The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 299

"Lavinia, I am never divorcing you. Drop it!"

"I'm hungry. Go make me something to eat."

"Let's have a baby. Once we have a kid, you won't want a divorce anymore."

"Mrs. Harper, I brought Sigrid home again. Is there a problem?"

Her heart felt like it was splitting down the middle.

Why? Why couldn't she escape him?

She wanted to leave that house, leave that perfectly constructed cage, but he absolutely refused to let her go.

Wasn't anyone going to help her?

*"Lavinia. Lavinia."*

Someone was calling out to her from the absolute dark.

She reached out blindly toward the sound, but her fingers grasped empty air.

She ran forward with everything she had, until she violently slammed into a solid brick wall.

Her head throbbed with blinding pain.

*"Lavinia. Lavinia."*

The voice drifted into her ear again.

Her hands scrambled wildly across the cold, black wall. Searching. Reaching.

Finally, her hand closed around a doorknob. She twisted it hard, throwing the door open. Outside, the sun had risen.

An endless, blinding expanse of white light.

Lavinia slowly peeled her eyes open.

"Lavinia? You're awake?" Charley's voice brought her back to reality.

Her panicked heartbeat slowly fluttered back down to earth, like a wet feather settling on the ground.

It was a dream... a horrifying nightmare.

She turned to look out the window. It was still pitch black outside.

She was lying on her living room sofa.

"What time is it?" The moment she spoke, she realized her throat was raw. Her head was pounding, and her muscles ached terribly. She was definitely running a fever.

"It's only five in the morning. You've been asleep for a couple of hours," Charley said softly. "By the time I finished cooking, you were already out cold. I didn't want to wake you."

He paused, his eyes tracing her pale face. "You feel a little warm. You were talking in your sleep just now—did you have a nightmare?"

Lavinia looked up at him, the remnants of the dream clinging to her.

That was actually fantastic news. Just the thought of Sigrid being dragged through the legal system made Lavinia feel instantly better.

"Now, are you going to be a good girl and eat something, take some meds, and go back to sleep?" Charley asked.

Looking into his deep, steady eyes, Lavinia felt a profound sense of peace settle over her.

What was she so afraid of? Everything was going to be resolved.

She had the right cards in her hand, and she had him by her side. She was going to win.

Lavinia nodded. "Can you get me some soup? And grab some flu meds from the cabinet? My entire body aches."

Charley smiled. "A doctor diagnosing herself. You're very low maintenance."

***

Harper Group, CEO's Office.

Garnett slumped back, sinking heavily into his executive chair, and massaged his throbbing temples.

He had never felt this level of sheer exhaustion.

The company was drowning in negative press, the stock was in freefall, and right at the critical juncture of their capital expansion, someone was silently sweeping up shares on the open market.

Then there was Sigrid. Lavinia and Julian were utterly unyielding on pressing charges, meaning they were heading straight into a brutal legal battle. Sigrid was terrified, entirely out of her depth, and refusing to leave her apartment, bombing his phone with dozens of texts an hour. Thank God his lawyers were good—she'd be out on bail in a few days.

But that wasn't the end of it.