Legacy World 5.14
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It was one of the rare nights that Austin spent his time staring at the thank you note that Eva gave him 4 months ago.

After spending a considerable amount of time away from her, he felt more ready to make the decision. He was not sure if he would stop having a soft spot for Eva but it did not feel right to pursue a future with her. Something told him that choosing his parents was the right decision to make. All the plans he had with regards to getting to know her better and to prepare for a possible future with her went down the drain.

He slowly crumpled the paper in his hands to signify the end of his affections for her. While he did so, he felt like he was crushing his own heart. Tears trickled down his face as he put his head down on his folded arms that were resting on the table.

He did not know when he fell asleep, but he did.

In his dreams, he saw Eva dressed in the same black garments that she wore on the evening he caught her family. She was also in the same bloody and injured state as that evening. His heart ached as bad as it did that evening. Just as he wanted to apologise to her for choosing to let her go, she suddenly dropped down onto the floor. His heart dropped in terror and he immediately ran to her. "Eva!!"

Lots of blood was gushing out of her wounds. Her body was turning colder and colder. "No no no no, stop bleeding. Stop!"

However, the blood continued to flow freely. He could feel his legs getting wet by the warm blood. He could not stop crying as he stared into Eva's increasingly lifeless eyes. The longer he stared into them, the more he felt sucked into them. Eventually, he was unable to tear his gaze away from her eyes even when he tried to. Different voices that he did not recognise but somehow felt that it was him echoed in the darkness surrounding them.

I'm sorry... I promise to protect you and make you happy.

I'll fight myself if I have to! I'll fight against the heavens if I have to!

What's the use of this power if I couldn't protect her? What's the point?!

Wait for me... We'll hopefully be reborn into a different world, a different dimension, where we can be together.

Suddenly the voices that were echoing over one another started to meld into one until its messages were no longer decipherable. Finally, a voice that sounded just like his shouted out. Fight it! You can't fail her again!

He woke up with a start. His eyes were wide open and wet with tears. Panting, he sat up straight and stared at the crumpled paper that was still in his hand. Suddenly, he threw it onto the table and ran out of his study in a rush. He first went to the room he first brought Eva to but she was not there. Where is- Tsk!

He ran off to the west wing as soon as he realised that Edwin probably moved her to the servants' quarters. Edwin left out that detail, expecting it to be self-explanatory since she started working as a maid. While he was wallowing in his self-pity, he had been negligent in the details of his instructions to Edwin. He hated himself a lot for exhibiting such sloppy behaviour.

He reached the west wing in no time only to find the familiar figure in another man's arms. He came to a full stop in shock. Still feeling emotional from the dream, he immediately growled, "What are you doing?"

The man turned around in shock. "Sir! She suddenly collapsed!" As if to prove it, he shook the unconscious Eva in his arms like a rag doll.

Austin experienced a flashback to the dream he just had and terror filled him. He ran to take Eva from Drey's arms. "Let Edwin know. Tell him to look after the place."

He immediately ran to the stables and got her on the horse with him. It would be faster to treat her at the doctor's place than to wait for the doctor to arrive.

After a short ride, Austin jumped off the horse then took Eva to a decent looking cottage.

The ruckus that resulted form his insistent and loud door knocking quickly woke the resident up. Lights were turned on almost immediately following the knocking and an untidy middle aged man soon stood at the entrance of the house. "Austin?"

"Treat her."

The doctor looked down at the pale and frail woman in his arms. "You know where to go." The doctor moved to the side to let Austin into his house.

While the doctor ran a full body checkup, his wife gave Austin a cup of tea to calm his nerves. However, Austin held onto the hot cup without taking a sip from it. His attention was wholly on the unconscious Eva. Understanding that it was unlikely that he would drink from it, the doctor's wife helpfully took the cup from Austin's hand before he unknowingly burnt himself.

Finally, the doctor started to put Eva on a drip while explaining her condition. "She seems to be badly malnourished. She has a slight fever which I suspect is just some minor infection somewhere. Where exactly did you find this poor girl? Has she been mistreated? She looks so haggard, I doubt she got any proper rest either."

"... ... ...My mansion." Austin answered after a long pause.

The doctor was stunned silent for a short while too. He did not expect that something like that would occur in Austin's well-maintained mansion. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Austin sighed heavily. He really did not understand how Edwin judged her condition as fine when she looked anything but that. He was very bothered by how much lighter she weighed in his arms and how much skinnier she felt.

