Chapter 171: NIGHTMARE
"How’s your day?" Hazel asked when Ranon returned before dinner; she didn’t have anything to do, so she would spend her time watching a movie or cooking dinner.
She developed new hobbies now.
Ranon paused a moment as both of them walked towards the kitchen. "Weird." His conversation with Arthur only left him with more questions than answers. "How’s yours?"
Hazel thought about it for a while and used the same word. "Weird."
"How?" Ranon raised his brows, but Hazel rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Don’t tell me that you don’t know that Greyson came." One of the bodyguards must have told him about what she was doing, and she would bet her money on that.
Hearing the accusation in Hazel’s voice, Ranon chuckled and pulled a chair for her to sit as he sat down next to her.
Renna hovered in the background, preparing dinner for both of them silently as she enjoyed the sight of the two of them eating together.
"Hm. I know, but I don’t know what you were talking about that he left with a red face."
Wow, the information that Ranon received was detailed. Hazel admired the person who had delivered that news.
"Well, you can say that he didn’t get what he wanted easily."
Greyson was furious when his peace offer met with Hazel’s brazen demand. She didn’t need his apology; it was not for her. It was very late for him to realize his mistake and apologize. The real Hazel had long gone.
Therefore, there was no need for the apology.
Instead, she asked for all of his shares if he wanted her forgiveness. The house and the assets in his name. Basically, Hazel asked for her inheritance in advance, as if he was going to die soon.
Without a doubt, Greyson’s face turned red with anger, and he left the building sooner than Hazel expected. She didn’t complain, though; she didn’t want him to come in the first place.
Whether it was a genuine apology from him or he wanted to create another opportunity to get on Ranon’s good side so they could form a business relation like what Dylan wanted; either way, she was not interested to know.
"Good. Don’t make it easy for him," Ranon said, unbothered.
"What happened with your hand?" Hazel caught sight of his bloody knuckles. She grabbed it and frowned. "Were you fighting?" She knew the wound; she recognized it easily, as she used to get the same wounds whenever she encountered hand-to-hand combat.
"Just a bit." To be precise, he beat someone up. Not enough to kill him, but it was enough to ease his rage.
"What do you mean by that?" Hazel frowned. "Do I need to know about this?" She became very lazy lately, probably because she had nothing really important to do and because the real thing would happen after she gave birth to their child.
"No." Ranon retrieved his hand and caressed Hazel’s cheek. His gaze softened, and his expression became tender. "It will give you a headache."
***
"Why are you sending yourself to the hospital?" Elise frowned when she saw her husband on the hospital bed. He suffered from a few broken bones and wounds all over his body, his lips split, and his eyes turned red; blood covered half of his face. "You know I don’t like to be in the hospital."
"I am injured, woman." Arthur closed his eyes; he willed himself to fall asleep, but he couldn’t, and despite Elise’s protest that she didn’t like to be in the hospital, she stayed there begrudgingly. "How is she?"
Elise lifted her head from her phone, canceling her appointment with her beautician. She seemed indifferent to what had gotten her husband hospitalized like this.
"Alive," Elise said dismissively. She had never been a mother figure for Aubrey; she wouldn’t try to be a grandmother figure for her child either. She didn’t find it in her to enjoy the little child’s company.
It was still a mystery why she didn’t live her life alone, since that was what she had been doing all this time. She couldn’t care less about building a family.
This time, Arthur closed his eyes again and said nothing even though he didn’t sleep. His mind swirled to the conversation between him and Ranon. He didn’t mind the beating. He put up a fight, which in hindsight was rather useless since that young man could overpower him easily.
If he were not a Leighton, he would love to recruit him. He would match River’s agility perfectly.
And when his thought circled back to River, he felt this pang of guilt. Now he knew what Aubrey had tried to do. An attempt at murder.
She had fired the bullet against her sister for what? For a man who didn’t want her? What a stupid girl. He couldn’t believe he sired a girl so blind like her... But then, she was still his flesh and blood, and so was River.
With this new information, Arthur didn’t find the situation became easier; if anything, it got more complicated.
But one sure thing that he knew was: he needed to meet River. Thankfully, she was still alive...
***
"What happened?" Ranon shook Hazel’s body to wake her up when he felt she was trembling in her sleep. Sweat layered her forehead.
At first, Hazel’s eyes were disoriented, but then she focused on Ranon’s face. She shook her head and mumbled something about a nightmare.
Damn it.
It had been a while since she had this stupid nightmare, but now it came again. She thought she was already free from it.
Once again, in her dream, she was at the bottom of that river, cold and in pain as the bullet still rang in her head.
Subconsciously, Hazel touched her chest where the bullet had been placed. There was no blood, and she was perfectly fine.
Somehow, she was afraid when she opened her eyes, she would find herself at the bottom of that river. Alone.
"Are you okay?" Ranon wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I will get you something to drink." He got off the bed and went out of the bedroom to bring her a jar of water and a cup.
"Thank you," Hazel rasped. She didn’t know that her voice was so scratchy until she used it. She gulped down the whole cup and gave it back to Ranon, shaking her head when he asked if she wanted more.
"Your nightmare returned. What was this about?" Ranon tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and caressed her cheek with his thumb.
"Returned?" Hazel caught the word. How did he know that her nightmare returned? Did he realize it?
"Hm. You have been having nightmares. This must be the seventh time that I know of." There was a look of worry on his face. "What nightmares do you have?"
Hazel was not sure if she wanted to talk about this, but then there was no harm in it, since Ranon wouldn’t be able to connect the dots either. Who would have thought that she had experienced death?
"I was drowned." Hazel started. She stared at her fingers. "I was shot."
Ranon listened to her nightmare carefully; he didn’t say anything until she finished. "Is it always the same dream?"
Hazel nodded.
If Ranon was thinking of something, she didn’t know what was in his mind after he listened to her, but for once, she felt less scared. Talking about it made her nightmare, or her ’death,’ become less intimidating.
In the end, they talked for a few hours until Hazel fell asleep because she was exhausted. And when she woke up, Ranon had left for work.
At the office, Lucian got confused when Ranon asked him a strange question.
"What’s the most horrifying dream I’ve had?" Lucian put down the document and sat down, thinking about the question. "I rarely dream." He tapped his finger on his chin and remembered something. "I dreamed about getting rejected by a girl and going bankrupt because I lost in a gamble."
Ranon gave him a disdainful look.
"Hey!" Lucian screeched like a girl. "Don’t give me that look."
But one thing that Ranon could get: the dream came from fear, and if that was the case, with Hazel...
***
The divorce process went very slowly; James dragged his feet throughout the whole process. He refused to divorce her and demanded a mediation.
It was even harder as Laurel didn’t have the sources like he did.
While the Leighton family was more powerful than the Starlings now, Laurel didn’t hold any real power with her. The strength of this family came from Ranon, which left Laurel with only two options: begging for her father’s help or Ranon’s.
She didn’t think her father would help her, knowing how adamant he was for the reconciliation. He didn’t want the business relation between the Starlings and the Leightons severed.
And now, it left her with the last option.
"No," Hazel said firmly. "If you want to ask for Ranon’s help, you go to him; why do you like to bother me so much?" She squinted her eyes. "You do remember that you used to hate me, right? You don’t like the fact that I entered the family."
Laurel scoffed. "Of course." She crossed her arms defiantly. "I still feel the same. But I need your help now."
"Does it make sense to ask for help from the person that you don’t like?"
"It does, in my case." Laurel grinned, and Hazel didn’t like the look of it.