Chapter 34: Witnessing Murder! (2)

"What the hell do you think you are doing??" The bone-chilling voice that spoke behind Auriela made her halt in her attempt to harm Madeline. The traumatized Madeline quickly averted her gaze, already waiting to receive the incoming stab when the familiar voice of someone instinctively made her turn her head to see who was speaking.

Like a statue, Auriela remained frozen in her position, and Cassian was quick to snatch the knife from her loosened grip. Orson moved quickly in holding Auriela back while Madeline quickly got to her feet and ran into the arms of Cassian, feeling extremely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in her presence.

The tears kept rolling down from her eyes no matter how hard she tried to stop it. This wasn’t the right time for her heart to turn weak, but she would have been dead if Cassian hadn’t intervened to stop Auriela from taking her life.

Orson, who was holding the middle-aged woman down, couldn’t feel less happier about the fact he took extra handcuffs with him. Handcuffing Auriela’s hands behind her back, he still trapped her in his hold, keeping her in place and giving her no chance to escape.

"Are you alright?" Noticing her beautiful hands were painted red with blood, Cassian was ready to inflict the same pain on whoever had made her bleed. But to his relief, it wasn’t her blood after she shook her head in response.

She pointed at Roland’s dead body with a weak shaky finger.

"Roland...he... he’s... he’s..."

"You killed him!" Auriela, who had been quiet all this while, suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears as she glared at Madeline with pure hatred in her eyes. Ever since Madeline had started living with them, Auriela had never looked at her with this much abhorrence brewing in her eyes.

"You killed him! Didn’t you? This was your doing, wasn’t it?!!" Auriela yelled at the top of her lungs. Her voice cracked in between as she was choked by her own tears.

Madeline shook her head, apparently shocked that Auriela would accuse her of something so nefarious. "I did no such thing, I swear he was like this when I came in. See.." she desperately pointed at the knives on the ground. "I tried to save him, I pulled the knives out and I called for help but no one...no one answered me, what will I gain from killing him, he’s still my uncle! He’s..!!"

"Shut your bloody mouth you murderer!" Auriela cursed, tears swimming in her eyes as she gritted her teeth in anger. "I know we never treated you right, I accept that I never showed you any humanity, but why take the life of Roland?? He was your uncle! Being the wife of someone from a high peerage, you think I’ll let you get away right after killing my...."

"Can you just stop!" Cassian finally intervened, and silence reigned. The air in the house of Roland had turned suffocating for him, and if she keeps talking in such ear-splitting manner, he might as well shove a sock into her mouth to shut the woman up.

"Lily!" Cassian called out of the blue. Madeline’s teary eyes shifted to Cassian who was calling the name of the dead girl in that book he showed her, and to both their gazes, the same little girl in a white dress stepped out from one of the walls, her expression blunt as she appeared before Cassian.

Once again, Madeline panicked as she pointed at the girl who was staring right back at them. Unlike the frightening image of what she had seen the other day she passed out, the girl looked less scary today.

"It’s the same..."

"Scout the area, see if you find anything." Ordered Cassian. Lily said nothing and quietly went up the stairs at his command. Madeline watched the little girl’s figure disappear right after she went up the stairs to investigate the scene.

Thousands of questions filled her eyes as she looked at Cassian, but the young lad had his gaze fixed on Roland’s dead body.

Stepping forward, he crouched down to take a closer look at Roland’s motionless body. Placing a finger to his nose, there was no sign of breathing coming from his nostril. He checked his pulse as well, but got nothing.

Shaking his head in pity, he rose to his full height.

"He’s dead." Cassian stated to the two women. Madeline, who didn’t want to believe her only family was dead, slowly sank to the ground while registering Cassian’s words in her head multiple times.

He’s dead??

"Try not to waste my time and answer me truthfully, what exactly happened here?" This question was directed at Auriela who had stopped crying. Her eyes were red and swollen, she looked haggard and her hair was a tangled mess on her head. There were a few bloodstains on her dress, indicating that she incurred some minor injuries herself, and that was the first thing that caught Cassian’s attention.

"She killed my husband!" Auriela accused Madeline once again.

"She did nothing of that sort." Cassian defended. "I saw everything myself so it’s useless trying to pour the blame on her. She didn’t kill anyone, you were the one who wanted to kill her." Cassian pointed out as a matter-of-fact while Orson held Auriela so she wouldn’t escape.

"She killed my husband, she’s responsible for his death, you have to listen to me! She’ll kill you as well if you refuse to heed to my warning. Lord Cassian..."

