Chapter 2

Kevin Cannavale arrived quickly; even earlier than the police. He carried Emilie out from the car and wrapped her in his suit jacket. He carefully moved her into his own car. Emilie couldn't stop trembling, so he hugged her as tightly as he could while putting his lips at her ear and consoling her, "It's okay, Emi, Emi, it's okay, I'm here. The police will be here very soon, once they're here I'll bring you to the hospital."

The police arrived soon after. The lights on top of the police car shone flashed rapidly as the officer carried the corpse of the thin man out from inside the car. They put the body in the bag and took it away. A female police officer came over to check on Emilie and tried to get more information about what happened. Kevin Cannavale suppressed his anger while trying his best to control his emotions. "My girlfriend has been hurt, very, very badly," he said, "She needs to receive treatment at a hospital, now."

The female officer was very understanding. She quickly went to get someone to bring Emilie to the hospital. The police also allowed Kevin to remain by her side. Emilie's body gradually calmed down and she stopped trembling, but her voice was shockingly coarse and husky. "Don't tell my parents, don't let them know about this," she said repeatedly to Kevin.

Kevin's eyes were even redder than hers. He held her hand as tightly as he could and replied gently, "Yes, don't worry about it, I won't let them know. Don't worry, it's all okay, I'm here now."

It was almost as though Emilie's soul had been completely drained from the fight for her life. All that was left of her now was an empty shell of a body that simply obeyed the officers' instructions. She went through the checkup, had her injuries diagnosed, received treatment, and even answered the female officer's questions. Her gaze only livened up a little when she looked into Kevin's eyes. She mumbled and asked, "Kevin, did I just have a really bad nightmare?"

Kevin hugged her tightly and firmly answered, "It's just a bad nightmare, it'll be over very soon."

He had never lied to her, and this time seemed to be no different. Things kept getting better over the next few weeks. Every time he came over, she would receive good news. On the fifteenth day, he told her when he came to visit, "The man called Shaun has been caught by the police. All three of them were wanted criminals who have committed atrocious crimes. Every single one of them has committed murder. A death sentence would be merciful for them. It's okay, Emi, nothing is going to happen to you."

Emilie was initially startled, then she wailed in immense pain. It was as though the terrifying fear looming over her heart finally had an opening to escape from. She sobbed, "I'm scared, Kevin, I'm really scared. I'm scared that that man will come back to take his revenge against me. You didn't see the look in his eyes... he's sure to kill me."

Kevin continued to hug her tightly. He told her with a slow and firm voice, "He won't. He can never come out to hurt you ever again. He will be sentenced to death. The lawyer said that there's no way he can escape the punishment of the law. Don't be afraid Emi, I'll be with you all the way. Once this is all over, we'll get married. We'll move into a bigger house, have two children, and we'll get a dog and a cat. Our home will always be lively and fun!"

Emilie's gaze landed on an empty spot as she spaced out. The image that he had described slowly unraveled before her eyes.

"It's alright, Emi. Time will heal all of this. Slowly, there will be one day when the nightmare will be forgotten," Kevin said gently.

...

Four years later, Southton City.

Southton was a scenic city surrounded by mountains and rivers. It was historically known for its mesmerizing views and closeness to nature. Emilie's parents hadn't wanted to leave their hometown and move to a new place so close to their retirement. But the environment and scenery here were just too beautiful. On top of that, Emilie had settled here together with her husband. In the end, the two of them decided to sell the house in their hometown and move to Southton City together with their daughter.

Their new house was just across the street from Emilie's current estate. It was only a 10-minute walk away, separated by a road that was not very wide. Even Kevin joked about how close they were. "Well, my in-laws are nearby, which is convenient. But I can already see you getting sick of your parents' nagging and griping about them to me."

Emilie glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. She curled her legs up on the couch as she continued to flip the magazine slowly. She intentionally dragged her voice out in a childish, lethargic way, "Hubby, I spent all my salary this month again, I don't even have money for my beauty salon membership."

A helpless smile appeared on Kevin's face, he said, "Milady, Madam Emilie, your poor hubby's salary card is in your hands. Do you even need to run it by me to spend my money?"

"Well, I think I still gotta tell you about it first." Emilie smiled at him. She reached her leg out and kicked Kevin playfully. "Oh right, by the way, Kevin, when are we going to the hospital for the fertility checkup? They say that the guy should get checked out as well. If both of us are healthy, then the baby will be strong and healthy too!"

They were married now for two years. After experiencing the sweet honeymoon period where they wanted to stick with each other 24 hours a day, they were now preparing for a baby.