"Just to be safe, I'll have to conduct further checks after she is conscious again."

"Mm." Austin stood by her bed silently with a mournful expression. They were in the room where the doctor's children used to sleep in before they moved out after growing up.

The doctor moved a chair to the bedside for Austin to sit and handed him his cup of tea. "Oh come on, she's not dying. Her condition's not life threatening either. Just relax."

The doctor watched Austin with a raised eyebrow. He was still tense. "I've never seen you lose your calm no matter how badly injured you were. To think I'd get to see you like that thanks to a young girl. Who's she?"

When Austin did not reply, he continued to probe. "A lover?"

Just when he thought Austin would not reply again, Austin spoke. "It's complicated." After a short pause, he suddenly added. "But she's mine."

The doctor leaned back in his chair with wide eyes. "Why're you looking at me like that? Oh please, I'm old enough to be your father, and hers. And I have a wife. Or are you scared that I'd introduce her to my son?" When Austin glared at him even more, the doctor started laughing. "I see that's it. Little Austin is learning to get jealous and possessive, huh? If only Benjamin and Jasmine could see this."

When he saw Austin turn his gaze back to Eva and a frown forming, he knew that Austin still had trouble letting go. The doctor sighed animatedly. "And here I was thinking that I'd never get to see dear little Austin again now that you caught their killers. I have to thank this little girl."

Austin did not say anything.

The doctor sighed an inaudible sigh. "So, who's the girl?"

Austin still refused to reply. Taking the hint that Austin no longer wished to converse, he left the room. "Call me if anything happens."

Eva slept peacefully under Austin's watchful gaze. BaoBao was feeling elated now that he was sure that Austin has OOC-ed for sure. However, he was now worried if even Austin could handle how Eva was now. Nonetheless, he could only hope.

Just as dawn broke, Eva was taken off the drip but she remained fast asleep.

"You can take her back to rest properly now. I'll go along." Austin nodded and went out to see that a carriage has been sent here by Edwin to bring them back.

Upon reaching the mansion, Austin did not speak a word to a guilty looking Edwin and brought her straight to the room that he first kept her in. After carefully tucking her into bed, he left the room while the doctor stayed in the room with Eva.

Edwin was already waiting outside the room with an expression like he was ready to be slaughtered. There was not a servant in sight because Edwin has made sure that they stay confined to the west wing for now before further questioning and investigations were to be carried out.

Austin knew that Edwin handled everything efficiently and well. However, he could not stop the bubbling anger inside him. "Are your eyes just for show?"

"I'm sorry. I have no excuses for my oversight." Edwin bowed down low.

Austin clenched his fists tightly. After a long pause, he finally spoke again. "Fill me in with everything you know thus far."

"Sir...?" Edwin asked hesitantly as he slowly raised his head.

"I can't pin all the blame on you. I'm also at fault."

"No no!" Edwin immediately shut his mouth when he saw Austin frown deeply in response. He started to fill Austin in with the details without waiting to be prompted another time.

"Leave the rest to me. Keep them confined there in the meantime." Austin's tone was bitingly cold that it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Understood."

Austin returned to his room to take a shower in the attached bathroom. While taking a cold shower, he punched the wall hard as he could no longer hold back his anger. She got up in the middle of the night to eat? If she did things like that would she be this malnourished? Would she be in this state? Idiots!

After he calmed down somewhat, he returned back to Eva's room. It was just in time to see her stir in her sleep.

She frowned and seemed to be in pain. She eventually woke up and in her groggy state, she did not realise that she was no longer in the servant's quarters, much less realise that she was not alone. She clutched her stomach as she experienced the sharp pain that was becoming a normal occurrence.

"What's wrong?" Austin asked as he approached her.

She froze in shock and looked up at Austin in disbelief.

The doctor was the next to approach. "How frequent does your stomach hurt?"

She shook her head.

"It doesn't hurt?"

She shook her head again.

"Do you feel nauseous?"

She shook her head yet again.

The doctor smiled gently and thanked her.

BaoBao secretly cried to himself. It's all lies! Please catch this liar and treat her already!!

The doctor looked at Austin and left the room. Austin caught the drift and followed him out of the room.

"She's lying." The doctor pointed out.

"Mm, I can see that too."

"I don't know what's going on but I can only guess her condition unless she confirms her symptoms with me. Either way, she'd likely refuse treatment."

"What do you suspect?"

"A stomach ulcer."

"Is that something serious?"

"It depends on what caused it."

