Walking out of the bedroom, Damien's expression turned dark as a pit. The sharpness of his eyes could slice through somebody. He walked downstairs with precision in every step as though he was going to bring hell upon the one who hurt his wife.
"Walter…" Damien growled. His tone and expression were completely contrasting to how gentle he was with his wife.
Walter—the middle-aged housekeeper—rushed out of the kitchen in alarm. The panic was evident on his face, without knowing what had caused Damien the trouble. "Mr. Ashford!?" Despite working for Damien for years, he failed to hide the tremble in his voice when facing an angry Damien.
Damien stopped only after he reached the sofa in the luxurious living hall. "Get everyone out here." He sat down and commanded, "Now."
The housekeeper bowed and rushed away.
Damien's restlessness still bubbled as he watched the maids, chefs, and gardeners rush out and stand in line in front of him with their eyes on the floor, quivering on the spot.
Damien broke the suffocating silence, the ultimatum in his voice hard to ignore. "Did anything trouble my wife today?" He wanted to make sure nothing bothered her from his side, his place, or his people. If something happened, he was going to bury them alive.
Damien noticed every expression and change on the faces of his employees while the others recalled the whole day of incidents.
Aveline woke early like every day, completed her yoga, got fresh, and had breakfast with Damien. Then she arranged all the vases by herself and worked on her laptop before lunch. Then she had an enjoyable conversation with her friend on the phone, worked more, took a walk in the garden at golden hour, waited for Damien at the dining table, had her dinner alone, and went to bed alone.
"Err…" The housekeeper hesitated for a moment but blurted out when he met Damien's sharp gaze, "Mrs. Ashford was disappointed at the dining table. She was very quiet throughout the dinner and went upstairs." He carefully looked at Damien to make sure that he didn't irritate him, then he suggested, "Mr. Ashford, you should try to come early. She dozes off, waiting for you. We always insist on her having dinner."
Damien's expression turned dark hearing the housekeeper. He waved his hand to send everyone away and wondered if Aveline was crying for that, hence she didn't tell him anything.
He understood he should give his wife more time, not just take care of her when he was free. He glanced upstairs. Since Aveline had gone to bed, he still chose to complete his work.
Rubbing between his brows, he poured bourbon into a rock glass and went to the study room.
….
In the Bedroom
Aveline wasn't able to believe she had traveled back in time. So she grabbed her mobile from the bedside table but paused, looking at her old phone that had broken before.
"How is this…?" Aveline mumbled to herself, looking at her old phone. She clearly remembered Damien bringing her a new phone and even personally updating it for her.
Shaking her head, she opened the photo gallery on her phone, hoping to find pictures of her flower arts and her changes over time. Well, she found the pictures from their wedding, the pictures of the floral art she had done in the first two months of her wedding.
Wondering if someone was pranking her, she searched on an internet browser, 'Date and time'.
April 18, 2020.
Her hands slackened, her expression complex.
"Was it all a dream!?" Aveline mumbled to herself.
"How could I dream nearly 22 months of my wedding life and even die in that dream in just a few hours of sleep?"
She probably would have believed everything was a dream, but—
"How could I remember every detail of my married life?" Aveline felt her head throb with more thoughts.
She remembered how busy her husband was with the business while helping the Laurent Lifestyle and also working on the expansion of Ashford Holdings. He was working day and night so that he wouldn't lose the CEO position of his family company to an outsider.
As an understanding wife, she made sure to support him while she was all set to open her event management company, Grace and Bloom, but she was plagued with a strange illness…
"My illness!?" Aveline gasped, recalling the worst part of her dream.
She had fainted at Damien's birthday dinner in the Ashford family mansion. She had lost a lot of weight by then. Elias Hawthorne had told her that she was probably in the last stage of her illness, hence she wasn't recovering, and her body wasn't responding to any treatment.
"Birthday is in August… Four more months!" Aveline immediately decided to visit a doctor first thing in the morning.
Wait… She hadn't met Elias Hawthrone until the day she fainted. How does she know him?
Does that person even exist?
Aveline's breath hitched. Her fingers curled into the sheets, but they felt like air. A cold sweat trickled down her spine, and for a moment, she thought she might faint. No. She had to stay calm. She had to think.
Accurately recalling Elias Hawthorne was a junior doctor of the Ashford family from Lifeline Hospital, she immediately browsed the Lifeline Hospital website and clicked on 'Doctors.'
She scrolled down, and his picture appeared.
Dr. Elias Hawthorne
Specialist: Neurosurgeon & General Physician
Experience: 8+ years
Hospital: Lifeline Medical Center, Velmora
Her eyes blurred as another memory slammed into her. The cold sting of a needle. Elias's voice, low and venomous—"You just won't die, will you?" Her stomach twisted violently.
Aveline's breath turned ragged. Her fingers clenched the mobile tightly.
"This doesn't make sense… This— This–" Aveline stammered as she recalled the tragedies she went through.
Laurent Lifestyle went down in the year of her wedding. She had fallen critically ill… And her friend… her best friend Scarlett lost her life in an accident.
She wanted to change the future, she didn't want to watch her family lose everything. She didn't want to lose her best friend. She didn't want to die of illness… No, she was murdered.
Murdered by Elias Hawthrone and Vivienne Sinclair.
'I need to protect my family, my best friend, and myself…' But her body refused to stop trembling.
How was she going to change anything?
Aveline swallowed hard. Would anybody believe it if she told them all these?
Or was she losing her mind?
Aveline slapped her cheeks repeatedly. "What if Elias Hawthorne's image was just a coincidence, and I'm overthinking?"
The more Aveline tried to understand her situation, the more confused she became. "Should I speak with Damien?"
Damien was cool-headed. She believed he could guide her with everything, including this confusion. So she got off the bed and sprinted out of the bedroom to the study room.
However, she abruptly paused when she saw Damien run out of the study room, phone pressed to his ear. "Damie…" Her gentle voice faded when she heard him speaking over the phone.
"Love, I'm coming right away. Stay right there." His voice was frantic, urgent.
Without looking over his shoulder, Damien rushed out of the villa as though his life was on the line.
Aveline: "..."
'Love!?'
Damien addressing someone so affectionately felt like a stab in her gut when he never called her that.
Irrespective of whether she traveled back in time or it was a dream, Damien was always calm as though he could handle anything and everything.
Even when his grandmother had a heart attack and Elias Hawthorne informed them Aveline was slowly dying, Damien didn't look as worried as he did while running out of the villa. Aveline had assumed he was just too cool-headed to handle any situation.
Her fingers twitched. Should she run after him? Ask him? Demand answers?
But the way he left, rushed, urgent, felt different. Felt… wrong.
Damien had never looked that desperate. Not even when she was dying in the hospital.
The realization sank like ice in her veins.
Then her limbs moved on their own, grabbing the car keys.
The midnight streets of Velmora were empty, yet her hands clenched the steering wheel tighter, her knuckles turning white. Damien's tail lights gleamed ahead, cutting through the darkness like a beacon.
Aveline's breath hitched, struggling to race behind him.
"Who are you so worried about, Damien?" Aveline mumbled, trying hard not to overthink.
But the question drilled her mind.
'Who?'