Landon Hawthorne looked at Aria Sterling, his eyes filled with pity.
'The daughter of the Jennings family, spouting nonsense about gods, demons, and ghosts instead of getting a proper education in the sciences.'
'A smug dropout, questioning science and spouting utter nonsense. He might have found it somewhat forgivable if it were a man, but it just had to be a woman.'
"I'll give you three days. If you don't scram, don't blame me for not warning you when you end up dead!"
His words were laced with vicious threats. He then turned and stormed off.
On his way out, he deliberately bumped into Aria's shoulder.
The room fell silent.
'To say it doesn't exist just because you've never seen it... how ignorant,' Aria muttered, though she didn't seem particularly angry.
She had just told him the truth, hoping to make Landon understand the gravity of the situation.
He blacked out every night after his frantic episodes. After all, Landon was unconscious whenever the Fiend emerged, so of course he wouldn't know what it had done.
Aria tucked the check away and left the private room.
By the time she came out, Landon Hawthorne was long gone.
She did, however, run into Owen Ford and Iris Jennings at the hotel entrance.
Owen Ford said apologetically, "Miss Jennings, I'm so sorry. Something came up today. I won't forget that I owe you a meal."
"Mr. Ford, you're being too kind. It was nothing, really," Iris Jennings replied with grace and poise.
They had just entered the private room and ordered their food. Iris was still trying to figure out how to bring up a potential project collaboration between the Jennings and Ford families when Owen received a call and had to rush home for an urgent matter.
As Owen Ford was leaving, he glanced over at Aria Sterling, who was waiting for a car. He looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he didn't.
'She was a beautiful girl, exactly his type. He'd fallen for her at first sight.'
'But the moment she opened her mouth, the illusion shattered.'
'What a shame!'
Owen Ford drove away, leaving Aria Sterling still standing there.
Iris Jennings walked over and sneered, "Aria, I never would've thought you'd be one to talk about ghosts and gods. You're absolutely hilarious."
Aria shot her a look, not bothering to respond.
Furious at being ignored, Iris Jennings grabbed Aria's arm. "What's your problem? I'm talking to you! You really are just a wild child from the countryside. No manners, no upbringing!"
"Wild child?" Aria found those two words particularly amusing.
A smile played on her lips as she stared at the spoiled, presumptuous Iris. She retorted, "Should I help you find your birth parents? Let's see... are they a CEO from some prestigious family, or a couple of workers from the slums?"
"You..." The words caught in Iris's throat, leaving her speechless.
"How ridiculous. A stray who popped up from god-knows-where thinks she can forget her roots after living with a wealthy family for twenty years. No wonder you have the face of someone destined for a short life." Aria was never one to be trifled with.
Iris had annoyed her now, and she had no intention of being polite.
The phrase "destined for a short life" made Iris's eyes turn red with anger as tears welled up.
Aria sneered. "Don't worry. When you die, I'll send you a top-quality coffin so you can at least be comfortable."
"Aria, you... you... You're so vicious! You've gone too far!" Iris finally burst into tears of rage.
She lunged forward to push her, but Aria sidestepped her deftly.
"Aah..." Having failed to push Aria, Iris's own momentum sent her pitching forward, and she fell flat on her face.
She lay sprawled on the ground in a pathetic heap as passersby pointed and whispered.
By the time she scrambled to her feet, she saw Aria getting into a car that had just pulled up and driving away.
"Aria, I curse you to a miserable death!" Iris was seething. Staring at the beads of blood forming on her palm, the pain brought fresh tears, which fell like broken pearls.
Her phone rang. Seeing it was her mother, she answered and immediately burst into tears. "Mom, Aria bullied me! She cursed me, said I was destined for a short life, and even said she'd send me a coffin! She even pushed me to the ground..."
When Iris Jennings got home, a doctor was already waiting for her.
However, the doctor was rather speechless when he saw the scrape on her palm had already clotted and was no longer bleeding.
The doctor said, "This isn't serious. It just needs to be disinfected. It doesn't even need a bandage."
But Shelly Sterling and Iris insisted the doctor wrap it in several layers. Though he thought they were making a mountain out of a molehill, the doctor did as they asked.
After the doctor left, Shelly Sterling told Iris, "When your father gets home, tell him Aria injured your hand."
"Okay." Iris nodded, then brought up the matter of saving Owen Ford.
"My darling daughter, you're so amazing!" Shelly was ecstatic. "You're countless times better than that Aria."
That evening, when Sean Jennings came home and saw Iris's hand, he asked what had happened.
When he heard that Aria was the one who had hurt Iris, he was so furious he smashed his teacup. "That feral creature! She's barely been back and she's already causing chaos! Why didn't she just die out there?"
"Hurting Iris's hand is one thing, but she also cursed us, saying we're destined for short lives, and even threatened to send our family a coffin," Shelly said, fanning the flames. "She came back just to stir up trouble."
The more Sean Jennings heard, the angrier he became. His face turned ashen as he slammed his hand on the table. "That Aria Sterling is a goddamn bastard! Why isn't she dead at the Hawthornes' already?"
Having achieved her desired effect, Shelly proposed, "It's a bad omen for her to curse us like this. To prevent any misfortune, why don't we find a master to lift the curse?"
"Do it!" Sean Jennings agreed completely. He didn't even eat dinner before heading to his bedroom.
Shelly followed him, closing the door and whispering, "Keeping Aria around will only lead to disaster. When we ask the master to lift the curse, maybe we can have him perform a ritual... add something to her fate..."
Sean Jennings knew exactly what she meant, and he hesitated.
"Sean, that girl is a real thorn in our side. Besides, now that she's at the Hawthorne estate, she's not destined to live long anyway. We'd just be... speeding things up. I don't mean any harm, but she cursed Iris on her first day back, and now she's outrageously cursing our entire family. We have to teach her a lesson..."
Under Shelly's constant persuasion, Sean finally nodded. "You handle the arrangements. This has to be done secretly. We can't afford to tip her off. If you could get that same master from all those years ago..."
"I'll see if I can contact him. It's been over twenty years... he might not even be alive anymore."
That evening, as soon as Landon Hawthorne returned to Azurewave Manor, he found Aria Sterling reading leisurely in the grand hall.
And what was she reading? Something called *Ghost Scroll Twelve Chapters*?
'This woman's really lost her mind!'
The butler, Uncle Carter, approached him. "Mr. Landon, about dinner..."
Landon shot Uncle Carter a glare. "I've already eaten. No need to bring anything upstairs."
He'd gone through wave after wave of staff here, but without exception, every single one had been bought off by the old man.
The thought of his old man having someone drug him last night still made him furious. 'I'm never eating dinner at home again!'
Watching him head upstairs, Uncle Carter felt a sense of helplessness.
'For some reason, Mr. Landon refuses to get married or have children. Being a father is a wonderful thing, but he's just so against it.'
Uncle Carter then turned and called the old master. "Mr. Landon probably won't be eating dinner at home from now on. I'm afraid the drugging tactic is no longer an option."
"What do you mean, 'no longer an option'?" the old master's voice shot back through the phone. "If he won't eat, won't he drink? If he won't drink, won't he breathe? There are plenty of methods. Use your head!"
Uncle Carter, "..."
'That's his own father for you,' Uncle Carter thought. 'The old master has really worried himself sick over his precious son!'