that his call has been disconnected.
"Avery!?" Evan screams. "Shit!" Evan tensely rises from the sofa and begins to pace the room. He wants to throw the phone through the window. Suddenly, an electronic jingle begins to play. He looks down at the phone in his hands, but the screen is still dark.
He glares at Robert, and Robert looks confusedly for the source of the sound. Robert hurriedly pulls a phone call from his vest pocket. Evan vaguely recognizes it as Gabrielle's. Robert taps and answer and puts the phone on speaker mode.
"Sister?" asks a young female voice.
"Who are you?" Robert asks.
"Robert, is that you? It's , Gabrielle. Is my sister there?" her voice sounds feeble. "I haven't been able to get through to my sister's phone, and then I rembered that she still had mine."
Robert and Evan's exchange confused glances. Evan crosses the room and grabs the phone from Robert. "Andrew, let you out?" Evan asks incredulously.
"Mr. Howel is that you?" Gabrielle's voice asks. "But no, I ran away. I stole Andrew's map and snuck out of the house and past his guards. Is my sister there? Could you ask her to pick up? I borrowed a phone from soone, and it's inconvenient to speak for too long. I can explain everything later."
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