Dark Revenge Of An Unwanted Wife: The Twins Are Not Yours! - Chapter 260

Chapter 260: Searching For Clues
“How was the outing with Kathleen and Nathaniel? Were they much trouble? Any more threats?” Zane asked Ewan as he joined his friend and Sandro to look at the rubble left from the gang’s hideout after the strange fire incident.

At Zane’s question, Sandro, who had been ruminating on how they would make their way through the hubris in front of them, turned toward Ewan as well. “That’s true. How did that go?” He asked, seeing that Ewan wasn’t in a hurry to speak.

“It went as best as it could,” Ewan finally replied after a few beats of silence, not taking his eyes away from the mess in front of him.

“When you say ‘best,’ what do you mean?” Zane pressed on, stepping closer to him. “Are you getting tired of the kids already?”

Ewan chuckled. Tired? That was the most foolish feeling to have regarding his children. “Tired isn’t even in the equation, Zane. Are you sure you want my children and me to have a smooth relationship?”

Zane frowned, not understanding Ewan’s sarcasm. “You were being vague with your answers, so what did you expect? Of course, I have to assume the worst. The last time you spent time with them, they weren’t exactly excited.”

Ewan shrugged. “Well, that’s in the past. If I should take a guess, I think I’m making progress.”

“How so?” Sandro inquired, folding his arms across his chest and wishing that his friend’s guess was right on the mark.

“Well, we did have a very good time, like we had been doing this for quite a while—as if it wasn’t the first time. That’s apart from the first few minutes when they thought I had hurt their mother last night…” Ewan answered, pausing, his brows furrowing as he reflected on that matter for the umpteenth time.

When Gianna had barged into the living room with the twins and told him to take them for an outing, he had been shocked, to say the least. After all, he wasn’t supposed to see them again until the following month. But he had been glad to take them off her hands, especially seeing the distress on her face.

In the car, however, the twins had been tight-lipped, refusing to speak to him and refusing to answer his questions. He hadn’t bothered to move an inch away from the house until he figured out what exactly was going on.

Fortunately for him, Kathleen was more open to speaking than her brother. But she had accused him of hurting her mother and then of ignoring their messages on purpose.

A dry chuckle escaped his lips now as he remembered the frantic way he had searched for his phone, scrolling through his messages until he found one from strange numbers—the numbers of his children.

Despite apologizing repeatedly, the twins had maintained a steely countenance until he explained to them that he hadn’t hurt Athena. After that, they had relaxed around him, and enjoyed the best fun of his life.

A smile stretched across his lips, making Zane and Sandro exchange strange glances. Is he okay?

“Well, we enjoyed ourselves at the park. It was very beautiful,” Ewan concluded the topic, as if he hadn’t left his friends hanging. He then checked his wristwatch. Athena should be here by now.

As if on cue, a car horn blew from behind them. The three men turned immediately, noting Aiden’s car. They stood without moving as Athena and Aiden stepped out of the car and sauntered toward them.

Pleasantries were exchanged, and the five individuals stared at the rubble in front of them.

“So, how are we going to cut through this mess?” Aiden asked, folding his arms across his chest, his eyes roaming the entirety of the space, seeking a way to navigate it, to find some clues that would help their cause.

“You think we should have brought a bulldozer?” Sandro asked, causing Ewan to shake his head.

“That’s risky,” He muttered, darting a glance at Athena—a frequent activity since she had joined them. Wasn’t she supposed to come alone? Had she come with Aiden as some sort of shield?

So far, she hadn’t even looked at him, except for that one time when they had greeted each other. She also seemed deep in thought; her eyes appeared unfocused, still were, to some extent.

What had happened to her? Why had she been whimpering so early in the morning?

He had texted Gianna after dropping the children off, using them as an excuse—”…they seem to think I’m behind the matter. I explained the best I could, but I think you should let me know, just a little, what the problem is so that I can offer better answers next time.”

But Gianna had only replied with a single sentence: “Just a nightmare, but everything is fine now.”

