Chapter 192: THE RESULT (2)
Hazel was surprised by Ranon’s answer. He agreed to let her see the dead body. He didn’t even ask any questions, which she truly appreciated, because she didn’t know how to answer him.
"Get some rest, and don’t think of anything else." Ranon rearranged the pillows behind her. He waited until she fell asleep before he left the room to make a few phone calls.
However, once Ranon stepped out, Hazel opened her eyes. She couldn’t fall asleep, but she was getting better at pretending in Ranon’s presence.
She stared at the ceiling, her mind a jumbled mess. She was unclear why it affected her so much, given that she had already expected this result.
But seeing the autopsy results and realizing that it was her own body being dissected and examined still troubled her so much.
No one would understand what she felt, because what she was going through was not something common.
It was not an everyday event that someone survived a killing attempt in their life, then woke up in someone else’s body, and had to confront the sight of their own body in such a pitiful state.
Stretching out her hand, she grabbed the paper again and read it more carefully. Only then did she spot that something was not right.
It was mentioned that the time of death was around four months ago; however, she should have been dead for almost a year now.
She understood that being drowned could mess with the time of death, but it was too far. Did she get it wrong? She was not an expert in this field.
When she heard the door open, Hazel quickly tucked the paper away and pretended to be asleep once more. This time, however, her act was not convincing; he recognized her ruse almost immediately.
However, Ranon didn’t call her on it. He walked over and kissed her forehead before he sat down on the sofa and let the silence engulf them.
***
Arlo woke up with a headache. The alcohol he consumed would kill him one day. He didn’t immediately remember what was going on, but the anguished feeling lingered.
The pain was not something he had ever felt before. It even overshadowed his splitting headache.
"Finally, you woke up." Michael walked in while holding a glass of water. "I was about to pour you water. Now that you’re awake, you can drink it."
Arlo didn’t appreciate the sarcasm in his voice, but he took the glass and drank greedily. His throat was very dry. He didn’t notice it earlier.
"Where am I?" He looked around and didn’t recognize this place.
"You didn’t allow me to step into your house anymore, so I took you to my apartment."
Arlo frowned. He knew Michael’s apartment; this one was not it.
"Father bought one for me," he explained when he saw the look of confusion in his eyes. With the answer, Arlo didn’t ask any further.
It was rather awkward for the two of them because the last time they interacted, it was not on good terms, and Arlo had not yet apologized for the way he had treated him.
At that time, Arlo was angry with Michael because of the way he spoke to and treated Aubrey, but look at how he treated her now. He didn’t even care about her and his son.
"So, we are having a fallout with the Lozens?" Michael finally broke the silence. He glanced at his brother, who played with the empty glass in his hand absentmindedly.
"It’s inevitable."
"I don’t believe that." Michael hated how their years of union ended up like this, and deep down, he blamed Arlo for that. River was his favorite sister-in-law-to-be; he would prefer her to his useless brother. "I am going to the Lozen family and see my nephew."
"Stay put, Michael. They are going to kill you."
Michael didn’t know about the dead body in the river, which heightened the tension between the two families. But even before this, their union had crumbled. Arthur had learned that the Barlowes had changed their loyalty.
However, Arlo still wondered how he could not find River when he had spent months skimming through the Aspen River. He found nothing.
"No, they will not." Michael stood up. "All of this happened because of you! You don’t even know what loyalty is! How could you sleep with her sister?! You are a scumbag; I am ashamed to call you my brother!"
The way Michael talked back to him angered Arlo. He had regained her memory of what happened the previous night, and the possibility of the dead body being River.
And now his brother provoked him by reminding him of his mistake.
"Do you think that after Arthur Lozen learned about the betrayal, he will gladly let you walk freely?! Are you naïve or just stupid?!"
Arlo stood up as well. Arlo gave his brother a dagger look, but Michael remained unflinching.
"Let me ask you this..." Michael hissed viciously as he came closer to Arlo. "Are you happy now? Is it worth risking everything? For a woman that you don’t want anymore, and a baby that you don’t even care about? Is it worth it?!"
No. It was not. But Arlo didn’t want to be reminded of it.
"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Arlo smashed the glass, and it shattered into a thousand pieces, where the sharp pieces grazed their legs and arms, but neither of them flinched. "Say something about it again and I will rip your throat!"
However, Arlo should have known better than that. Michael saw it as a challenge, and he would never back down from it.
"I can see the regret in your eyes! You don’t even love Aubrey, do you? What now?" He smirked mockingly. "Is the guilt eating you alive from the inside? Do you wish you could turn back time? I’m glad you made that choice, because River deserved someone better than a jerk like you!"
That was it; Arlo charged forward, intending to kill his brother. He spoke all the right things, and the truth was always harsh.
Yes, the guilty feeling ate him alive; he felt as though he was dying. He didn’t even want Aubrey. All Arlo wanted was to turn back time and keep River by his side.
But now what was left for him was regret. He had to live with it.
***
Devastated was an understatement for what Arthur was feeling right now. His legs gave way when he saw the result.
The dead body was his daughter. It was River. She had been shot and drowned for months, to the point that her body was hard to recognize.
They took her to the Central Hospital for a better result, since this was the best hospital in the country.
With so many important people getting involved in the shadow to know the real identity of the body, it was pretty easy and rather quick to get the result.
However, this was not something Arthur expected. He didn’t wish to bury his daughter like this. He always thought that even if River was down, she would go down on a mission, not be killed by her sister and be left there alone.
Still, the four months of death bothered him.
With trembling hands, he pulled out his phone and called Ranon’s number repeatedly, but he didn’t pick up. Furious, he drove straight to where Ranon Leighton lived.
He had attempted to kill him, so he knew the ins and outs of the building and how to avoid the security that Ranon placed around it.
But Arthur was not that smart, because Ranon ambushed him before he entered his space. The lift doors opened, and what greeted Arthur was a gun that was pointed at his head.
"Put that gun down."
Instead, Ranon shot Arthur’s leg, which caused him to fall and grunt in pain. Ranon had put on the silencer so he wouldn’t wake Hazel up. She had been very distraught and kept asking for the result of the DNA test.
The result had come out hours ago, but Ranon had not yet informed her. The body under the river was Arthur’s daughter, River.
It was such an irony that she died in the place she was named after.
"Fuck you, Ranon! I am not armed!"
"Lower your voice; my wife is sleeping."
Arthur was not going to die; Ranon shot him, not intending to kill him. He would still be able to drive his ass away from his place, though a little bit inconvenient.
"There is something I want to ask her!" He gritted his teeth and stood up. Blood stained the floor, but Ranon didn’t have any sympathy for him.
"You can ask me instead." Ranon lowered his gun. He was going to deal with his men later for not doing their job right.
"Don’t act like you can give me the answer!" Arthur lost all of his reasoning. "My daughter is dead!" He blurted out, since he knew Ranon must have learned about this too.
"And it has nothing to do with my wife."
"She is the last person who interacted with her!" Arthur roared angrily. "She died four months ago, but your wife interacted with her a few weeks ago. She had been interacting with her all this time!"
How could that be possible?!
That was what Arthur wanted to know.
"Did she lie?" Arthur narrowed his eyes. "Did she kill her? Did you ask her to kill my daughter?"
Ranon laughed derisively; there was no humor in it. "A heavily pregnant woman managed to kill an assassin daughter of yours? You should consider changing businesses."