Chapter 703
Sienna shot him a sharp, piercing glare, every word slipping past her lips dripping with ice.
“I am beyond furious right now. Say one more word, and I will have you replaced immediately. This is non-negotiable p>
That single sentence completely sealed off whatever Jarred was about to say.
All his restless frustration was shoved right back down his throat.
Jarred stood frozen in place, watching her cold, resolute profile as his chest heaved unevenly.
Sienna didn’t spare him another glance, nor did she linger for a second.
She spun on her heel, briskly walking out of the attic and heading straight down the stairs.
After their heated argument, whatever tiny appetite Sienna had left had completely vanished.
Instead of heading to the dining room, she turned right back toward the second floor.
Pushing open the study’s Sovereign Portal, she returned to the sealed underground lab.
The hidden bookcase slowly slid shut, completely isolating her from the storm brewing upstairs.
Up in the empty attic, the wind and rain battered against the glass.
Jarred stood by the window, pulling his phone from his pocket to make a call.
“Get two teams, grab flashlights and rain gear, and search the entire Mountain Woods immediately. Find a black journal and a box of letters. Bring them back intact, whatever the cost p>
A swift acknowledgment came through the line before he hung up.
Jarred shoved the phone back into his pocket, leaning against the windowsill as he listened to the torrential downpour shredding the leaves outside.
He closed his eyes, recalling the half-page he had managed to read in the dark.
Her handwriting had been round and playful, each iteration of his name drawn as a different, colorful flower.
Had there really been a time in her private world where his name meant so much to her?
It was a stark contrast to the fiercely guarded Sienna he came to know later.
Jarred opened his eyes as the sound of his men gathering downstairs and the clinking of flashlights reached him.
He straightened up, taking the stairs down one by one, and walked straight into the raging storm.
The heavy curtain of rain swallowed his figure, reducing him to a blurry silhouette in the dark.
Yet, his strides toward the woods were steady and unyielding.
The ink would bleed in the water, and he had no idea how much could actually be salvaged.
But he had to try.
Even if he only saved a single page, even if the words on it were washed down to faint smudges of ink.
It was infinitely better than the gaping, suffocating emptiness currently tearing through his chest.
Down in the lab.
Sienna spent the entire night obsessively focused on the antidote.
Now that she had pinpointed the source of the original injection. synthesizing the cure was far simpler than she had anticipated.
By the time the first light of dawn broke, the second phase of the antidote ratio proved preliminarily effective.
Taking advantage of Silas’s stable vitals, Sienna immediately administered the second test dose.
Silas was doing remarkably well, even fully lucid that he was undergoing the trial.
His complexion held a touch more color than before the injection.
Sienna reached out to check his pulse; the rhythm was steady, the pressure even.
After several hours of observation, Silas showed excellent physical tolerance.
There were no extreme stress reactions whatsoever.
The toxin suppression exceeded her expectations, and the residual poison was metabolizing faster thar the first round.
At this rate, just one more test and she would have the complete, finalized antidote!
The heavy anxiety weighing her down finally evaporated.
Sienna had stayed by his bedside, never leaving for a single second.
She finally allowed herself to lean back into the chair, resting the back of her head against the cool wall.
Her eyelids felt like lead.
Before she knew it, exhaustion washed over her like a tidal wave, pulling her into a deep sleep.
When she opened her eyes again, the sky outside the window had already darkened into dusk.
Silas was still asleep, but all his vital signs were steadily warming up.
Everything was slowly turning around.
Sienna slowly sat up, but as she stood, her knees buckled slightly, her stomach cramping from the sheer emptiness.