Echoes of Vengeance: The Sweet Wife's Perfect Revenge-Chapter 36: The Taste of Metal

At Ashford estate,

It was Damien’s birthday. The table was filled with delicacies, the feast had yet to begin.

Aveline glanced at the hand wrapped around her shoulder, then turned to the man who was holding her like a treasure.

She smiled warmly when she met his eyes, and he smiled back, but it felt bland.

Turning to the hall, she saw the Ashford family rushing towards him, wishing him, cheerfully talking to him as if she wasn’t visible.

Within seconds, Damien’s hand slipped from her. Slowly, they shouldered her away and pushed her towards the corner of darkness.

Still, she smiled. It was Damien’s birthday.

As she moved, her own reflection startled her. Skinny, sunken eyes and pale skin.

The smell of food triggered nausea. She rushed to the powder room and threw up.

When she was done, tears threatened to spill as she looked in the mirror. She had lost weight, weakness clung to her every movement.

But she didn’t cry. It was her husband’s birthday.

Walking out of the powder room, she paused at the dining hall entrance, hearing laughter echoing while her body shivered in weakness.

Laughter suddenly died down. Everyone turned to her, accusing, judging. As if she committed a sin.

Her heart raced, and Cassandra glared at her, gritting her teeth. She could hear the sneers and curses in the air.

They fell silent when Damien glared at them, but their scornful gazes wrapped her like a smoke.

She looked at Damien but couldn’t focus on his face. She looked around, everything began to blur.

Before she knew it, her knees buckled, her head hit the wall first, and then her body fell to the ground.

The darkness sucked her away and left her in another haunting part of her life.

When she could see again, she saw his face. Elias Hawthorne’s cruel smile while filling the syringe with an unknown liquid.

She tried to scream, tried to move, but she couldn’t. The pain coursed through her body.

Then someone rushed into the room and knocked Elias away. He pulled her into a warm embrace.

’Aveline...’

~~~

Lying on the hospital bed, caught between nightmares of her reality, Aveline abruptly opened her eyes to brightness.

Aveline felt her collapse, the arms wrapping around her, and Alaric calling her name oddly felt familiar from her nightmare.

Why did she faint?

Had her strange illness begun so early?

Doesn’t she have four months?

Panic bubbled. She didn’t dare touch her face or check her hands.

What if she had travelled back in time?

What if she won’t be able to save Laurent Industries?

What if Scarlett gets into an accident?

As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she held her breath and scanned the unfamiliar ceiling and room. Then she saw him.

Alaric Lancaster. Sitting on the couch.

Relief flooded her at the sight of him. She was still here, she could still save herself, save everything Damien sought to destroy.

As though sensing her gaze, Alaric looked up sharply.

She felt her hair raise when she met his darkened green eyes.

’Is he angry?’

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to sit, but his dark voice echoed in the room, "Don’t move." It was a warning.

She froze.

She wasn’t scared. But she couldn’t move under his glare.

He stood, slowly. Walked towards her, still slower. Aveline wanted to fast-forward the moment. But she could see he was barely holding it together.

’Anger?’ She wasn’t sure.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to waste your time." She sincerely apologised.

She guessed it was evening when the shades of sunset filtered through the window.

"You should have left me here or informed my family." Her voice was barely a whisper when he reached her bedside.

His jaw tightened as if her words irked him. "Your husband!?" His voice carried a hint of a sneer.

Aveline frowned. Not because of his anger. But hearing her husband as her family.

She quietly watched him press a button on the remote controller to raise the headboard.

She answered once he kept the remote away, "My parents."

He stared at her, said nothing.

Forget keeping her pride, Aveline shrank under his gaze. Embarrassment crawled beneath her skin. "I-..." She refrained from apologizing again. "Thank you for bringing me to the hospital."

’Thank you for not informing Damien.’ She thought to herself.

She curled her fingers into the blanket. She wanted him to leave. She needed to breathe. She needed to face whatever was happening alone.

But instead, he moved closer.

He raised her chin with his finger. His voice was low and unreadable, "When you haven’t done anything, why are you lowering your head?"

She almost flinched at his touch. But his words registered. It was his choice to stay beside her when he could have let the hospital manage it.

She doesn’t have to be guilty of his foul mood.

But why did he stay?

Before she could ask, a middle-aged woman in a white coat entered the room with Ezra behind her.

The woman gently smiled at Aveline first, then looked at Alaric. "Ric, I need to talk to the patient."

Aveline caught how the doctor addressed him. And Ezra’s unusually complex expression as if something was horribly wrong.

"Aveline Laurent," Alaric said through clenched teeth, turning to the doctor. He was displeased to hear Aveline as a patient.

Aveline, Doctor, and Ezra: "..."

They had the same reaction. ’How could he be so unreasonable?’

Ezra awkwardly cleared his throat, "Sir, let’s wait outside." His voice almost begged.

"I’m staying." With that, Alaric sat on the couch.

Aveline: "..."

Speechless, she blinked several times in confusion.

Whereas the doctor sighed in resignation, "Ms. Laurent, I’m Dr. Amelia Grey, your attending physician. Is it all right if Mr. Lancaster stays?" She asked politely.

Alaric crossed his legs, leaned back, as if daring them to send him out.

Aveline witnessed his reaction, too. She was still wordless. A formidable man to a stubborn man, she wasn’t sure how to react.

He brought her to the hospital and stayed beside her. He had the right to know her condition. And it wasn’t the time to argue with him or offend him. "No problem, Dr. Grey."

Amelia gave her nephew a look, then turned back to Aveline with her writing pad. "We have run some initial tests. But I have a few questions."

Aveline nodded, "Sure."

"Any mood swings or irritability?"

Aveline shook her head, "No."

Marking on the writing pad, Amelia continued to ask, "Forgetfulness? confusion?"

"No."

"Headaches or insomnia?"

"Occasional headaches. Maybe stress." Before she explained, Amelia marked it anyway.

"Last recorded weight?"

Aveline had checked her weight last in the hospital when she went for a body checkup with Scarlett, "Forty-nine.."

"Weakness? Heart racing?"

"Heart races."

"Loss of appetite?"

"Aftertaste is metallic." She admitted, "So yes."

Amelia set down her pad, and her eyes flickered to Alaric. Then back to Aveline. Taking a deep breath through her mouth, "Ms. Laurent, you’re being slowly poisoned."

Aveline froze.

Every taunt for her illness, every fake concern, Damien’s fake care flashed before her eyes like it happened yesterday.

She wasn’t ill.

She shook at the realisation.

She was being poisoned. Damien had been killing her. Day by day. Bit by bit. Without a noise. Without a hint of suspicion.

Tears welled up in her eyes. One slipped down her cheek, understanding why Damien was quietly letting her have her way.

How could she have entrusted herself to that man?

How did she believe till the day of her death that Damien loved her unconditionally?

Even after regression, she thought she would die of illness.

Amelia reached for water. But Alaric was already there with a glass of water.

He grabbed Aveline’s shaking hand, and handed her a glass until she clutched it.

Taking a shallow breath, she whispered in a broken voice, "Go... out."

He left without a word.

The door closed behind Amelia. She looked at Alaric, concerned that Aveline might do something to herself. Then they heard.

Her muffled sobs. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com