The only voice that Ranon could hear was Hazel’s.
He could hear it because he had asked Nolu to put a tapper in Hazel’s bedroom, and it happened. She made a call to Rafael from there so he knew about this crucial piece of information.
It might sound crazy, but Ranon would get to the bottom of it since he couldn’t make Hazel confess to him willingly.
The quietness was then disrupted when Ranon’s phone rang.
"What is it?" Ranon sucked deeply on his cigarette.
"You are right, Mr. Leighton," said the voice from the other end of the call. "Miss Rose had indeed gone to the candy shop and bought the gun there. It was the sa model as you told before."
Ranon noted it ntally; he didn’t seem surprised because he had guessed it. Still, he couldn’t find the correlation between this whole thing.
"I want you to look more into River Lozen."
"River Lozen?" The man sounded surprised. "What do you want to know about her?"
Ranon stared at the night sky; the city lights were so beautiful, but all he could rember was when the lights reflected on her skin that night.
"Everything. I want to know about everything."
"Yes, sir." And the call ended.
After that, Ranon found an app on his phone that showed him a small dot on a digital map. It looked like a tracker.
He stared at that small dot for a long mont until his cigarette was burned, and he lit up another. Ranon put away his phone with the dented Zippo he had.
He kept smoking until morning, which made him sll like tobacco.
As the night grew, the weather beca colder, yet it didn’t bother him at all. The only thing that kept him on edge was that woman who would be his wife in a few days.
***
Laurel waited.
She cried herself to sleep, and when she woke up, she was still alone. Jas didn’t return last night, and neither did Carl.
She went to her stepson’s bedroom, but she couldn’t find him there. The bed was still neat, and she didn’t know what to do.
She started questioning whether she had reacted badly and had worsened the situation.
So part of her blad herself because she could have handled it more maturely. Yet, the sight of the drugs that Carl owned scared her so much.
And now, she was more at a loss when Jas didn’t back her up. He even said that she was a bad mother. Was she really that bad?
Laurel felt so down that she didn’t know right or wrong anymore.
She tried to justify her action and her reaction, but to see two people who ant so much to her ignore her like this and leave with anger, she questioned herself.
She tried to call Carl and Jas, but both of them didn’t pick up their phones. She sent ssage after ssage to explain herself, why she did what she had done, and why she reacted like that.
Still, the result was the sa.
It was silent from both of them, and this silence was very loud for her. It was too much; it felt like a weight on her shoulders.
For a whole day, Laurel did nothing but lie down on the bed. She couldn’t do anything as if she had just run a thousand kiloters, and now, she didn’t have the energy to even stand.
She kept trying to call for them, asking them to co back and talk it out, yet it was the sa silence that greeted her.
On the other hand, Carl and Jas saw the ssages from Laurel. It sounded very desperate, but they didn’t even try to text Laurel back to calm her down a bit.
Sohow, there was this tacit agreent between them that they would punish Laurel for the way she reacted.
"You don’t need to look at the ssage. It will only make you feel bad for her. It’s how she will be able to manipulate you. That’s how she manipulated your father."
A woman in her early forties entered the bedroom. She looked beautiful in her bathrobe, as she had just taken a bath and washed her hair, water dripping from her damp hair.
She had this oval face and full lips, which Carl inherited.
This woman was Alia, Carl’s mother. She found her son staring at his phone. She didn’t need to see the text because she already knew what it was since the sa text was sent to Jas.
"It’s predictable of that woman. Co here; you don’t need to think much about it." Alia then took away Carl’s phone and put it on the table, out of his reach. "You don’t need to feel sorry for soone like her."
Carl said nothing; he only lowered his head. The guilty feeling suffocated him. But he chose not to do anything against his father and mother.
When he ran away from ho, he went straight to Alia’s house. She was his biological mother, and soon after, his father followed him.
Here, they talked a bit about the drugs that he possessed, and actually, they were fine now. Jas only scolded him lightly not to do that again, and Carl promised not to.
Yet, their conversation sounds so basic. It almost felt like they did the conversation simply out of obligation because that was what parents should do when they found their child was ’acting up.’
There was no emotion there; and needless to say, Carl didn’t feel his father cared much about him. Not like how Laurel reacted to this discovery.
She was crying, she was angry, she was mad, and she even slapped him too. But at the sa ti, he knew Laurel did that because she cared about him.
She cared so much about him. She didn’t want him to ruin his life this way.
Contrarily, his father was so indifferent.
"Co on, don’t make such an expression. You will only ruin the rest of the day. We will go out now."
Carl lifted his head and looked at Alia; his voice sounded desperate when he talked. "I didn’t use the drugs." Though, he actually didn’t talk to his mother.
Alia chuckled. "Don’t worry, I trust you; you know I trust you." She caressed her son’s head and kissed him. "She didn’t trust you because deep down, she always thinks you are a bad person. But for , I trust everything you say."
Alia reassured him, yet Carl didn’t show any emotions. He stared at his mother without saying anything while she continued with her monologue.
"I will never lie to you. That’s why I know you will never lie to too." Alia sat down beside Carl on the bed.
"Are you sure about what you said before?" Carl asked. "Are you sure that Laurel was the reason for your divorce from Father?"
Alia sighed deeply. "Yes, Carl. She was the reason for our divorce. It was a misunderstanding. But if she hadn’t intervened at that ti, the divorce would have never happened. I would have been there with you. I would have never abandoned you. You are my son. How could a mother do that to their child?"
Alia hugged Carl, but he hesitated to hug her back.
"I am ready to be family again. We will make things right, and I will make ands for the ti when I was not there with you. I love you, and I still love your father. I know your father still feels the sa, or else he will not be here. We can be a family again now."
Carl said nothing when Alia hugged him. The thought of being a family again with his biological mother didn’t excite him, because whenever the word family ca to his mind, it would be Laurel, not Alia.
Laurel was the mother that he had known all this ti. She was the first mother figure for him. The word ’mother’ was always related to her.
Therefore, Carl couldn’t imagine Alia in it.
Yes, Carl called Alia ’mother’ too, but it was not the sa when he addressed Laurel with the sa title; he was not sure what to think.
On the other hand, Laurel kept trying to call Jas and Carl, but after two days she was being ignored; Laurel finally got off the bed.
She didn’t take a bath for those two days. She didn’t eat or drink properly, and when she saw her reflection in the mirror, she didn’t even recognize herself.
She had never been this awful before. She used to be very neat and would be so picky about small details.
Grimacing at her reflection in the mirror, Laurel decided to do sothing. This was not herself, and she didn’t want to end up like this.
Laurel then called soone, and he picked up her call on the third ring.
"Give her phone number."
***
A phone number and a demanding ssage, and that was how it went.
That was how Laurel got herself to be here; she ca to accompany Hazel for the last wedding preparation because Ranon was busy.
She was being a ’nice’ future sister-in-law now.
Currently, Ranon was having a eting with Rafael, and he would co very late to the venue for the final check since the wedding itself would happen the day after tomorrow.
Hazel looked beautiful in her blue dress. Her long, curly, brown hair was tied up on top of her head.
"What are you doing here? You know, I am fine alone."
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