Dark Revenge Of An Unwanted Wife: The Twins Are Not Yours! - Chapter 261

Chapter 261: Searching For Clues II
“Are you sure you both are using your full strength?” Athena asked, hands on her hips, her voice tinged with frustration.

“You have been pushing that singular bag for more than five minutes…” She continued, cocking her head to the left, at ease even when Aiden turned to glare at her.

“Do you want to try? Maybe you’ll have a better chance than us?” Aiden shot back.

Athena’s scoff was the only response that a famished Aiden received. He scoffed in return and reverted to his work, digging his heels down and preparing to push again.

Behind them, Athena exhaled wearily. Tired of waiting on the sandbags, which seemed to drain her strength, she returned to the level ground, opting to give, from there, whatever help Ewan had in mind when he assigned her a role.

Ewan himself was dripping with sweat. At that moment, he wiped the perspiration from his forehead with a single hand swipe.

“Ewan, are you sure of this plan you have? If it doesn’t work, we’ll have been pushing for nothing…” There was a pause. “That thought is quite undesirable to swallow,” Sandro whispered, flinging his hands repeatedly as if to cast away the tiredness besetting them.

“What do you want then? The bulldozing crew?”

“I think I would prefer that and the risks that come with it. Because what’s to say that we aren’t being watched now…” Zane piped in, wishing for something to lean against, eager to take a breather, as his lower back was killing him.

Ewan sighed tiredly, biting his lower lip. He hadn’t anticipated this task to be so daunting. What other sand had they added to the sandbag? It felt like metal!

“Let’s just give it a try once again. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll involve the bulldozing crew…” Aiden suggested, placing his hand on the offending sandbag.

Ewan gave him an appreciative nod before placing his hands on the sandbag as well.

“One, two, ready, go!”

They both pushed with all their might, their grunts and groans echoing even in the distance, muscles flexing and twitching. Luckily, as if fate saw that these two strong men had given all their strength, the bag caved in, rolling down to the side.

Shouts of “Yeah!” “Damn! Finally!!” and “Come on!!” filled the air.

When the chuckles and mutterings of relief died down, all attention turned to Ewan.

“So, what’s next?” Athena asked, her eyes trained on the now-empty space where the bag had been before.

In response, Ewan gave her a small smile and turned to Sandro. “Where did you keep the sledgehammer?”

Sandro’s brow furrowed as he tried to process why his friend would need that heavy tool. Did he want to smash the wall?

He shook his head wearily. It seemed their work today was destined to be impossible. They might as well call in the bulldozing crew. Still, he turned to Athena and gestured for her to get the hammer.

Athena hesitated for a moment, sharing the same reservations as Sandro; but seeing Ewan’s determined face, she turned around and started making her way toward the rubble site. That was another five-minute trek. This evening was really not going the way she had planned.

“Here…” Athena said a few minutes later, handing Sandro the hammer, her breath slightly heavy. It was obvious to the men that she had done a quick run.

Ewan folded his lips, took the hammer from Sandro, and turned to the empty spot, hoping all this stress was worth it—unless Athena might just bite off his head!

With a deep inhalation, he placed the sharpest edge of the hammer on a rough spot beside the gate, the only indication of a wall.

‘Please work!’ He chanted in his mind right before he lifted the hammer and struck the particular point with all his might.

The sound echoed all around them, just as a crack slithered across the surface. Ewan’s clamped lips stretched into a soft smile.

“Everyone should get down.”

Without words, but with confused glances at each other, the men got down from the sandbags and took position beside Athena, watching the miracle Ewan was about to create.

“Do you think he’s hitting a weak spot on that surface?” Athena asked, finally realizing what Ewan was doing as he struck the spot for the third time.

“Most likely. Let’s hope it works…” Aiden posited, folding his arms across his chest.

Meanwhile, Ewan was smiling widely, feeling the weight of the wall crumbling, sensing the sandbags leaning backward as if to crush into the wall.

“This last hit should do it…” He muttered, looking at the spot where the cracks had descended lower toward the gate, and toward the area covered with rocks and moss.

He was about to hit it for the last time when he paused, considering his own safety. If all this was to plunge into the hole, then his life was at risk. The sandbags might crush him unless he tumbled down the hole faster.

