Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain-Chapter 270: ARLO’S DOWNFALL

"Ranon is a good fighter, if you didn’t know that." Lucian lowered his voice, as if he were telling her a secret. "Stay close to him."

"Are you worried about me?" Hazel was amused by the way Lucian cared about her, but the man scrunched his nose.

"No. Not at all."

"Don’t worry, I will stay close to him for the rest of our lives," Hazel replied dramatically. She then patted Lucian’s shoulder before she went to Ranon’s side.

"What were the two of you talking about?" Ranon glanced at Lucian’s sullen face.

"Nothing. He asked me to be with you for the rest of our lives."

Not even for a second would Ranon believe Lucian would say something like that, but he didn’t ask further. He opened the car door for his wife and then circled the vehicle to get behind the wheel. They were ready to go.

Ranon glanced at Hazel. She looked composed.

"It’s raining," Hazel said, as she stared at droplets of water that trickled down on the front glass. "People usually will be restless when it’s raining."

***

Aubrey heard that. When the clock hit one, she heard the sound of Arlo cursing on the phone. Someone must have informed him that there were intruders.

Suddenly, the house was engulfed in darkness, and Arlo screamed into the phone, "Check the generators!"

Aubrey planned to stay out of this, but when she heard Bryer’s cry, she immediately got off the bed and walked out of the room.

She couldn’t care less if Arlo died, but on second thought, she was not going to leave her son in the open and expose him to danger.

Even though Hazel assured her that they wouldn’t harm the baby, no one could guarantee that Bryer wouldn’t get hit by a stray bullet out of sheer bad luck.

She was stupid to think of leaving her son out in the open fire.

"Get him to his room!" Arlo snapped at Aubrey when he saw her, before he continued his order to someone on the phone.

The house was dark, but Aubrey knew this place like the back of her hand. "Bryer, come here. Let’s go back to your room."

The little boy immediately ran to his mother. He hugged Aubrey tightly because he was scared of the sudden darkness and also his father’s anger.

Aubrey hugged Bryer tightly. She turned around and was about to leave when she heard a gunshot in the distance.

"What was that?!" Arlo shouted into the phone, demanding to know what was happening.

On the other hand, Aubrey hastened her steps to bring herself and her son to safety. Arlo’s voice was drowned out by the sound of a second gunshot ringing through the air.

Fuck.

They were firing carelessly. She hugged Bryer, who was crying now, and went to the bathroom inside her bedroom. It would be safer here.

"It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. Mama is here. It’s okay." Aubrey tried to smile so that Bryer wouldn’t panic even more.

But when the gunshot kept blaring for two minutes straight, the little boy was too scared, and he cried even harder.

Damn, Hazel! She said she would come quietly, but why did it sound like they were having a battleground in this house?!

"Ssh. It’s okay. It’s okay." Aubrey was desperate to make her son stop crying. She covered his ears so he wouldn’t hear a thing and kept smiling at him.

Aubrey put Bryer on her lap while sitting in the bathtub. She waited until the situation calmed down.

In reality, everything happened in less than five minutes, but it felt like an eternity for Aubrey. She was not unfamiliar with gunfires and fights; she was born into the Lozens, after all, but right now, she had someone to be worried about.

Her son.

Aubrey kissed Bryer’s forehead as she prayed. If all of her bad karma caught up to her right in this moment, let it be her who carried the sin, not her son.

"It’s okay, it’s stopped." Aubrey slowly put down her hands that covered Bryer’s ears and then hugged him. "It’s okay. It’s okay."

She kept repeating the same words over and over again, more to herself, because currently Bryer was sobbing in a small voice, hiccupping.

But someone suddenly opened the door to the bathroom, and Aubrey almost screamed when she saw Hazel walk in. She had a gun in her hand and a stain of blood on her cheek.

For a long moment, they only stared at each other. Aubrey was unable to speak. She didn’t know what to say; all the words flew above her head.

And suddenly, a burst of anger came forward.

