Chapter 209 He Is Dead

Chapter 209 He Is Dead

Ember's POV

That evening, Asher came over for dinner. Evelyn sat beside him, focused on her drawing, while I was in the kitchen ladling out the soup. Asher was scrolling through his phone.

Evelyn apparently leaned over on her own to peek at his screen. "Uncle, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing," Asher said. "Just reading the news."

Evelyn didn't press further and went back to her drawing.

I walked out of the kitchen carrying the hot soup, saw him still on his phone, and gave him a look. "Dinner's ready and you're still on that thing."

Asher murmured a response and slipped his phone into his pocket.

But he was clearly distracted throughout the meal. When Evelyn and I talked, he just sat there listening, occasionally picking up a bite of food out of obligation, but his mind was obviously somewhere else. I noticed something was off, but I didn't ask.

After dinner, he went to the kitchen and washed the dishes without being asked. When he came out drying his hands, I was on the couch going over Evelyn's homework. Asher leaned against the kitchen doorway and watched us for a moment, then said, "I have a work trip tomorrow."

I didn't look up. "Where to?"

"The border." He said it casually. "There's a new project to discuss out there."

I looked up at that and held his face with my eyes for a couple of seconds. Nothing seemed off. I looked back down at Evelyn's homework. "How long will you be gone?"

"Three or four days. A week at most."

"Okay. Stay safe." I said it without thinking.

Asher smiled at that. He leaned in. "So you do care about me?"

I shot him a look. "I was just saying."

He walked over and wrapped his arms around me from behind, resting his chin in the crook of my shoulder. "When I get back, I have something to tell you."

His warm breath tickled my ear. I shifted my head slightly. "Why can't you just say it now?"

"Because I'm afraid you'll hit me." He laughed quietly.

"Then maybe don't say it at all."

"No, I have to. The moment I get back."

Evelyn watched the whole thing from beside us, covered her eyes with both hands, then peeked through her fingers, giggling.

I quickly pushed Asher away. "The kid is right here. Can you behave?"

Asher pressed a firm kiss to my cheek before finally letting go, then headed upstairs to pack.

He left before sunrise. I was half-asleep when I felt him lean down and kiss my forehead, and he said something in a low voice, but I was too drowsy to catch it. I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I finally woke up, there was a glass of warm water and a note on the nightstand. His familiar handwriting: Wait for me. I took a sip of water and looked at those words. The corners of my mouth curved up without me realizing. Then I folded the note and put it in the drawer, where a few of his other notes were already tucked away.

After he left, three days passed quickly.

For the first three days, he messaged me every day on schedule — sometimes a photo of local scenery or food, sometimes just idle small talk. But starting on the fourth day, his messages stopped completely. At first I didn't think much of it. He was probably busy, or the signal near the border was bad.

I was busy myself, after all.

It wasn't until I finally had a moment to message him asking when he'd be back that I got nothing. No reply. That felt strange, so I called him. The line said his phone was off.

Something started to feel wrong. Though I told myself maybe he was planning some kind of surprise and was ignoring me on purpose.

Then that afternoon, I was in the middle of a heated discussion with the tech team in the conference room when my phone on the table suddenly started ringing loudly. I glanced at the screen. It was Asher's beta calling.

I picked up. Before I could say anything, I heard his voice on the other end, and it was trembling. "Ms. Hart, the Alpha... something's happened."

My fingers tightened around the phone, hard enough that my knuckles went white. "What did you say?"

"The Alpha was in an accident on his way back from the border. The road was slick from the rain. His car went off a cliff..." The beta's voice got quieter and quieter, until it cracked. "The search and rescue team has been out there for two days. They haven't found him yet."

The moment those words landed, the lights in the conference room seemed to turn unbearably bright. The fluorescent tubes overhead hummed. Every voice around me blurred into a low, indistinct ringing.

"Mr. Hart? Mr. Hart?" Someone beside me was calling my name.

I opened my mouth to respond, to say something, anything. Nothing came out. The phone slipped from my hand and hit the conference table with a loud crack.

Then everything went dark.

When I came to, I was lying in a hospital bed.

Penelope was sitting beside me. The moment she saw my eyes open, she leaned in. "Ember, you're awake? How do you feel?"

I reached over and pulled the IV needle out of my hand.

"Ember, what are you doing!" Penelope startled and grabbed my arm.

"I'm fine." I sat up, expression flat, and reached for my shoes. "I'm going to the border to find him."

"You're in no condition to go anywhere! You can barely stand!"

"I said I'm fine. I need to be there. I need to watch them search with my own eyes."

I pushed her hands away and walked stubbornly toward the door. But the moment I reached it, I stopped cold.

Asher's mother was standing right there in the doorway, her face ashen.

I didn't even have time to say a word before a sharp slap landed across my face without any warning. The crack of it cut through the noise of the hospital hallway, and for a moment everything went silent.

Penelope screamed and rushed over, putting herself between us. "What are you doing!"

Asher's mother was in a black blazer, her eyes red, her lips trembling violently.

"What am I doing? Ask her what she's done!" Isabelle's voice was high and shrill, bouncing off the walls of the quiet hallway. "Because of you! He went to that border looking for some gemstone! You did this to him. You're the reason I lost my son!"

I lifted my head despite the burning pain in my cheek. "What gives you the right to blame his death on me?"

Asher's mother broke down and tore a photo from her bag, slamming it into my face. "Look at it yourself!"