Yet, was there a guarantee? He shook his head. Life could be unpredictable. His best bet was to jump to the other side once he struck the spot. Hopefully, his reflexes were still sharp enough.

With that thought established, he raised the hammer and struck the spot again.

Quickly, he leaped like a squirrel out of the sandbags, not bothering to look back at whether the wall had crumbled. He landed on his crouched position on the ground, heaving heavily. When was the last time he had worked out? He thought, sitting down on the ground, feeling his head swirl a bit.

“Nothing is happening, Ewan. Why did you jump away like that?” Zane asked, incredulous, raising an eyebrow, darting his eyes between the gate and Ewan.

Ewan furrowed his brows, watching the gate and glaring at it, willing it to fall.

“Maybe it needs one more strike,” Athena wondered aloud, walking toward Ewan and deciding to pick up the hammer to continue from where he had stopped.

However, before she could take a few steps, a crumbling sound echoed through the space. It was slow at first, as if the walls were battling to stay erect, and then the sandbags fell forward into the side of the wall, leaving the gate hanging there.

“Yes!!!” Sandro shouted, punching the air.

Ewan sighed in relief, bowing his head.

Athena looked at him, truly looked at him. Just who was this man? She needed to get her research done by tonight or the curiosity would drive her mad.

“Well done, Ewan,” Aiden praised, tapping Ewan’s shoulder gently and helping him to his feet in the same motion. “How are you feeling?”

“A little unsteady,” Ewan answered, shaking his legs. “But I will be fine. Let’s go in.”

He paused, turning to Zane. “Do you have the torchlights?”

Zane nodded, producing several torchlights from the black backpack that was settled on the floor a few feet away.

“Good, let’s go in.”

The hallway to the underground was dark, only faintly illuminated by the trail of light streaming in from the hole in the wall through which they had entered, along with the torchlights that seemed to be doing just half the work.

“I think the fire destroyed the light connections and cables,” Zane muttered, his torch flashing at every corner of the hallway.

“Or maybe they turned them off,” Athena mused, walking into the room where she and Ewan had last been. It was a mess. The fire had burned the room black.

She walked up to the only switch in the room and turned it on. Bright light flooded the messy room. She raised her hands, winking at Zane as if to say, I told you so.

Zane huffed and focused on his surroundings.

“There’s not much to see here. Let’s check out the other rooms,” Sandro suggested after a while, stopping at the sliding part of the wall and tapping it intermittently.

“But we checked them all last time…” Zane pointed out, feeling like they had wasted their time coming here.

If the gang members had returned to cover the only gateway with sandbags, didn’t it mean they would have collected anything of importance from the underground locations?

“Let’s try checking them again. The second time is supposed to be the charm,” Ewan suggested, gesturing for Sandro to go ahead.

Twenty minutes and four secret doors later, the team was back in the first room again, looking at each other, tired and famished.

“It was all a waste of time,” Zane muttered, hitting the bed’s stand, anger and frustration washing over him in waves.

Athena inhaled deeply, not knowing what to say.

Sandro and Aiden remained mute, ruminating on their own thoughts.

Ewan, however, refused to believe that their journey here was a waste. He looked around the room, hoping for a miracle, a pointer to some clue.

The other underground spaces or rooms they had explored had been neat, void of the fire’s destruction. Was it possible that something here had triggered their enemies to lit the fire, or had the watch-person simply lit the fire to erase him and Athena, or to prevent them from collecting the items?

Think, think! He mused, his hands inside his pockets, his eyes darting around every corner of the room.

Those sharp eyes paused when they noticed a certain piece of wood that seemed to be out of place.

Ewan cocked his head to the left, examining the wood lying idly against the wall. It didn’t look like the wood from the furniture in the room.

Following his instinct, he covered the distance and squatted down, aware that he was now the center of attention.

Inhaling softly, he placed his hand on the wood, hoping that was it; the clue.

Noticing that the wood seemed stuck to the wall, noticing the faint lines of pattern on the same, he shifted the wood to the left, then to the right, and then to the left again.

A click sounded somewhere just before the wall slid open, and he smiled until his lips touched his ears. He did it!