"Whether there are any problems with my body..." Kevin grabbed her leg that was being a little naughty and started massaging her with just the right amount of pressure. He said in a very suggestive tone, "Aren't you already clear about that?"

Emilie chuckled at his reply. She kicked him lightly again and said, "Get off. If you're not going to go to the hospital, then I won't go too!"

Kevin always listened to whatever Emilie said. Two days later, he followed her to the hospital and they did the fertility checkup together. Both of them were healthy. The doctor prescribed some vitamin supplements for Emilie while she was preparing to get pregnant. By the time the two of them walked out of the hospital, it was already noon. After having a simple lunch together, Kevin left to drive to his workplace. Emilie on the other hand, walked around the shopping center for a while before leisurely driving back to school.

The school that she was working at wasn't very big and had only recently been upgraded to a university. The school squeezed out every last bit of resource to establish a few more faculties, but they didn't have enough office buildings in the school compound. So, they stuffed the teaching staff of several different faculties all into one building. As usual, Emilie parked her car under the shade of a tree behind the staff office building. When she got down from the car, a black SUV drove in and parked right next to her.

This car looked unfamiliar to Emilie. It didn't seem to belong to any of the staff at school. Emilie slowed down her footsteps and took a few more glances at it.

The car door opened and a man wearing sunglasses stepped out. He was dressed in a button-down shirt and jeans, was tall and lean, and looked quite slim. However, Emilie was a veteran at the gym, so she could tell that this guy had the classic physique that was a lot more muscular when his clothes were off. Although he looked slender, there was a good chance that the man had steel-forged abs hidden under his clothes.

But she wasn't interested in him at all. She loved Kevin with all her heart, to the point that she barely noticed any other man. In her eyes, their faces were blurred and vague, and it didn't matter to her whether they were handsome or ugly.

The man rested his arm on the car door and looked at her, then asked calmly, "Hi miss, may I know if the office of the School of Foreign Languages is located in this building?"

His voice was very unique. It was low and magnetic, but there was a chilling coolness that was hard to describe with words. It should be a voice that would be very pleasant to hear in the heat of summer. But when it landed on Emilie's ears, it sent chills down her spine. For an instant, those distant memories that she had buried into the deepest recesses of her memories reappeared again.

Under the moonlight, the man's razor-sharp gaze swept across her face. His expression was akin to that of ice as he said, "Make it clean, don't leave anything behind that can come back to bite us."

She could never forget that voice for the rest of her life.

Emilie felt as though she had just seen a ghost. The word "help" was stuck in her throat and she couldn't spit it out no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was stare at the man in crippling fear as she frantically stepped back, away from him. In her panic, the heel of her shoe plunged into the gap between the bricks on the ground and she lost her balance. She fell with a heavy thud.

The man reached up and took off his sunglasses as he walked toward her. He asked, "Miss, are you alright?"

Emilie continued shifting backwards. She screamed in terror, "Don't come here! Don't come near me! There're many people here, they'll come over immediately!"

The man had no choice but to stop in his steps. He smiled helplessly and tried to explain to her, "Miss, I don't know what caused you to have such a reaction upon seeing me, but I don't mean any harm. If I'm causing this much distress to you, I'm very sorry about it, I'll leave right now."

As he spoke, he slowly stepped back away from her. Then he tilted his body downward and asked her, "Are you sure you're going to be alright on your own? Do you need me to get someone else here to help you?"

Emilie didn't speak, she curled her body up and looked at him with great fear and caution in her eyes.

"Okay, okay! I got it, I'll leave right now," the man consoled her gently. He raised his wrist and took a look at his watch, then pointed at his car and added, "Miss, I'll probably be back in about half an hour to drive the car away."

With that, he walked away in big strides.

The sun was bright and the weather was warm, but Emilie felt like she had just come out from a frozen river in the Arctic. She was so cold that she was shivering. She was still on the ground, her skirt caked in dust and her palm hurting from the abrasion when she scraped her skin against the ground. But Emilie couldn't care about such things. Her hand trembled as she took out her phone from her purse and dialed Kevin's number.

"He's here! He's found me! He's here!" She was in shock, and all she could do was to keep repeating herself.

"Who?" Kevin asked.

She answered in panic, "It's him! I saw him! He's come back to find me!"

It was almost as though time had reverted to many years ago. She had woken up countless times from her sleep in tears and cold sweat. She would tell him in a panic that "they" were coming to find her. Kevin went silent for a brief moment, then consoled her gently again, "Emi, Emi, it's all okay. They're all dead now, all three of them. Don't be afraid, tell me, where are you right now?"