"You said you would come silently! What silence were you talking about?! Your gunshot rang throughout the house! You scared my son!" It scared her, too, but she would not admit it.

"Those were his guards’ gunshots that you heard, not ours."

"I don’t care whose guns those were!" Aubrey was panicking, and it shaped into an angry outburst. She kept talking about vile things, which scared her son even more.

Meanwhile, Hazel stared at her, unmoving. Her hand was on her gun. She could kill her if she shot her here. Stop her from talking that gibberish.

But her eyes fell on Bryer. He was almost the same age as Ashlyn, a few months older.

And as annoying as it sounded, she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t shoot Aubrey in front of her son. Did she grow soft?

Hazel closed her eyes; Aubrey’s voice irritated her ears more and more. "Shut up!" She finally snapped, and Aubrey clamped her mouth almost immediately. "Get up and follow me."

"No, I am not going anywhere with you." Aubrey hugged Bryer even closer to her chest.

"And you will do what? Stay here and wait for the Barlowes or the McKennas to come over? Do you think they will spare you?" Hazel nodded at Bryer. "You are no longer needed to breastfeed him. They will have plenty of people who will clothe, bathe, and feed him. You are useless to them. A burden."

After saying that, Hazel turned around and then left. It was up to Aubrey whether she wanted to come or not, and Hazel wouldn’t go the extra mile to convince her of what was best for her and her son.

She had shown mercy by not killing her right there and then. But good for Aubrey, because she decided to come along with them.

In the living room, the smell of gunfire filled the air, broken glasses were on the floor, and droplets of blood looked like someone had just spilled watercolor.

Aubrey pressed her son’s face against the crook of her neck so he wouldn’t see this messy sight as she followed Hazel, shadowing her every move, until they went to the car to leave the place.

Aside from Hazel, Aubrey saw Ranon Leighton and three other men, who looked like triplets, as they kept arguing.

"I shot his neck. I thought he was dead. You see, I kept shooting at him, right? But he lived! I thought he was a zombie!" Payton shuddered.

"You have to shoot his head, you dumbass." Paxton flicked his twin’s head.

"I don’t like to see the brain scattered. That’s scary." Payton swatted his twin’s hand and shuddered at the thought of the brain scattered on the floor.

They kept arguing, and Pete had had enough with them; he pointed the gun at his brothers. "I will shoot the first person who talks."

Both of them shut up, and Pete nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Now, move."

Arlo was unconscious when they hauled him to the car. Blood trickled down from the side of his head, but he was still alive. Aubrey could see how his chest rose and fell.

She stared at him for a while, waiting for regret to settle in, because she could have saved him. She could have warned him, and now his fate would be worse than death once he woke up in the enemy’s hands.

But she found nothing. She felt nothing.

She waited inside the car for Hazel and Ranon, as they were talking outside. She would ride with the couple, while Arlo was in the same vehicle with the other three men.

"Are you sure you want to bring her?" Ranon wiped the bloodstain on her cheek. She was distancing herself again; he could feel it.

Whenever something overwhelmed her, Hazel was used to dissociating herself from her surroundings, including him.

This was particularly concerning for Ranon because he felt like she was out of his reach.

The irony was that Hazel was so close he could touch her, but she was not there, as if she were so far away.

"Yes, let’s go back." Hazel kissed his palm to assure him that she was fine, and then she walked toward the car and buckled herself.

She said nothing; she didn’t even put on music.

Leaning her head against the window, Hazel closed her eyes, and the ride back was very quiet, aside from the occasional sound from the backseat, where Bryer talked to his mother incoherently. Aubrey would answer him.

It was a wonder that she could understand what her son was talking about, though Bryer didn’t form his words correctly.

Once they arrived at the building, which the Lozens’ people occupied, the first person who caught Aubrey’s attention was her father.

Arthur looked shocked as well, because he didn’t expect they would bring Aubrey back.

"Dad!" Aubrey rushed toward her father and hugged him tightly, with Bryer squeezed between them.