Chapter 257: To Be Back
After sending a flurry of messages and making the necessary arrangements, Catherine immediately dialed Dorian.
Her fingers trembled around the phone.
Her chest felt painfully tight, as though something heavy had been lodged inside it, making every breath difficult.
Maybe she had made the wrong choice. Maybe leaving Maximilian and staying beside Dorian had been a mistake from the very beginning.
What if... What if he had suffered another brain bleed because she wasn’t there?
The thought was irrational, and she knew it. Yet guilt had never listened to reason.
The call connected.
"Dorian..." Her voice cracked before she could steady it. "Daddy’s sick."
The lie came easily. The tears... did not.
"Can I visit him?" she whispered. "I... I just want to see him."
She knew her family would not appreciate her father being used as an excuse. Ordinarily, neither would she.
But she could barely think anymore. Her mind was no longer in Blackwood Manor, it was beside a hospital operating table where Maximilian was fighting for his life.
Guilt flickered through her. She hated using her father as an excuse. Still... if he knew why she was doing it, he would forgive her. So would the rest of her family.
"I’ll come back tomorrow," she hurried on, wiping her cheeks. "He’s just had a surgery, and... I just... I need to see him while I still can."
On the other end of the line, Dorian remained silent. His grip slowly tightened around his phone.
Laurel Hollows.
The one place he could never truly reach.
Every attempt to establish influence there had failed spectacularly. The Prestons had built more than a family estate.
They had built a fortress.
The county’s officials had grown up alongside the Prestons. The ranch hands, neighboring farmers, merchants, even the local mechanics—all of them treated the family with an almost instinctive loyalty. Outsiders were watched the moment they crossed into the county.
He had tried surveillance.
The drones his men flew over the property never made it back. They were shot from the sky before transmitting anything useful.
He had tried sending men through the surrounding hills. Most returned scratched and bleeding after running into wolves.
The few who ventured closer discovered another problem... Wild horses that tolerated only familiar riders... Cowboys who noticed every unfamiliar truck within minutes... Ranch dogs that barked long before strangers reached the boundaries.
Even the Prestons themselves proved infuriatingly difficult to monitor. They preferred face-to-face conversations whenever possible, avoided smart devices, and treated modern technology with enough suspicion that hacking them was nearly impossible.
Laurel Hollows was a dead zone.
The only reason his previous plan had succeeded was because one of the Prestons had ordered a vehicle from outside the county. That single opening had allowed his people to tamper with the car and manipulate the construction truck that caused the collision.
The outcome had differed from what he originally intended.
But Maximilian had died. That much had worked in his favor.
Now Catherine wanted to return there.
Once she entered Laurel Hollows, she would disappear from his sight completely. For an entire day, he would have nothing but her word regarding where she went or whom she met.
His gaze drifted toward Jonathan Vale, who still stood in front of his desk, clutching the stack of research papers covered in Catherine’s handwriting.
Even from across the room, Dorian could see Jonathan’s defeated expression.
Weeks of dead ends... Resolved in a single morning.
Perhaps... She had earned a small reward.
"Fine," Dorian finally said. "Go."
Catherine closed her eyes. Relief nearly buckled her knees. "Thank you."
"I’ll expect updates."
"I will."
The call ended.
Twenty-four hours.
That was more than enough.
Enough time to reach Laurel Hollows. Enough time to get to the hospital. Enough time...
To be beside Maximilian.
She packed alone. No one offered to help. No one asked whether she needed anything for the journey.
She booked a taxi herself, collected her luggage herself, and quietly left Blackwood Manor without a single person walking her to the door.
As the taxi rolled toward the airport, another memory surfaced unbidden.
The day she got the call to return home because her father had a heart attack. She had been so frightened that she could scarcely think straight.
She remembered Maximilian standing beside her the entire time, saying little, yet somehow anticipating every need before she voiced it. He had arranged everything, held her hand, spoken with doctors, handled the calls she couldn’t bring herself to make, and stayed close enough that whenever she looked around in panic...
He was simply there.
A steady presence.
An anchor.
Today...
Dorian hadn’t even asked what was wrong with her father. Not his symptoms. Not which hospital. Not whether she needed company.
Nothing.
Catherine lowered her gaze to her clasped hands. She wasn’t disappointed.
She had long since stopped expecting compassion from him.
Still... The difference between the two men had never felt more painfully obvious.
By the time she reached the private terminal, her mind held only one thought.
She boarded the jet without looking back.
Maximilian... I’m coming.
-----
Sebastian knocked lightly before pushing open the bedroom door.
Bernice sat cross-legged on the bed, completely surrounded by papers. Several notebooks lay open around her, formulas covered the margins, and a tablet displayed Catherine’s previous research. She was scribbling furiously, stopping every few seconds only to erase something before writing again.
"Still not finished?" Sebastian asked.
He set a steaming mug of coffee beside her. She didn’t even seem to notice he had entered.
"I have too many questions," she muttered, absentmindedly flipping another page. "There are three different ways this pathway could work, and I don’t know which one Dr. Preston intended. I need to ask her..."
Only then did she finally look up.
The moment she saw Sebastian standing beside her, the crease between her brows disappeared.
A smile slowly bloomed across her face.
Sebastian smiled back before leaning down to kiss her.
Bernice welcomed him immediately, wrapping an arm around his neck as she returned the kiss with equal affection.
When they finally drew apart, Sebastian rested his forehead against hers.
"You’ve been buried in research all day," he murmured.
Bernice’s eyes wandered over him, lingering on the tailored charcoal suit he had worn back from the hospital.
"You clean up nicely," she said with an appreciative smile. "I almost forgot how good you look in a suit."
"Oh?" Sebastian chuckled. "So you like me dressed up."
His voice lowered playfully.
"Would you like to compare that opinion with me out of the suit?"
Bernice laughed, giving his chest a gentle shove. "You’ve become awfully confident."
"I’ve been told confidence is attractive."
"It depends who’s wearing it."
She tugged lightly at the front of his shirt, amusement dancing in her eyes before another kiss naturally found its way between them. Her fingers had barely reached the second button of his shirt when a ringtone shattered the quiet.
Bernice froze.
Her eyes darted toward the bedside table.
The caller ID made her immediately straighten.
"Dr. Catherine."
It was a video call.
Without another thought, Bernice quickly smoothed her hair, straightened her clothes, and shoved Sebastian aside with surprising force.
Caught completely off guard, Sebastian stumbled backward two steps before regaining his balance.
Bernice didn’t even glance in his direction. She accepted the call at once.
"Dr. Preston."
The screen lit up to reveal Catherine’s face.
She looked exhausted, her eyes red from crying, but there was unmistakable determination burning beneath the fatigue.
"We don’t have much time," Catherine said without preamble. "Tell me exactly where you’re stuck."
Bernice’s expression brightened immediately. "I’ve been waiting to ask you about that."
She reached for her notes before Catherine had even finished speaking.
Across the room, Sebastian quietly finished buttoning the shirt Bernice had almost succeeded in undoing.
Watching the two women disappear into an intense discussion of research, he couldn’t help smiling to himself.
He already knew how this would end.
For the next several hours... He simply didn’t exist.
But... His friend needs to be avenged.