Ewan was finding it hard to believe, though. What kind of nightmare could make the iron woman cower and whimper? Was it a mission, a person, a condition of sorts?

“Ewan, are you here with us?”

Ewan wetted his lips as he heard Aiden’s question, just as Sandro nudged him with his shoulder.

He had been staring at Athena all this while.

He blushed with embarrassment, his ears turning pink, and turned away, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him whole, especially since she was now looking at him with a blank expression.

What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he face the mess ahead and continue with his thoughts?

Zane cleared his throat, cutting through the awkwardness in the atmosphere. “Sooooo…” He drawled, his eyes darting among the four individuals with him. “Any ideas?”

Ewan swallowed hard. I need to think! I need to focus! He looked around the vicinity again and started walking, knowing they wouldn’t find solutions by standing still.

“Where are you going?” Sandro asked, aware of his friend’s embarrassment.

“To find a solution, a way in,” Ewan answered without turning around.

The others followed his lead, each dispersing to one angle of the rubble, eager to find a way or a clue.

Thirty minutes later of pushing stones, sand and rods, everyone was gasping for air.

“This is futile. It’s like we are doing the work of a bulldozer,” Zane remarked, standing upright with his hands on his waist, inhaling and exhaling harshly.

Sandro nodded in agreement.

Ewan, however, gazed at the sky. Even though they had chosen evening time for this task, the heatwave was something else. Hopefully, it would die down in the next few minutes, seeing as the sky was darkening and the sun had begun to retreat.

“What about the location Ewan and I were found? Surely, that couldn’t be among the rubble here. It was out in a grassy area. Aiden, do you remember this location?” Athena asked, her breaths heavy, her hands also on her waist. She focused her attention on Aiden, who nodded tiredly.

“I think I remember. But do you think it will be open, considering you mentioned a watcher that had been observing the mission this morning?”

Athena shrugged. “Nothing wrong with checking. It’s better than pushing stones here and there.”

They all agreed with this suggestion. Luckily, Aiden still had the coordinates.

“So, how do we get past this? It seems some people have been here this morning,” Sandro asked, echoing the thoughts of the team as they stood before the gate that led to the underground chamber. Only now it was covered with sand. Was it quicksand or compact sand in sandbags?

“They knew we would be coming around…” Aiden muttered, kicking one of the bags and clamping his teeth together as pain shot through the nerves in his foot, despite the shoes he was wearing.

Athena sighed wearily and looked around them. This underground area opened up to a minor forest, with bushes everywhere, even around the gate.

The gate itself wasn’t constructed vertically; otherwise, they would have broken the wall connected to it on both sides. No, it seemed as if it had been placed over a hole, just cemented to the edges, nothing more.

How could they get past this? She wondered, her brows furrowing as she watched Ewan walking to the side of the gate. What was he doing now?

“Let’s try this part…”

“When you say ‘part,’ what do you mean?” Zane asked, frowning at him. “We can’t push that!”

Ewan chuckled dryly. “You don’t have to push all the bags away, just one. We can climb on the others and then push this one out of the way…”He pointed to the bag in question—the one touching the left side of the gate.

“And then what?” Athena asked, her brow still furrowed.

“And then I’ll try what’s in my mind. If it works out, fine. If it doesn’t, then we’ll have to bring in the bulldozer, unless any of you have a better idea…”

None of them did, so they grudgingly followed Ewan, climbing the hefty bags, which were difficult to scale, stopping a few bags from the bag that had been selected to be pushed.

“Aiden, you have to lend your strength here. Sandro and Zane, make sure we don’t slide down…”

“What about me?”

Ewan bit his lips, looking at Athena. “Well, you tell me if my plan is working?”

Athena’s brow furrowed yet again.”The plan I know nothing of?”

Ewan didn’t have a comeback, nor could he tell her to just stay back. He wasn’t sure what her response to that would be.

So he returned to his task, hardly aware of Sandro’s steady hand poised on his back to prevent him from slipping.