Better Late, But Never His Again novel Chapter 128

Hazel stepped out of the hallway just as Julian walked out of the kitchen, placing two mugs of hot milk on the coffee table.

Evelyn looked up at him with a sweet smile. "Thank you, Julian."

Julian turned. "Have a glass of hot milk, Hazel."

Hazel completely ignored him, marching straight toward Evelyn. "Did you sign for a letter addressed to me?"

Evelyn's hand froze halfway to the mug. She looked up, her face a mask of perfect confusion. "A letter? What letter?"

Julian frowned. "Someone wrote you a letter? Was it a man or a woman?"

Hazel ignored him as well. Her icy gaze remained fixed on Evelyn's face, her tone dropping to freezing temperatures. "Mrs. Gable said you signed for the packages yesterday. That means you took my letter. Where is it?"

Evelyn placed her mug back on the coffee table, knitting her brows together as if she were racking her brain to remember.

"I think I did receive a letter like that..."

Her voice carried a well-practiced hint of uncertainty. "I saw a name I didn't recognize on the envelope, thought it was delivered to the wrong address, so I threw it away."

Threw it away?

The moment those words reached Hazel's ears, it felt like she had been struck by lightning.

Every single sound in the room seemed to vanish in an instant, replaced by a deafening, hollow ringing in her ears.

She stood entirely paralyzed in place, her pupils dilating in sheer disbelief. "You threw it away?"

Evelyn looked visibly startled by her reaction. She shrank back into the sofa, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "Yes, I threw it away. Was it that important?"

Hazel took a massive, shuddering breath, then squeezed her eyes shut.

The suffocating rage backed up in her chest, pressing down so hard it threatened to crush her completely.

That was her mentor's final keepsake.

It had been almost two years since his passing. She thought she had meticulously preserved every single piece of his memory. She thought she had nothing left to lose.

But Professor Finch had said she found one last letter he had written just for her.

"Evelyn." Hazel didn't bother answering him. Her piercing gaze shot right over Julian's shoulder, locking onto Evelyn with a terrifying calmness. "Tell me right now. Where exactly did you throw that letter?"

Evelyn cowered behind Julian, trembling. "I threw it in the trash can outside. The sanitation crew takes it all away every morning..."

Buzz—it felt as though a bomb had detonated inside Hazel's skull.

She looked down, her fingers trembling so violently she couldn't even form a fist. Her chest heaved heavily once, twice. Then, she raised her hand and unleashed a vicious, ringing slap right across Evelyn's face.

The sharp crack of the slap echoed like a gunshot through the living room. Evelyn's head snapped to the side, and she stumbled backward, nearly collapsing to the floor if Julian hadn't caught her in time.

"What gave you the right to touch my things?!" Hazel's voice was completely shredded, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably. "Who gave you the right?!"

Julian grabbed Hazel's wrist, his brows locked in a furious knot.

"Hazel, it's just a damn letter! Why are you acting like this? Who exactly gave it to you?!"

Looking at her shattered, hysterical state, a strange, suffocating weight pressed down on his chest. When had she ever lost control over a simple object? Who wrote that letter to make her act like a total lunatic?

Hazel looked up, her eyes bloodshot, her voice dropping to a fragile, lifeless whisper as if her soul had been drained. "That was the letter my mentor left for me... Julian, that was the last thing my mentor left for me!"