Chapter 820
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Wayne was all smug and full of himself, like he had the whole world in his pocket.
I watched the helicopter take off, climbing higher and farther, and my heart was in full panic mode. “Aaron, you’ve got to save Lena! You-”
But the rest of my words got stuck. The cold truth hit me–if Aaron didn’t follow their demands, Lena was still in danger.
And the worst part? That danger came from Hayden–the guy I loved, the father of my kid.
“Rea,” Jace’s voice broke through my spiraling thoughts as he walked up to me. “Do you trust Hayden?”
Of course, I trusted him. But the way he acted just now… it wasn’t him. Not the Hayden I
knew.
If he really was still my Hayden, he’d never hurt Lena. He knew how much she meant to
- me.
When I didn’t answer, Jace kept going. “Then why do you think he took Lena and not you?”
That question had been haunting me.
“Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to hurt you,” Jace added.
I snapped my head up, staring at him. How was he so chill right now? Like, we’re in the middle of this chaos, and he’s just… Zen? It was weird, like he already knew exactly what was going on.
But if Jace was some mastermind, how did things even get this bad?
I felt drained, like my brain had checked out. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything right now,” I muttered, my voice shaky.
“Being confused doesn’t change anything,” Jace said, watching the helicopter vanish into the distance. “Maybe Hayden has his reasons.” Then, turning to Aaron, he added, “Isn’t that right, Mr. Ace?”
Aaron just stood there, stone–faced, saying nothing.
Just then, a police officer interrupted. “The helicopter has a tracking system. We need your cooperation to locate it.”
Aaron’s assistant immediately stepped forward “I’ve got everything you need.”
The officer nodded and led the assistant away.
I glanced at Aaron again. His calm wasn’t accidental–he was ready for this. But that didn’t stop my stomach from twisting into knots.
Chapter 820
+25 BONUS
Jace turned to me. “Rea, the police are about to open my parents‘ coffin. They treated you like their own. Let’s go stand with them.”
I couldn’t say no, so I followed him to the burial site. The cops were already working, and the sniffer dogs were all over the place. As they sniffed around, I silently prayed they wouldn’t bark.
Not because I wanted Wayne to get away with it, but because disturbing Matthew and Lindey’s rest felt so wrong. They deserved peace.
But the dogs barked. Loud, sharp, aggressive barks aimed right at the coffin.
“Open it,” the officer ordered.
Two officers jumped into the grave and started working. I shut my eyes, not ready for whatever was coming next.
Then someone shouted, “We found it!”
I opened my eyes reluctantly. The coffin’s bottom had been pried open, and inside were stacks of sealed, sketchy–looking blocks.
Wayne had really lost it. He’d used his parents‘ coffin to smuggle illegal stuff. That wasn’t just bad–it was evil.
“May they rest in peace,” Jace murmured beside me.
I turned to him. His face was calm, hands clasped like he was offering a silent prayer.
For a moment, he almost looked like Abbot Levinsky himself–steady, grounded, radiating this unshakable calm.
Jace had trained under Abbot Levinsky and embraced Harmonism’s philosophy, but I’d never seen him like this before. So serene, so… distant, like all this chaos was happening in another world entirely.
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