When There Is Nothing Left But Love
Chapter 657

Chapter 657

“I don’t have many hobbies of my own,” Armond said when I did not answer. “I just enjoy watchingpeople fulfill their promises to me. Since you had already promised me, it was only natural for me tocome and claim it.”

That seemed like a far-fetched reason to me.

“What about my arm?” I asked, determined to change the subject.

A bullet went through it. You’re d*mned lucky to be alive after all of it.

“It’s nothing,” Armond said. “Just rest up well. You’ll be fine, just not able to lift heavy objects is all.”

I pursed my lips at that but nodded.

A scuffle of footsteps outside made me panic, thinking it was Abe, but it was only the nurse here tochange my medication.

I had a lot more questions for Armond, but he seemed to be reluctant to discuss them with me. Withseveral more reticent answers, he took his leave.

Armond’s relationship with Abe is more complex than I had first imagined.

After some hot soup, I fell back asleep.

It was rainy in the tropics. Thunderstorms had a tendency to start at night and keep me awake withtheir fearsome and savage roars.

The hospital was sparsely populated, which made it even spookier during the late-night storms.

I had no way of falling asleep, so I thought to sit up for a bit. I attempted to pull myself into an uprightposition.

I must have swung overly hard and had knocked the bottle of saline solution to the floor with a loudcrash.

The doors swung open at the sound of the disturbance, and Danny entered the ward.

He frowned at the mess on the floor and turned to leave.

Soon after, he returned with a nurse who promptly cleaned it up. She relayed some instructions inbroken English and departed.

Danny glanced at me and turned to leave.

“Mr. Danny!” I called out suddenly.

“Yes, Ms. Stovall?” he spun around and answered politely.

“I’d like to know what is going on between Ashton and Abe.”

Danny frowned with reluctance. “Ms. Stovall, you need to rest,” he said after a moment’s pause.

He turned again to leave. In a moment of panic, I flung the glass of water onto the floor to get hisattention. “If you are going to threaten Ashton with my life, you should at least do me the courtesy oftelling me why. I just want to understand what my death is for.”

Danny was unhappy. “Ms. Stovall, you should treasure life!” he said, with his eye on the broken shardsof glass on the floor.

“Mr. Danny, I know you are not a native Venrian,” I said after a deep breath. “For whatever reason thatlanded you to be Abe’s associate, you must understand that after all the illegal things that you’ve done,you have your punishment awaiting you.”

He looked at me with amusement like I was a simpleton. Meanwhile, the nurse returned and cleanedup the shards.

Danny took a seat under the lamp. His dark skin glinted maliciously under the bright fluorescent as helooked at me. I suppressed my shudder at the sight of him.

“I’m not a religious man,” he said after a pause. “I don’t believe in retribution or punishment; you cantake your piousness someplace else away from us. Mr. Abe and Mr. Fuller share a grudge that ispersonal in nature. Your appearance was part of the plan. When you were in the car with Dante, theplan was already formalized by Mr. Abe.”

“We thought you were a Murphy, when the Murphys came looking for you. But when you said that theFullers, the Stovalls, and the Moores from K City will protect you, it was a clue that sparked our interestfor further investigation. There wasn’t much news of you back in Chanaea, but the fact that we were allable to pull this off with no casualties demonstrated that luck was on our side.”

“What conflict did Abe and Ashton have in the past?” I asked, trembling. I did not expect to be used asa pawn that early on.

Danny leaned back on his chair. “’Conflict’ is an understatement,” he drawled. “Old Mr. Fuller and Mr.Abe’s father were comrades during the war. One of whom returned to Chanaea to retire, the otherremained in Venria to defend its borders. The Fullers capitalized on their wartime glory to flourish andprosper, but Mr. Abe’s father didn’t fare too well out at the border. For the sake of his wife, he wasforced to make an honest but meager living. He did not expect that George Fuller and his grandsonwould one day come back and visit him, much less bring up his old indiscretions.”

I frowned. I did hear of Grandpa Fuller visiting his old comrade along with Ashton at the border. On theway back they were assaulted and have met the Larsons.

Parker Larson had entrusted his sister to Ashton’s care before he died. They remained married formany years. It was because of Rebecca that things happened between Ashton and me.

Little did I realize that I was dragged into the middle of this again.

“Did something happen to Mr. Abe’s father?” I asked.

Danny nodded. “He was a hero on the battlefield. Forced to live a life of increasingly conflictingchoices, his punishment was more severe than other men. To spare his wife and child the burdenwhich he bore, he killed himself.”

I was shocked with pity. My mind turned to the night I saw Ashton. He had spent a lot of money on thatnecklace. “What is up with that necklace?”