Perhaps her husband's deep, calm voice helped her to relax, or maybe it was the bright warm rays of sun in the heat of summer that slowly chased away the bone-chilling coldness she was feeling. Emilie gradually calmed down and answered, "I'm at school, right behind the faculty office building."

"Is there anyone around you?" Kevin asked.

She looked around her. She saw a lot of people walking across the junction a distance away. A student saw her sitting on the ground, and was slowly approaching her.

"A student is coming over," she replied.

Kevin let out a gentle laugh and joked, "Quick, wipe your face, or your students might laugh at you. The weather is really hot today, did you get a bit of heat exhaustion and mistake him for Shaun Breyne?"

That was a very convincing and logical explanation of what had just happened. "Maybe," Emilie answered, though still a little hesitant. Before she could hang up, the boy who had come over to check on her asked, "Ms. Audron, are you alright?"

Emilie knew this student. He was a junior who majored in English Language Arts. He was also a member of the student union and often came to the faculty office to help out. "I'm fine, I'm alright," she replied to him. Emilie hurriedly said goodbye to Kevin over the phone, then explained to the student after hanging up, "I wasn't watching my feet and twisted my ankle by accident."

An embarrassed smile appeared on her face as she struggled to stand on her own.

The student quickly came forward to help her up. He asked, "Can you still walk? Do you need to go to the hospital to get it checked?"

Emilie's heels weren't very high, so the sprain wasn't too bad. She stood at the spot and tried to move her feet around a little, then stepped lightly on the ground. Although it hurt slightly, it wasn't anything too serious. She waved her hand and politely refused the student's help as he tried to support her as she walked. She slowly headed for the faculty office building. The moment she entered the office, a colleague called to her, "Ms. Audron! Great timing, the parents of a student would like to see you."

She raised her head and only to see that man. He had his hands in his pockets and was leaning against the window. He turned and looked to the door. When his gaze landed on Emilie, her first reaction was to run straight out and get out of this place. But it was as though she was being stared at by her natural predator. She froze, unable to move.

On the other hand, he nodded lightly at her and greeted her in a polite, amiable manner, "Ms. Audron, nice to meet you."

Emilie's colleague didn't notice her strange behavior. She continued to introduce the man; "He is the elder relative of a student in your class. He's here to help his sister with the necessary procedures to leave the school."

Emilie didn't speak as she fixed her stare on the man before her.

There were two voices in fierce conflict inside her head. One screamed hysterically at her, "It's him, that's the guy who tried to kill you! They have the same voice, and they look exactly the same!"

But there was another voice of logic and reason telling her, "Emilie, you need to calm down. That man has already been sentenced to death, and Kevin has confirmed his death. A dead person cannot come back to life. This is another person, someone completely unrelated. He just happens to look very similar to that man."

The man laughed a little and appeared rather helpless. He said, "Ms. Audron, I'm not a tiger, I don't eat people. I'm Audrey Clendon's cousin, my name is Ian Tournox. Here, this is my ID card." As he spoke, he pulled out his wallet and took out the card. He walked toward Emilie and tried to pass the card to her so she could have a look at it.

Emilie subconsciously shrunk back. Ian Tournox noticed her action, so he halted midway and bent forward to place the ID card on the table between the two of them. He then gestured to her and said, "You may check it."

Emilie's colleague was utterly confused. He looked at Emilie, rather perplexed, as he asked, "Ms. Audron, what's the matter?"

Emilie didn't answer. She picked up the ID card from the table and glanced cautiously at the man standing in front of her. Then she looked down to examine the card. His name was Ian Tournox, male, 28 years old. The address on the ID card was located in Southton. The photo of the man looked very young. It seemed to have been taken when he had just entered his twenties. He had rather ordinary, short hair, and his face was quite handsome and rather gentle-looking.

She even checked the back of the ID. The date of issue was written there. She roughly calculated the time. It was indeed issued when he was around 20, which would match the photo on the front.

This young man seemed warm and gentlemanly, and really didn't carry himself like a criminal who grew up in a gang.

Emilie quietly heaved a sigh of relief as she calmed down. She returned the ID card to him and said apologetically, "I'm sorry Mr. Tournox, I'm at fault here. I may have caused a bit of a misunderstanding, I'm very sorry about it."

Ian Tournox smiled faintly, he didn't ask what the misunderstanding was about. Instead, he quickly got to the point and explained why he was here today. "Ms. Audron, Audrey has been frequently absent from school because of her medical condition. Her family has discussed this and has decided to have her take a year off to receive treatment overseas. Her family is in another city so her parents couldn't come over. They requested that I help her with the process on their behalf."

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