Chapter 18
When Nolan was accompanying Alicia to take photos on the snowy mountain, they heard a commotion not far away.
The morning mist at the top of the snow–capped mountain was shattered by the sound of the bell, and the bronze sacred chant reverberated layer by layer between the valleys.
Marcus’s hoarse shout mixed with the dull sound of the morning bell: “Ally!”
Alicia shrank back involuntarily, but felt Nolan place the still warm olive wood in her palm. The warmth in his eyes turned into cold ice. “Don’t be afraid,” he said.
Marcus looked haggard, with bloodshot eyes and a stubble on his jaw, which was unusual for someone who always paid attention to his appearance. His clothes were also disheveled.
The suit at his knee was already soaked with dark red blood, and through the tattered fabric, the gruesome wound behind it could be seen oozing.
“Ally, I was willing to spend all my wealth, to visit three thousand chapels… The sobbing that rolled out of Marcus’s throat startled the snow on the branches, and the blood on Marcus’s forehead seemed to stain the prayer banner red.”
“I only wished that my Ally could come home with me…”
In the lingering echoes of the morning bell, the winding bloodstains beneath his knees spread out on the snow, blooming into eerie blood
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Chapter 18
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flowers.
His deep eyes were filled with a deep plea, white mist escaping from his cracked lips, mixed with a bloody smell, clinging to the hem of her skirt.
“Please, Ally…”
Nolan’s fingers suddenly tightened, and the sandalwood beads on his wrist collided with the olive wood in Alicia’s palm, making a clear sound.
Alicia’s paintbrush fell onto the snow, the tip of the paint blending with the melted snow.
Nolan wrapped her trembling fingertips in the robe, the cold scent of Frankincense on the chasuble rising into the air. The snowflakes clinging to his fingertips grazed Marcus’s neck artery.
“Have you ever thought about the current situation when you bullied her together with Mandy for three years?”
His fingertips were covered with crushed snow, gently brushing away the faint frost on Alicia’s trembling eyelashes.
Today, Alicia is already my wife. Considering Alicia’s past relationship with you, I didn’t want to argue with you in the first place.
Nolan frowned slightly, “But I didn’t know that Mr. Daston had actually been bothering my wife multiple times.”
Ally, I was wrong in the past. I shouldn’t have bullied you with Mandy…
Marcus looked up at Alicia, who was huddled in her robe, and reached out to her. “Ally, can we go back to the way things were?”
Chapter 18
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Wrapped in the robe still warm with Nolan’s temperature, Alicia seemed to muster up courage.
She got up and walked towards Marcus, who was kneeling in front of her, and held his blood–stained hand.
Marcus’s eyes suddenly lit up, but Alicia just smiled lightly in front of him and said, “Mr. Daston, can a broken mirror be mended?”
She pressed the olive wood in her hand into the wound in his palm, watching him grimace in pain but refusing to pull his hand back.
“Just like you said to me back then, the people of the past cannot be brought back.”
In the distance, the incense lit by the pilgrims rose up in smoke, instantly overlapping with the burnt taste of plant juice mixed in memory. The various events that happened in the flower room that day turned into a nightmare of dark tides, rushing towards her…
“Do not… Alicia took a few steps back, the scar on her neck appearing even more dull and bright red in the morning light, the flames carrying with them a wave of heat, as if her skin was being licked by fire once again.”
TIME
Marcus wanted to get up and embrace her, but his hands were knocked away by her.
Nolan’s chasuble, covered in fine snow, fell as he approached and enveloped Alicia in a hug filled with Frankincense.
He pressed his palm against the icy back of her neck lightly, reciting scriptures mixed with warm breath falling on her ear.
Alicia suddenly screamed, her fingertips sinking deep into his wrist; in
THE
a daze, she seemed to see Marcus holding Mandy and leaving without looking back.
Marcus looked at the terrified expression on the face in front of him, and in the wide–open eyes was the look of despair.
“Ally… Marcus reached out to grab her waving arm, but Nolan knocked it away.”
Suddenly, a demon wind blew up in the snowy mountains. Nolan took three steps back, holding the fainting Alicia in his arms, and pressed his cool lips against her trembling eyelids.
“Seeing that the five aggregates are empty, all suffering is transcended.”
The scent of rust–tinged Frankincense suddenly pierced through the illusion, and Alicia’s pupils gradually focused.
She looked up at Nolan, only to collide with his eyes full of heartache.
She suddenly noticed the deep bite marks on his wrist – they were the ones she had bitten down on in a moment of stress.
“Marcus, take a good look, Nolan said, looking up at Marcus, his features barely discernible in the snow.”
In the past, you abandoned her in the fire and left her heart with such a shadow.
As they brushed past each other, Marcus heard Nolan coldly say to him
“This is your sin, the bitter fruit you have sown, to be repaid by you for the rest of your life.”