While they were discussing about Eva's health, BaoBao was secretly cheering to himself. They knew! They knew!

Austin decided that it was high time for him to confront Eva directly. He went to his study, got a pencil and notebook then went back into her room. After roughly placing the pencil and paper onto the table by the window, he carefully carried her and placed her on the chair at the table.

Because BaoBao was not updating her of anything in defiance, Eva was left completely clueless about her current situation.

"Why're you being like this?"

She frowned to convey her lack of understanding, which Austin somehow understood.

"Why aren't you eating well? Why aren't you resting properly? Why do you lie about your health?"

"Why're you treating me so nicely?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here."

"Then punish me for being defiant."

"Punish you? Since when were you a masochist? You didn't appear like one before. Did you lose your mind after finding out the truth about your family?"

"You're the one being weird for not punishing me. Did you forget? I'm the daughter of the person that killed your parents. I have a part to play in your parents' death."

"I didn't forget." He clenched his teeth.

"Then why?"

"I should be the one asking you that! Why do you seem more eager about punishing yourself then I should be?!"

Eva started to reveal things that he implicitly knew but did not dare to face. "I knew my parents would kill your parents since I was 7. I didn't stop them. I knew you were hunting my parents down but I hid the fact from you. I even lied to you and threw you off on purpose. I'm the one who was always helping my parents escape your clutches. I completely had you in the palm of my hand."

Eva kept taunting him and poking his sore spot over and over. No longer able to bear it, he grabbed the table and tossed it to the other side of the room.

"Enough!"

A long silence dragged on between them. Austin's chest was still heaving in anger. With barely contained rage, he asked Eva, "That isn't all, is it?" He looked at her with rage clearly reflected in his eyes. "That's not the real reason why you wish to be punished so badly. Why? Why are you trying to make me so angry? Why are you trying to make me hate you so much?"

Eva stubbornly looked at him.

He stomped towards her and grabbed her roughly by her shoulders. He then said through gritted teeth, "Do you think I'll just give you what you want with all that you're guilty for? If you still refuse to say the truth, I'll treat you sickeningly well to the day you die. Just watch me."

Eva's eyes were round in shock. Why? Why? After all the provocation, why doesn't he hate me? It doesn't make sense.

Seeing that she still showed no intention to revealing anything, he let go of her and headed towards the door.

After a moment's hesitation, Eva rushed to him and grabbed onto his white shirt to hold him back. Austin stopped in his tracks and turned his head back to look at her coldly. She then hastily went to where the notebook and pencil laid and began writing on the floor. The more she wrote, the more tears welled up in her eyes and it gradually spilled over.

"I'm just a deluded stupid girl who did all the things for the wrong people. The signs were clear to me, I simply refused to believe it, I continued to lie to myself, and hurt you... Hurt Lady Esmeralda... Whoever that really, truly, cared about me. Why am I not being punished? Why am I being let off? You can't let me off like that. Someone like me don't deserve to be treated nicely. Don't be so nice to me. I don't deserve it."

Eva shoved the notebook into his line of sight, blocking out her crying face from his view.

Austin stood there with his brow creased deeply in a frown. He had a face that looked like he was also holding back tears of his own.

"And how is that any of your fault...? It's normal for any child to want to be loved by his or her family... It's normal to be misled in your situation... And people make mistakes... Why're you blaming yourself like that...? If others can't forgive you, that's one thing. Why're you so hard on yourself...?"

He lightly pushed the notebook down to see her face. It was streaked with tears still flowing freely from her eyes. She slowly shook her head as if she was in denial of something.

For some reason or other, his heart felt equally broken and frustrated. He collapsed down onto the ground with her. He sat with his legs bent, elbows on his knees, and hid his head between his arms. Hearing the non-stop sniffles by his side, he turned his head to look at Eva who looked so broken. Tears welled up in his eyes as well. He slowly got onto his knees then roughly and quickly gathered her crying figure into his arms.

Eva cried harder, shook her head vigorously to refuse him, and tried to resist his embrace. However, he continued to hold on tightly to her like she was his driftwood in an open sea.

"For now. Just for now. Let's forget about who we are. Let us just... be." His voice cracked as he whispered out those words into her ear. His tears were finally falling together with hers.

Eva suddenly stopped struggling upon hearing his words. Her fingers slowly dug into his shirt as she registered what he said. Then like a newborn baby, she wailed and cried out in pain. He hugged her even tighter and she hugged him back. They clung to each other like they were each other's only lifeline.

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