At eight in the morning,
Aveline forced Alaric to sleep at dawn, and he managed to catch a two-hour nap. Both freshened up, and Alaric made do with Charles’s clothes.
Aveline kept checking her phone throughout breakfast. There was no ssage. Damien hadn’t called her. Yet uneasiness clawed at her.
Aveline and Alaric departed with a security car. They were heading to the Obsidian to et Giselle.
The road was mostly empty as they were on the outskirts of Velmora. Tall forests lined both sides of the narrow two-lane road. Alaric sat in the passenger seat, going through a file on his mobile.
Aveline kept one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting by the gear, glancing his way every few minutes. He wasn’t telling her anything about what his team had found out, who had scared Damien, and who had sent her the ssage.
"Still reading?" she asked.
Alaric humd in response. There were blurry images of a man entering Ashford Holdings with Victor Hale, a forr military officer with questionable ethics.
If the picture was of good quality, then the man had covered his face from most of the caras using his hat.
He was typing a ssage to look more into Victor Hale when he heard cracking noises. He had just lifted his head and squeaked, "Sunshine..."
Crash.
A deafening crack shattered the air. In an instant, Aveline slamd her foot on the brake. The tires scread against the asphalt. The car jerked to a hard stop.
Thud.
A massive tree collapsed just a ter ahead of them, sending birds flying away, dry leaves scattered with the dust in the air.
His mobile had long slipped from his hand. His hands flew to Aveline, whose breathing had hitched and whose hands were shaking on the wheel.
He checked on her and tried to calm her. "It’s alright. Nothing happened."
Aveline pressed her hand to her chest, struggling to process that a tree had almost fallen on them. Her heart pounded against her ribs. "What... What the hell?"
Once he made sure she was fine, he opened the door and got out instantly. The car that had been leading them had managed to miss the tree. The n jumped over the fallen trunk and stood protectively as they looked around.
Aveline got out of the car and stepped closer to the tree. "The tree isn’t old," she murmured. There had been no wind. No thunder. The sky hadn’t even changed shades.
How could a massive tree fall on the road?
She followed Alaric, her eyes tracing the trunk of the tree. The bark had splintered, its roots torn from the earth, but... too cleanly.
Alaric’s jaw tightened. "This was cut." A machine cut, to be precise. He looked around but couldn’t understand how they had managed to pull this act.
Aveline froze. Her mouth went dry thinking of the consequences. She took a slow step back. The threat was real!?
They didn’t speak for a long mont. Then she swallowed and whispered, "You should go."
Alaric turned around to see Aveline stepping away. "Sunshine..."
"You should go," she repeated, walking towards her car.
She didn’t want to put either him or his n in danger because of her.
Going to the city seed fraught with dangers. She wouldn’t dare return to the mansion where her grandmother was. Her presence would put even her grandmother in danger.
Alaric tugged her hand and embraced her. "Shh..." He regretted getting out of the car and telling her the truth if he had known it would scare her to this extent.
"Listen to , sunshine," he murmured against her hair, his voice gentle but firm. "I understand you’re frightened. But running away separately won’t keep you safe."
He pulled back slightly to look into her eyes, his hands cupping her face. "We can handle whatever’s coming, but only if we stick together."
Yet she insisted, "I’ll co to Obsidian. You go with them."
He stepped back and brushed her hair away from her face. She wasn’t scared for her life but for his. "Sunshine, I’m going nowhere without you."
She hissed at his stubbornness. "Learn to love your life."
"You too."
Aveline: "..."
Alaric helped her into the passenger seat and sat behind the wheel once he had instructed the team.
He took a different route, and she stayed quiet this ti, not because of fear, but because she kept looking out the window, expecting the impossible to beco visible.
By the ti they entered the city, traffic began. She exhaled for the first ti since the tree incident. "We’re back in..." She didn’t get to finish.
Honk. Screech.
A truck veered from the service lane. Her eyes widened. "Alaric!" she scread.
His arm shot out across her shoulder instinctively as he slamd the brake.
The truck missed them by a foot. The sound of its horn blared as it rushed past like a monster without control.
Aveline gasped, clutching her seatbelt. Her throat closed up. Cold sweat trickled down her spine. This wasn’t random. This wasn’t a coincidence. This wasn’t her bad luck.
Alaric resisted his urge to chase after the truck and beat the life out of the driver, but only because Aveline was in the passenger seat. He parked the car to the side.
"Sunshine..." He tried to hold her, but she fumbled for her phone, trembling fingers hitting Damien’s contact.
The second he picked up, her voice cracked. "Damien... Damien, while driving back to the city, a tree... soone dropped a tree on the road. Then a truck just now..."
She wasn’t acting. She was terrified. And she wasn’t just informing Damien, she needed to know what was happening.
Damien’s voice sharpened instantly. [Nina, are you okay? Where are you?]
"I’m not fine. This is not normal, Damien. That tree was cut down. The truck..." she choked, "...he almost ramd into the car. Sobody is trying to kill ."
There was a pause. Not long. But enough for her to feel the shift.
Then Damien’s voice ca back, unusually calm. [Nina, listen to carefully. Drive to the administrative office. Right now. I’ll handle the rest.]
"What?"
[No ti. Just do it,] he commanded.
"But..."
[Do it. Or I won’t be able to protect you next ti.]
The line went dead.
Aveline slowly lowered the phone, her hands still shaking from the two experiences. She tried to breathe, deep and slow.
Alaric was watching her. He waited until she eased a little before he asked, "What did he say?"
She turned her head toward him, voice distant but firm. "He asked to go to the administrative office. To the marriage bureau."
Her plan had succeeded. Despite the fact that she was finally getting the divorce, neither Alaric nor Aveline was celebrating.
"Why does he want to divorce instead of having killed?"
And she wasn’t sure... if it was to protect her. Or to protect himself. Or if he had another plan.
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