Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain-Chapter 105: THE AGONY AND ABANDONEMENT

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. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

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 same model as you told me before."

Ranon noted it mentally; 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 remember 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 moment 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 smell like tobacco.

As the night grew, the weather became 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. James 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.

Some part of her blamed 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 James 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 meant so much to her ignore her like this and leave with anger, she questioned herself.

She tried to call Carl and James, but both of them didn’t pick up their phones. She sent message after message to explain herself, why she did what she had done, and why she reacted like that.

Still, the result was the same.

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 kilometers, and now, she didn’t have the energy to even stand.

She kept trying to call for them, asking them to come back and talk it out, yet it was the same silence that greeted her.

On the other hand, Carl and James saw the messages from Laurel. It sounded very desperate, but they didn’t even try to text Laurel back to calm her down a bit.

Somehow, there was this tacit agreement between them that they would punish Laurel for the way she reacted.

"You don’t need to look at the message. 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 Amelia, 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 same text was sent to James.

"It’s predictable of that woman. Come here; you don’t need to think much about it." Amelia then took away Carl’s phone and put it on the table, out of his reach. "You don’t need to feel sorry for someone 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 home, he went straight to Amelia’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. James 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 same time, 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.

"Come 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 Amelia; his voice sounded desperate when he talked. "I didn’t use the drugs." Though, he actually didn’t talk to his mother.

Amelia 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 me, I trust everything you say."

Amelia 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 me too." Amelia 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?"

Amelia sighed deeply. "Yes, Carl. She was the reason for our divorce. It was a misunderstanding. But if she hadn’t intervened at that time, 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?"

Amelia 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 amends for the time when I was not there with you. I love you, and I still love your father. I know your father still feels the same, or else he will not be here. We can be a family again now."

Carl said nothing when Amelia hugged him. The thought of being a family again with his biological mother didn’t excite him, because whenever the word family came to his mind, it would be Laurel, not Amelia.

Laurel was the mother that he had known all this time. She was the first mother figure for him. The word ’mother’ was always related to her.

Therefore, Carl couldn’t imagine Amelia in it.

Yes, Carl called Amelia ’mother’ too, but it was not the same when he addressed Laurel with the same title; he was not sure what to think.

On the other hand, Laurel kept trying to call James 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 something. This was not herself, and she didn’t want to end up like this.

Laurel then called someone, and he picked up her call on the third ring.

"Give me her phone number."

***

A phone number and a demanding message, and that was how it went.

That was how Laurel got herself to be here; she came 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 meeting with Rafael, and he would come 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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