224 YES
In this quiet room, only the crackling sound of the fire could be heard until Anne broke the silence and asked Chaos about something that she thought he knew.
“Do you know what happened to Blue?” Anne asked, her eyes were on the fire in the fireplace, reflecting the flames. “Something must have happened to her.”
Chaos didn’t answer that, but Anne had known this man for as long as she could remember, thus she knew what his answer would be.
At this moment, Gael entered the room, his usual easy going nature was nowhere to be seen. He was completely silent as he slumped next to Anne on the sofa.
“Something happened?” Momentarily, Anne’s attention shifted to Gael, as she could sense something off about this man.
Anne was indeed not a supernatural creature, gifted with inexplicable power, but years of living with these men had sharpened her instincts.
“A lot of things happened,” Gael said, he didn’t whine like he usually did whenever he faced a problem, which meant, this was about something that he took very seriously.
Anne knew that Gael was working with Nathen and Sebastian to gather more information on River’s whereabouts and they had deployed many people to spy on the new capital city, Lucinda city, but the report that they got was not really satisfying.
“I will take Blue with me when I go to Lucinda city.” That was not a request, but a statement from Gael. He had talked about this with Zuri and even though she didn’t say that she agreed, Gael was in a mess to think straight with everything overwhelming his mind.
.....
“No.” Chaos’ answer was curt and firm.
“Then come with me and help me. You can burn that city again for all I care!” Gael snapped at Chaos as he turned around to face him.
At this moment, Gael had stood up as well, they were of similar heights, but Chaos’ presence alone was very intimidating, yet Gael didn’t want to back down at all. He was so desperate to find his daughter, though he didn’t show the same in front of Lise.
Ever since they came back to the McKeltar Manor, Lise had been very quiet, always choosing to be alone, aside from the news about their daughter, she wasn’t even interested in making small talk with Gael.
“Or, should I just burn you?” Chaos tilted his head, receiving someone’s order was something that would never be accepted by him.
“Enough both of you!” Anne stood up, she stomped her feet and lifted her palm to Gael, since he was right next to her. “We don’t need another bloodbath again. We can talk about this without trying to kill each other.”
Anne gave Gael a look to calm down. She knew better than to provoke Chaos. This creature would look after you and protect you by all means, but once he was provoked, not even a century of good relationship could hold him back from doing what he said he would do.
Anne had learned about that and so did Gael.
“Please, don’t be like this,” Anne whispered softly, her back facing Chaos when she looked at Gael pleadingly, to make him stop provoking Chaos. It would never end up good.
In the end, Gael relented and then sat down. Chaos turned around and shifted his attention back to the fire, saying nothing else as his cold demeanor returned.
Once again, silence engulfed the room, as if time slowed down while their sole focus was on the fire in the fireplace.
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“You know something happened to Zuri, right?” Gael asked Chaos, resuming the last conversation between Chaos and Anne before Gael walked into the library. “What exactly happened to her?” His questions were faced with silence.
On the other hand, Anne was not completely clueless, she had her own assumptions and she needed to confirm them, since there was no way Chaos would tell them every detail.
Anne didn’t know how Chaos could have figured it out, because there was no way Zuri would tell him, but she thought he must have a thousand ways to find out something that really matters to him.
Gael had a similar thought, but he wanted to know if it was really true. He had this mixed feeling to know the truth behind it.
“Did she go through that?” Anne asked Chaos and she could see the small gesture that he made before the answer came out of his lips.
It was only a curt reply of ‘yes’, and after that, Chaos added more logs to the fire, feeding it so the flames would last.
From the corner of her eye, Anne could see Gael watching Chaos’ back expectantly, waiting for his further explanation, but it would never happen.
At this moment, Gael didn’t know what he must feel. It was the worst thing that he had ever thought would happen to Zuri, the little girl that he was fond of.
Never in a million years would he have thought that something like that would happen to her, but on the other hand, Gael knew exactly what he had done to Lise.
And the moment he cursed the man, who had done horrible things to Zuri, his own words would slap him in his face.
Gael could only grit his teeth, as he was able to realize what kind of monster he had been to Lise and how painful it had been to her, seeing how hard it was for Zuri to cope with that.
Lise didn’t have the same response like her to the trauma, but it didn’t dismiss the fact he had ruined her life.
Gael was disgusted at himself for what he had done and everything that he had made Lise to go through.
Seeing Zuri and the hatred in her eyes whenever someone touched her was a reminder for Gael that it could have been Lise.
It would be understandable if Lise hated their daughter, yet she did not. She loved their daughter with all her heart and Gael couldn’t ask for more.
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*Read my new book: KISSED BY THE DARK ALPHA*
Alpha Micah Donovan’s second chance mate.