Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Elena didn’t answer. She turned on her heels, only thinking about escaping from this dreadful place. Since she didn’t have much time, she only grabbed her most important belongings and stuffed them in her backpack before she ran to the door. One last time, she crossed the doorway, and when the door shut behind her, a burden fell off her shoulders.

She was finally free—after four years.

However, despite her relief, Elena was upset, and there was only one place to go when she felt bad: her flower shop. The comfort that her plants provided her was what she needed now. She bravely held in her tears on the way there, disregarded the odd looks she garnered on the train and the streets.

The way to her shop seemed insanely long today. By the time she reached it, her heart had sunk like a stone. She wanted to pretend all this was just a bad dream she would soon wake up from. But she had no clue that the worst part was yet to come—she would soon find out where Steph had been yesterday and what he had done.

As she unlocked the door to her shop, a bad feeling overcame her. She didn’t sense the lively auras of her flowers at all, something that had never happened before. There was nothing, just ominous emptiness. Panicking, she pushed open the door and entered her shop. Even with the blinds closed and the lights off, she saw the absolute chaos that awaited her.

Her shop was in shambles. It was destroyed. Shelves had been pushed down, vases shattered on the ground, and flowerpots thrown around. Her beloved flowers were all dead. Steph had ripped them apart and trampled over them, assuring that not a single one would survive his act of revenge.

Elena was shocked. She gasped for air, but she couldn’t breathe. It was a nightmare turned reality—and she was trapped in its clutches. Her heart ached, and her eyes stung with burning tears. A tremble ran through her body.

This was undeniably the worst that had happened to her since her parents’ deaths. Once more, what she cherished most had been taken from her. The countless innocent flowers were no longer alive. She had cared for them, grown them all herself. They had been like children to her. It was devastating to see them like this, carelessly ripped apart.

She couldn’t take it. Her knees gave out. She sank to the ground, narrowly missing the sharp glass shards. Her arms wound around her stomach as she hugged herself, attempting to hold herself together, but it was futile. The horrifying scene in front of her blurred and became unrecognizable. She was swallowed by her desperation, not seeing or hearing anything but her own sobs. Her heart ached for her dead flowers—it was like a part of herself had died.

“Elena?” a voice called out, but she barely took note of it. The fog that clouded her senses was thick, and all she could focus on was the glaring hole in herself. Losing everything she cherished was agonizing.

“Elena.” A hand grabbed her wrist. The touch made her skin tingle pleasantly, dispersing the fog in her mind. “Are you hurt? Breathe slowly, in and out,” the voice coaxed, and she decided to trust it and did as it said. “That’s good, you’re doing great. Just breathe.”

Arms wrapped around her back, pressing her into a body. She let it happen and didn’t fight it. Her attention was drawn away from her panic by a hand that rubbed soothing circles on her back. “You aren’t hurt,” the voice stated after a while, relief audible. “Can you look at me, Elena?”

The frenzied thunder of her heartbeat dwindled, and she gradually returned to the present. She blinked her tears away and gazed at a black shirt and the collar of a leather jacket. Ryder’s scent reached her nose, and when she raised her head, she was stunned by the brilliant red of his eyes.

“Finally,” he breathed. “I had a hunch that something was wrong. What happened?” His voice trembled with suppressed anger.

Since she couldn’t bear to see the destruction in her shop, she closed her eyes and leaned her body against his. “It already looked like this when I arrived,” she mumbled.

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he stared at the chaos that surrounded them both. Lots of work would be needed to fix all of that. The sunflowers she had been growing with care were discarded on the floor, shredded into pieces, and the other plants had met the same fate. It was a miracle she hadn’t cut herself on the countless glass shards that littered the ground. Their sharp edges gleamed dangerously. Since the blinds in front of the windows were closed, barely any light reached them, but Ryder had no trouble seeing in the dark.

His eyes returned to the red paint on the counter that had been smeared on its old wood, spelling “slut”. This was an act of revenge, and the pure malice behind it enraged Ryder to a point where he could hardly contain himself. He knew that his eyes were red, that his fangs were elongated, so he struggled to compose himself since he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but it was incredibly difficult. How dare someone hurt his soulmate? He would hunt this person down and make them pay.

“Elena, why don’t we go home, hm?” he said and gently brushed her hair away from her face so he could see her properly. Her cheeks were flushed from crying.

“I don’t have a home,” was all she said, making him furrow his brows. He didn’t understand what she meant, but he held his tongue and didn’t bother her with unnecessary questions.

“You’re staying with me from now on,” he decided and pulled her up so she was standing next to him. “Don’t worry about anything, my flower.”

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Ryder kept his arm wrapped securely around Elena’s back, guiding her to his car, which was parked close to her flower shop. Her apathetic state worried him. He had never seen her act like this before, and he suspected she was in shock. Ryder decided to take her to a place where she could rest—his home.

Elena didn’t pay much attention to what was happening around her. She kept her empty eyes on the road, sometimes feeling Ryder’s gaze on her. After they sat in his car, he drove to the very same place where Edgar had taken her not long ago. The large property still looked the same, but this time, its appearance didn’t intimidate her anymore.