Free Web NovelChapter 237: Relief
Meanwhile, after that second of quickly accessing their condition, she took a deep breath and crossed the room in quick steps and pulled her daughter into a fierce, tight embrace. freewebnøvel.com
"Mia."
"I’m okay, Mom. I’m okay."
"The news. I saw the news." Edith’s voice was uneven now, the composure cracking around the edges. "I just saw the news about Velvet Pulse, the robbery, the shooting. I, I don’t know if you were inside when it happened, but I tried calling and the line was busy, I tried again and it went through to voicemail..."
"The signal in the club was terrible." Mia hugged her mother back tightly. "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you."
"You were there. You were in there. When it happened."
"We were inside, yes."
Edith pulled back slightly to look at her daughter’s face. Then her gaze shifted, slowly, carrying a quiet weight, to Stan.
"Tell me what happened."
The three of them moved into the living room.
Stan sat on the long couch. Mia settled beside him.
Mrs. Edith took the armchair across from them, leaning forward with her hands clasped in her lap, her entire posture devoted to listening.
And there, in the warm light of the living room she had grown up in, Mia told her mother everything.
Reliving it made her heart pound. She still wasn’t completely over what had happened.
She recounted the drive to the club. The first hour of dancing. The gradual shift in the atmosphere. The gunshots outside. The doors slamming open. The three men dressed in black carrying weapons.
When she described how Stan had pulled her behind the booth and told her to stay down, Edith’s hand rose instinctively to cover her mouth.
And when Mia told her what happened next, the wine bottle, the whiskey bottle, the shattered wine glass, the twelve frantic seconds in which three armed men had somehow been disarmed and restrained, Edith’s eyes slowly drifted toward Stan and remained there.
She didn’t say a word, she simply stared at him, she found the story somewhat unbelievable like something straight out of a blockbuster movie...
When Mia finally finished, silence settled over the room. Mrs Edith then took a long, slow breath. For a moment, she pressed both hands against her cheeks, as though trying to process everything she had just heard. Then she lowered them and looked directly at Stan.
"Thank goodness," she said. Her voice was very quiet. "Thank goodness you two are alright."
She paused, gathering herself, and her next words came out unsteady.
"Stan. I, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to thank you. For everyone in that club. For the security guards. For," Her voice broke briefly. "For my daughter. I cannot, I cannot think about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. I won’t let myself think about it. I..."
She stopped. Pressed her hand against her mouth again. Took another long breath.
"I lost Victor not a year ago. I cannot lose Mia. I cannot..." Her voice cracked completely on the word cannot, and Mia immediately rose from the couch, crossed to her mother, and knelt beside the armchair, taking Edith’s hand in both of hers.
"You didn’t lose me, Mom. You haven’t. I’m right here."
"I know, sweetheart. I know."
Edith composed herself with visible effort. She looked back at Stan. Her eyes were wet but her gaze was steady.
"This city," she said quietly. "It used to feel safe. It used to be the reason we moved here. Good schools. Better opportunities. A quieter pace than Inksea. And now, every week there’s something. A robbery. An assault. Something on the news that makes me check my locks twice before bed." She shook her head slowly. "Velaris is not what it used to be, Stan. It is becoming dangerous in ways I don’t fully understand."
Stan said nothing. He had no rebuttal. The Damien incident, the Red Serpents, the targeted assault on Amelia, three separate events in a single week, all in adjacent cities, all involving organized criminal elements moving with confidence they shouldn’t have had. The pattern was real. He had been registering it himself.
"It’s becoming dangerous everywhere, Aunt," he said quietly. "But I understand what you mean."
Edith nodded. She looked at her daughter, then back at Stan. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"And you planned to drive back to Inksea tonight."
"Yes."
"After all of this. At this hour."
"Yes."
Edith shook her head firmly.
"No. Absolutely not. Not tonight. My heart will not survive another minute of worry. You’ll stay. We have a guest room, it’s small, but it has a proper bed and clean sheets, and the door locks. You will stay here tonight and drive back in the morning when it’s light and the roads are full of people."
Stan smiled faintly, he was just teasing ber
"Mia made the same argument in the car. I already agreed."
Edith’s shoulders dropped. The visible relief on her face was deeper than her composure had let her admit.
"Then good. Good. Thank you, Stan. Thank you for being sensible." She rose from the armchair, smoothing her robe. "And thank you, Mia, for talking sense into him."
"It wasn’t hard," Mia said softly. "He was already thinking about it."
Edith glanced between them with the brief, watchful attention of a mother who registered exactly what she was looking at and chose to say nothing about it.
"You must both be hungry. Let me get you something to eat. Sit. Sit, Stan, you’ve been on your feet all night."
She disappeared into the kitchen before either of them could protest.
She returned within fifteen minutes with a tray.
The food was simple, a warm vegetable soup, slices of fresh bread, a small dish of butter, two mugs of mint tea.
She had made this food pacing a kitchen calling and waiting for Stan and Mia to come back and now she finally has the relief of feeding the people she had been worrying about.
She set the tray on the low coffee table between the couch and the armchair.
