River was looking for sothing when she saw a gift box in the corner of her drawer. She took it and inspected the small gift box.
Quickly, she realized what this gift box was. It was the last gift Olivia gave to Hazel when they t. She didn’t open it imdiately because she was traumatized by her wedding gift.
But now, seeing this gift box brought a smile to River’s lips. Carefully, she unwrapped the gift, which had a tacky color, revealing a small box inside. Inside the box was a necklace featuring a pendant shaped like an olive, its color almost matching that of a real olive. Alongside the necklace, there was a brief note from Olivia.
River recognized her handwriting, and it said, "So, you will rember ."
Sohow, River felt soone was choking her. She knew Olivia ant it as a way to piss her off, but who would have thought it would feel so bittersweet now? Indeed, she would rember her... How could she not?
"What a perfect gift..." River said softly. She went to the mirror and put it around her neck, but the chain was too small, and she had a hard ti hooking it.
"I don’t rember this necklace," Ranon said as he approached River and helped her hook the necklace.
"This is from Olivia. The last gift she gave to , and I just opened it now." River explained. She watched the pendant and smiled gently.
"Who?" Ranon furrowed his brows. He didn’t rember the na.
"The woman that I saved from her apartnt." River looked at Ranon’s reflection. He just finished taking a bath, and droplets of water slid down his jaw from his wet hair.
"Oh. The one who gave you that bunny costu?"
River turned around and glared at him. "How could you only rember that?"
"Why not? I like the gift." Ranon teased her. He was being playful.
Whenever Ranon was with her, he didn’t show any distress or any indication that his work bothered him, but River was not stupid. Ranon had been spending more ti at the office and received more phone calls than usual.
It was a pity that River was not able to overhear the conversation because Ranon had changed his phone because of Ema.
"Don’t even think about it." River flicked Ranon’s hand when he pulled the collar of her clothes to peek inside. "You said that you have an important eting today."
"I can postpone it. We can have a quickie," Ranon smiled at her.
"Don’t try to be cute. We will not have the ti." River moved away from him, and a second later, there was a knock on the door. "See? I told you."
River laughed as she walked toward the door and opened it for their daughter. Ashlyn toddled inside, still sleepy.
***
Ranon wouldn’t tell River the truth about what happened in the company, so her only way to get information was from Lucian.
"What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?!" Lucian almost jumped out of his skin when he saw River had been waiting for him next to his car.
"It’s not like you live in a secret place," River replied lightly. She intended to give him a sweet smile because she needed sothing from him. But in Lucian’s eyes, her smile was creepy.
"Is my alarm not working?" Lucian talked to himself.
He was sure he had had the security of his house maintained well. How could River enter his house without being noticed?
"No, your alarm is fine. It’s only , who is very good," River praised herself. She had been here a few tis; therefore, she knew how to go in without turning off the alarm in this house.
That information was even scarier. Lucian widened his eyes when he heard that and took two steps back from her.
"I swear! I didn’t introduce Ranon to any won. No won. I didn’t even introduce him to my male friends!"
Lucian was scared of River. She had killed so many people, and even when he disagreed with her relationship with Ranon, he couldn’t be very vocal about it, just in case he would have a bullet in his head without him knowing it.
Even Ares didn’t co to River as strong as he did to Hazel. They were not fools. Although the Lozen family was no more, it didn’t an River would forget how to do her job.
"I will not do anything to you; I only want to ask a few questions." River took a step closer, but Lucian took two steps back. "Hey, stay there. I will not do anything to you."
"Ranon didn’t flirt with anyone. There is no woman around him; well, Valerie is technically a woman, but she is mine."
River laughed.
"Don’t laugh; you are scary when you laugh."
"How could you say that she is yours when you don’t even have the guts to ask her out?"
"I have, but she said she was busy."
River rolled her eyes dramatically. "Stop walking away!"
"Yes, Ma’am." Lucian stopped avoiding River and grimaced when she approached him, leaving a ter between them.
They were currently in his carport, but because Lucian was living alone, no one was there aside from him and River. He couldn’t scream for help if this woman decided to get rid of him.
"Tell what happened in the company."
"Huh?" This was a question that he didn’t expect at all. "What?"
"Rafael Scar. What is he up to?" River didn’t want to beat around the bush. Ranon had been away for a business trip since yesterday; therefore, she used this ti to figure out what he had been hiding from her.
"If you want to know about that, why don’t you ask Ranon?" Lucian frowned.
"I will not ask you if Ranon is willing to tell ." River wouldn’t be here to terrorize Lucian if Ranon had told her the truth. She had tried everything, but that man didn’t budge, to the point that River began questioning herself, wondering whether her suspicion was only in her mind.
"If Ranon didn’t tell you, then he might have his own reason. You need to wait for him to let you know," Lucian replied fearfully. He scanned River’s body briefly, looking for anything, any weapons that she would use on him, but he found nothing.
However, River didn’t co this far to listen to Lucian’s half-assed advice. "I don’t want to wait. If I were going to wait, I wouldn’t be here and ask you this question, so cooperate well with , and I will make it easy for you."
"What? What do you an by making it easy for ?" Lucian took a step back again. "You should know that I am very important to Ranon. I have worked for him for years. But most importantly, we are good friends—best friends, even. He can’t live without , so you have to think twice if you want to do sothing bad to ."
River couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "Ranon couldn’t live without you? How sweet." She then laughed again, which annoyed Lucian.
"What? What do you want? I will not say anything to you about the company. I don’t know you; you can have a bad intention for all I care." Lucian fud. "No matter what you do, I will never breathe a word about it. There must be a reason why Ranon didn’t tell you anything about the problem with the company."
However, ten minutes later, Lucian revealed everything River wanted to know, including every detail.
From what Lucian said, River learned that Rafael had withdrawn his investnt and then influenced other people to do the sa.
There were seven investors in this project, including Ranon and Rafael. And because Rafael had withdrawn his investnt, the other two people sided with him, while the other two stayed with Ranon; they were Ranon’s loyalists after all.
"Mr. Hugo will be the determining factor. If he pulls the investnt as well, then the project should be postponed, unless Ranon wants to go all out, which is too risky in my opinion," Lucian said at the end of his explanation.
Both of them sat on the hood of Lucian’s car as they conversed.
"Mr. Hugo... Albert Hugo..." River was familiar with that na, but she couldn’t recall where she encountered him. Was that when she was Hazel? Or was he one of the people that she had to pay attention to?
"Do you know him?" Lucian asked curiously; he looked at the woman next to him. When he talked to her, it felt as if he had known her, as if this was not the first ti they had had a conversation.
However, Lucian wouldn’t be so reckless. He was still afraid of this woman. He still thought Ranon was playing with fire to date this woman.
What if River snapped and her bloodthirsty instinct won her over? He rembered all the cri docuntaries that he watched and shuddered involuntarily.
"I think I know him." River then recalled that na. "Yeah, I know him."
"You know him?"
Right at that ti, Lucian’s phone rang, and it was from Ares. "Where are you!? The eting will start in ten minutes!" Ares was furious.
"Oh, shoot! I am on my way!"
Lucian just rembered that he had an important eting. However, he had forgotten about it because River forced him to speak about the problem with the company.
"Where are you going? You are not going to kill him, right?"
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