"Take her away." Cassian said to Orson who was waiting for her crimes to be stated. "She’s accused of attempted murder, physical maltreatment, and trying to sell off her only niece to a Barbarian." Cassian stated her crimes to Orson who took each one into silent contemplation.

"Come with me." Taking her away from the house, Madeline and Cassian were the only ones left. An oppressive silence lingered between both of them and Madeline’s face had reddened from all her crying.

Staring at Roland’s dead body, Madeline tried to reach for him but Cassian held her back on time, stopping her from touching Roland’s body any further

"Don’t go near him." He said calmly to the grieving Madeline who shook her head in refusal.

"He can’t be dead, someone killed him...How is he dead? Why does Auriela keep blaming me? I only wanted to confront them, I have no hand in this, I would never take the life of someone. I..."

"You need to calm down." Turning Madeline around so she could look at him, he met her eyes. He noticed how heartbroken she looked from the accusation Auriela had pointed at her, and he saw how hard she was fighting to drive away the tears swimming in her eyes.

"Take a deep breath." He continuously tried to pet her with a gentle voice. "Nothing happened, you’re alright, and you’re safe, focus more on that."

Already aware of her traumatic disorder, what she just witnessed might end up triggering her mental health, and that was the last thing he wanted since it could turn really harmful to her health.

Madeline let out a breath after listening to Cassian. Her heart still felt heavy but she realized she needed to pull herself together. With her current health situation, it would be dangerous to fall victim to the direful event surrounding her at the moment.

"Feeling better?" He asked, and Madeline responded with a nod while wiping the tears from her eyes. "Good girl, now listen carefully to me, we need to find a way to dispose of the knives you touched." He said it slowly for her to easily digest his words.

Looking at the three bloodstained knives she had pulled out of Roland’s body, Cassian had to think of a way to get rid of them. With Auriela going about and blaming Madeline, it is possible that these knives would cause serious implication if her fingerprint is found on them.

"W...what..what do I do? I didn’t kill him." Madeline stuttered. Her mind had gone blank by the bloody sight that she didn’t think before letting her hands touch the knives.

"I believe you." Cassian assured her in a low voice. "But we need to get rid of them before Orson returns." Once Orson makes his presence here, he would collect the knives to run a test on them, and that could get Madeline in serious trouble with the law.

"I have an idea." Moving aside from Madeline, Cassian walked up to the three knives laying on the ground and picked them up. He turned to look at Madeline who was staring at him with shock-filled eyes.

"Cas, but you just said..."

"Don’t worry about me, I won’t be suspected." He clarified her worries. "Remember, I’m a secret agent, touching the evidence with my bare hands will only prove I made a mistake during the investigation." He explained.

Since he was part of the military, he could easily work his way out of this without too much drama. Collecting evidence is part of his job, and if his fingerprint shows on the test being taken, it would be considered a mistake on his part.

"What about..." redirecting her eyes to Roland’s body, Cassian followed her sight and clicked his tongue.

"Sadly I wanted to end him myself, but it seems like someone’s already got the job done." He had a cryptic look on his face before turning to look at Madeline.

"I need your honest answer on this, does Roland and his wife live alone?" He quizzed, and Madeline tried to keep herself together before nodding.

"Apart from the servants, Auriela and Roland lived together. They barely had visitors since Roland preferred having his meeting outside his home."

"Where are the servants?" He questioned and Madeline shook her head. "I don’t know, I didn’t see them when I showed up. It is so strange cause it feels like they all just...disappeared!"

At the mention of the servants disappearing, something finally clicked on Madeline and her eyes widened in trepidation. "Do you think..."

"The person responsible for the missing people.... You think they broke into your uncle’s home?? In broad daylight??" Cassian found that really absurd.

Madeline was about to say her reasons for thinking to that extent when Lily came down the stairs, disrupting their conversation with her presence. Madeline released a short gasp as she backed away from the little girl, but the girl only had her eyes on Cassian.

"Find anything?" He asked, showing no ounce of fear as though he was the one in control of the little ghost. As usual, Lily said nothing and only went back up the stairs, a trick Cassian understood that meant he should follow her.

"Wait here, and try not to touch anything, I’ll be back." Cassian uttered to Madeline before going up the stairs with Lily.

Bringing him to a door that appeared locked, Cassian looked at her with a raised brow. "Something in here?"

She nodded slowly. Cassian looked at the door with full seriousness. Since the door was locked, he had to kick it open, forcing the locks to break and reveal what was inside the room.

"Bloody hell.."

To his half-shocked gaze, different bodies of people were clustered in the room.

They looked dead and slaughtered without mercy. Cassian and Lily exchanged gazes before Cassian returned his dumbstruck gaze back to the pile of bloody dead bodies.

"Well, we found the servants."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read