If it weren’t for the snores coming from Natalie’s caregiver, it was ghost-quiet in the ward at dawn. Natalie opened her eyes and peered at the bed opposite hers.
She frowned and eased herself to sit up. The caregiver, whom Lucian had arranged for Natalie, was sleeping soundly, and this displeased her.
She was still fast asleep after Natalie had put on her shoes and got out of bed, which was strange as the caregiver would always wake up at Natalie’s slightest movement. Someone must have done something to her.
Natalie let out a sigh and lifted her wrist to glance at her watch. It was time. She gently opened the door and left the room.
Outside, the corridor was like a ghost town. Natalie softly padded along the corridor towards a door at the other end of the floor. Just as she raised her hand to knock on the door, it swung open from the inside. In one swift motion, Archer grabbed Natalie by the wrist and pulled her into a tight embrace.
It was dark in the ward and she could hear Archer’s racing heartbeat clearly as it matched her own, which was also thumping hard against her chest.
Twenty years of not seeing one another, of yearning for each other, and their buried love… All suppressed emotion, encased in silence at this moment.
Archer held on to Natalie tightly as though wanting to merge her body into his.
Natalie buried herself in his arms too, as warm tears started to stream down her face and onto Archer’s chest.
They stayed like this for quite some time before Archer finally lifted his hand to stroke Natalie’s head gently to find that her hair was as smooth as he had remembered. Then, his hand moved slowly to her face, where he started to trace her eyes, nose, and mouth. Natalie did the same too, tracing Archer’s features with her own fingers.
They were engraving each other’s faces in their minds. And at that moment, silence prevailed over words.
Meanwhile, after receiving Talitha’s call of distress, Raelyn and Devon immediately began to think of a way to help her.
However, the video of Paisley and Talitha at the nightclub had gone viral too quickly. Before Raelyn and Devon could come up with a solution, the internet was already flooded with humiliating news regarding their daughter.
Devon was fuming at the moment. He immediately called his assistant and told her to find out who was behind this, and then made a call to his lawyer, asking him to issue a lawyer’s letter to the person in question.
Yet, the news wasn’t only spread by one or two sources and tens of thousands of people had already shared it to different websites. It was impossible to send out a letter to each and every one of them.
Raelyn’s company had been tight on funds recently, and to suppress the news meant that money had to be involved. But since she didn’t have Hardy’s wealth, she could only watch helplessly as the news about Paisley gradually disappeared while Talitha’s continued to sprout and grow throughout the internet.
Exasperated, Raelyn had no choice but to call Archer in hope that he would help suppress the damaging news. Little did she expect that she wasn’t able to reach him on his phone.
“D*mn it, I can’t reach Archer! Why is his phone off? He isn’t thinking of sitting this out, is he?!”
“Why don’t you try calling your dad if you can’t reach Archer? Devon reminded her.
As she heard this, she immediately gave Gavin a call. After quite some time, someone finally picked up. However, it wasn’t Gavin who had answered the phone but the housekeeper, Arthur. He asked, “Sir Gavin is in the sauna right now. Is there anything urgent?”
“Yes, it’s very urgent! Please hurry and tell my dad that Talitha has been set up and is now trending on the internet, but I can’t get through Archer. Please tell dad that we need his help.”
Arthur complied and immediately went to inform Gavin, who was shocked by the news. He came out of the sauna hurriedly and called Archer on his phone immediately but couldn’t reach him either.
Then, Gavin had no choice but to call Archer’s assistant. Unfortunately, Archer’s assistant, too, couldn’t be reached on the phone.
Gavin’s anger spiked at this. “Why aren’t they picking up? What in the world are they doing?!”
Arthur voiced out suddenly, “Sir, I’m afraid there must be a reason behind this.”
“What do you mean? This is something that would affect Talitha’s reputation. Even if he had a good reason for it, Archer can’t just sit around and do nothing about it! Talitha is his niece!”
Gavin couldn’t bear to look at the videos and the enlarged pictures of Talitha making out with that man. He immediately phoned the PR department of their company and ordered them to find a way to suppress the news at once.
Of course, the manager wouldn’t dare refuse Gavin’s request. So, he agreed without any hesitation.
However, Gavin was still worried about this, so he got in touch with William to ask for his help.
To his dismay, William’s phone had been turned off, too.
It was at that point that Gavin noticed that something wasn’t right. He mumbled, “How would this be possible? Was there really something behind this?”
Right at this moment, while Gavin was trying to figure it out, Raymond returned to the villa with his head hung. He said, “Grandpa, don’t waste your time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Andrew planned everything to help Valeria and Abbie get revenge. William knows about this, and I’m guessing that my dad would’ve probably known about it by now too. He’s probably afraid that you and Aunt Raelyn would call to ask for his help, so he turned off his phone on purpose.”
“What?” Gavin was dumbfounded at his words.
Raymond sat down and rubbed his temple, “Grandpa, Andrew directed everything with William and Richard’s support. They’re working together, so no matter how much money you invest in this, it will all go to waste. They won’t let Talitha and Paisley off the hook easily before Abbie and Valeria have their revenge.”
“But… But Valeria and Talitha are cousins! How could they fight among themselves?” Gavin was filled with grief as he heard this.
“I just got bashed by them tonight when I tried to defend Talitha. It doesn’t matter if they’re related,” Raymond felt defeated. “I just don’t understand. Did they really have to go this far? For God’s sake, we’re all related by blood! But no one listened to a word I’d said. Everyone has gone crazy.”
“What exactly happened? Tell me everything you know,” Gavin sat down in a huff while looking at Raymond.
“This afternoon, Azalea annoyed Abbie and Valeria when they were having lunch at a restaurant, but she was quickly dealt with. However, Talitha and Paisley were there too, and they had seen everything. Since Paisley has been eyeing William, she has always wanted to humiliate Valeria. So, in an attempt to make things difficult for Abbie and Valeria, Paisley convinced Talitha to exaggerate the incident of Azalea being bullied by them. After that, Paisley even went to see Hayden, and God knows what she’d told him. I only knew it got Andrew’s blood boiling and he was determined to teach them a lesson with William and Richard supporting him from behind.”
“So you mean… Talitha provoked Valeria and Abbie first and that she’s in the wrong?”
“Yup!” Raymond nodded at this.
Only then did Gavin learn about the truth of this matter. To him, both Talitha and Valeria were equally important. Hence, he didn’t want to see them turn against each other and his only wish was for them to get along like sisters.
But after today’s incident, Gavin knew that his wish would never come true.
Not only did Talitha and Valeria despise each other, but Archer’s relationship with Raelyn was going downhill, too. The more Gavin thought about it, the more irked he was.
What was he supposed to do now?