Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain-Chapter 263: ATTACKS

Hazel didn’t expect this question from Ranon. She pressed her face into the crook of his neck so that he wouldn’t see her expression.

"Yes, like dying in the river."

The hand that caressed her hair stopped, and Hazel felt as if the world went still. She held her breath, waiting for what reaction Ranon would give her.

Would he call her crazy? Thinking that she had gone insane? Would he laugh at her and think she was messing around with him?

Hazel wanted to take it back. She knew how insane it sounded. She thought that she was going insane, too.

And then, Ranon continued caressing her hair, but he still didn’t say anything.

"Don’t you want to say something?" Hazel asked. She was so close to him that she could hear his steady and strong heartbeat.

"I am glad you are here," Ranon said as he kissed her head.

What did that mean? Hazel didn’t expect this reaction.

However, before she could ask, Ashlyn banged on the door. She cried. She must have been woken up and found herself alone in bed, so she looked for them.

Their daughter would be one year old in two weeks. It was crazy how time flew by.

"I...I will get her." Hazel stuttered a little bit, because she was so eager to get away from the tension. She immediately got off Ranon’s lap and went to the door and found her daughter’s teary little face. "What happened?"

Hazel scooped Ashlyn into her arms and kissed her cheek. She brought her inside the study. Ranon approached them, and they sat down on the sofa.

Ashlyn nuzzled against Hazel’s chest, still crying. Her little body was trembling from the intensity of her sobs. Hazel checked her temperature and found that she was fine. She hadn’t injured herself or anything, so she didn’t know what to do.

"What happened?" Hazel looked to Ranon for guidance because she was at a loss.

Ranon then picked her daughter up. At first, Ashlyn wanted to protest, but when she saw it was her father, she hugged Ranon instead. "I think she had her first nightmare," Ranon said.

He remembered that Hazel also used to have nightmares, but it had been a long time since Ranon last saw her have one.

Ashlyn snuggled against Ranon’s chest. She clutched his shirt while hiccupping as he took her to the window so that they could see the city lights from there.

Ashlyn couldn’t explain what had happened because she didn’t have much of a vocabulary yet, but Ranon managed to calm her down.

He talked to her and explained every building that they saw to distract her.

"This..." She pointed at a white building on the left side, which shone beautifully with neon lights.

"That is a shopping center. Do you want to go there to play?"

"Umm..." Ashlyn rubbed her face.

Meanwhile, Hazel watched the interaction between the two of them. She then joined them and stood next to Ranon.

Ashlyn stretched out her hand, and Hazel held it. She remembered how tiny her hand had been when she gave birth to her. Now that she had grown up, her hand was slightly bigger. She would grow up more after this.

Hazel was deep in her thoughts as she stared at Ashlyn’s hand when Ranon suddenly kissed her head. He then lifted Ashlyn so she could kiss her mother, too.

The night was beautiful and peaceful, and Hazel wished it could stay like this forever.

When finally Ashlyn fell asleep, Ranon took her hand, and they went back to their bedroom, sleeping together. There was no more discussion about the topic they had left off.

At least not now, as Ranon still processed what Hazel said.

***

Arthur covered his face with both palms as he supported his elbows on the table. It was confirmed that the dead body in the river was not his daughter’s.

He didn’t know how to feel about it, but he mostly felt relieved. Even so, it left him with more questions than ever. Why would Rafael do this? And where was River? Was she even alive?

Arthur didn’t think he could handle another heartbreak. It was too cruel to go through grief and then have a hope, only for it to be taken away again.

What if River had died somewhere else? Would he be able to handle the second mourn better?

"I have been calling for you, but you didn’t answer," Rye said as he entered the room. He was Arthur’s second-in-command.

It was already a significant achievement for Ranon to have successfully obtained him.

Arthur put down his hands and stared at his longtime friend. "Do you think I have raised my daughters wrong?"

He was furious with Aubrey, livid even. Because of her actions, he found himself in this predicament, particularly due to her audacity in attempting to kill River, which had sparked all of this.

But in the end, she was still his daughter.

Arthur had yet to reach out to Aubrey because he was uncertain about how to approach her. If he chose to forgive her, he felt he would be betraying River. However, if he didn’t forgive Aubrey, she would be the only daughter he had left, especially since River’s whereabouts remained unknown.

On the other hand, Rye was taken aback by the question. "If what you mean by raising them wrong is treating them like any other children in a normal household, then all of us were raised wrongly. They were born into an unconventional household. What do you expect? Our normal is not the same as what others have."

Arthur rubbed his face again. He looked exhausted.

"Don’t you want to get in contact with Aubrey?" Rye asked.

"I don’t know." Arthur shook his head. Aubrey was alive, and she was... well, in the Barlowes’ house. Even though it was not convenient for her, it was a minor punishment for the crime she had committed. "Maybe not now."

Because the result of the DNA test on River’s dead body was out, the next thing he needed to do was wait for the result between him and Hazel.

She didn’t look worried; she didn’t even care. And to take a good measure, Arthur took another sample to a different hospital, which Ranon didn’t know about, just in case...

"What do you think happened to River?" Rye finally breached the topic because he knew he had been thinking about it. He had known him for decades, and he could tell Arthur loved both of his daughters, but in a different way.

"I will look for her. I will start with Rafael." He was the one who had fabricated the result; therefore, he must have known something that he didn’t. Whatever it was, it would lead him to River.

But if the result between him and Hazel came out and his guess was correct, there was no need for that.

"This whole thing is going to make my head explode." Arthur leaned his back against the chair. He stared at the ceiling. He missed his family. He missed Elise... and her nonchalant attitude. It would be one of his biggest regrets in this life for not being able to protect her.

Arthur would personally skin Deryl alive for his betrayal, but especially for killing his wife.

And when silence fell upon them, from a distance they could hear a commotion, and soon enough a young man, who was a member of the Lozens, barged into the room. He looked panicked as he pointed his finger outside.

"We are under attack!"

***

It was very early in the morning when Ranon’s phone was blaring with a consecutive call. He woke up and looked at the screen. It was from Desgar.

"Who is that?" Hazel asked. She rubbed her face as the sound woke her up. But thankfully, Ashlyn was still blissfully unaware of the noise.

"Desgar," Ranon said as he picked up the call. He greeted the other man and listened to what he was saying.

Hazel couldn’t hear the conversation, but she could see the change in Ranon’s expression, which alerted her.

"What is it?" She propped her body with her elbow. She was wide awake now. She leaned over even more when Ranon hung up the phone.

"There was an attack, and they burned the boxing club last night." Ranon’s expression darkened. "There are a few injuries, and five men died during the attack. Arthur is fine, but Rye got a shot on his leg."

Hazel discerned this information; she pressed her lips tightly. "They are going for the offensive. This is not something they have done before." This was not how they worked.

Ranon turned his head to look at Hazel a little bit longer. The way she phrased her words...

However, this was not the right time to bring up the topic they had discussed last night, because a second later, Ranon’s phone was blaring again, and this time it was Ares.

"What now?" Hazel was on edge.

"There is a fire at the factory in Aspen City."

This would be the second time the factory was on fire. They just started to gain profit from it, but now it was burned again.

They were indeed going for the offensive.

"They are being aggressive." Hazel sat down.

"Is this how the Denver family worked?" Ranon knew about the family, but he didn’t know the details on how they operated.

"No. People in our... in this line of business used to work in silence. We... they didn’t attract attention." Hazel stumbled with her words. Her head was a jumbled mess.

Obviously, Ranon noticed the way Hazel spoke.