Chapter 20
After staying in the snowy mountains for three months, she and Nolan set off for home.
JAG650 crossed through the stratosphere, the rosary beads on Nolan’s wrist casting a faint shadow over the merger documents.
Alicia looked at the man next to her, who was sliding his finger on a tablet computer with a silver ring on his hand. A gold chain hung down from his shirt collar, contrasting with the figure of the man wearing a white chasuble and twisting Frankincense rosary beads.
“This outfit is even more intimidating than the painted sculpture inside Guardian Sanctuary!”
Alicia jokingly exaggerated, her fingertips brushing over the grapevines and wheat embroidered on his cuff.
Nolan gently took off his wire–rimmed glasses and chuckled, revealing the small turquoise stud earring hanging from his left earlobe, gleaming in the light of the cabin ceiling lamp.
“If Ally wants to see, we have seven more sets of robes at home.”
Alicia ran barefoot to the easel by the bay window, holding a chalice filled with mineral pigments in her arms. Behind her, Nolan sighed helplessly, “It looks like we’re going to have to turn the prayer room into a studio.”
After the late–night merger meeting ended, Nolan stood in front of the renovated prayer room.
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The moonlight streamed in through the dismantled banner stand outside the window, as Alicia sat curled up on his former prayer bench, mixing paints.
The turquoise powder fell onto the scattered paper.
He silently undid his cufflinks, revealing the overlapping marks of old and new beads on his wrist, and gently draped the suit jacket over her shoulders.
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Nolan sat beside her, pulling her into his arms and gently kissing her forehead.
My great painter, you worked hard.
The evening sun of late spring streamed through the bay window, casting a gentle halo in Alicia’s porcelain palette.
She put down the scraper and looked out the window. The purple wisteria in the courtyard twisted endlessly, its stretched butterfly- shaped petals resembling purple butterflies, flying all the way into her heart.
“Nolan, I want to go out for a photo shoot,” Alicia suddenly turned around, the turquoise earrings brushing against the olive wood rosary that Nolan used to recite in the past.
The man who was reviewing the financial report paused, hist pen hovering in the air, as a gentle breeze lifted the title page of “The Book of Revelation” held down by a crystal paperweight.
He took off his gold–rimmed glasses, his left wrist rosary beads brushing against the sleeve of his suit. “Do you need me to accompany Ally?”
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Alicia smiled and held his shoulder as the bronze thurible on the table billowed smoke. “You don’t need to bother, my dear Mr. Keith,” she
said.
Nolan watched as she gradually walked away, feeling a sense of unease creeping over him.
The tulip field spread along the gentle slope in a colorful spectrum, with orange–red ribbons interweaving with goose–yellow satin flowing over the slope, shimmering with a velvety sheen in the spring sunlight.
The gentle breeze stirred ripples in the sea of flowers, with orange and yellow petals rubbing against each other, casting the shimmering spring colors onto Alicia’s white cotton skirt.
Alicia held her breath slightly, capturing the beautiful scenery in front of her in her sketchbook. The recording of Nolan chanting scriptures played in her Bluetooth earphones.
When she noticed the third shadow next to her, the silk scarf soaked in ether had already covered her mouth and nose.
At that moment, the rosary beads in Nolan’s hand suddenly snapped, and the wooden beads rolled all over the floor, making a clattering
sound.
When Alicia regained consciousness, the salty sea breeze was tearing at her.
The coldness of the iron chain piercing into the bone marrow emanated from her wrist. Her whole body was suspended outside the cliff by the sea, with thirty meters below her feet, dark waves crashing against the rugged rocks, creating dark foam.
When she saw the scene in front of her clearly, a wave of deep sorrow
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surged in her heart, as if a pair of hands reached into her body and tore her soul apart.
The rust–stained guardrail snaked forward, and on the cliff–side warning sign illuminated by lightning, the blue paint of the road sign had already become mottled.
But she still recognized this place…
”
Here… is the coastal road where Marcus, Callie, and she had a car accident in the past!
Three years ago, the piercing sound of the brakes in that car accident seemed to explode in my ears, while in the distance, there came the rumble of thunder from the clouds.
Ι
The torrential rain poured down, and the pouring rain seemed to have Alicia caught in the midst of a raging storm, unable to escape her fate no matter how hard she struggled.
Her disheveled black hair was stuck to her pale cheeks by the rain, her faded lips kept moving, and she shivered and shrank in the pouring rain.
“Save me… Nolan…”
