Chapter 35: The Missing Ribbon

Olivia’s POV

​By the time six o’clock came, I was convinced Dr. Vance had made it his personal mission to work me to death.

​I had spent almost the entire day moving from one end of the clinic to the other as his assistant. First, he sent me upstairs to get clean towels. Then I had to carry heavy crates of supplies from the storage room. After that, he sent me outside to the herb garden to collect several plants I couldn’t even pronounce. The moment I returned, thinking I could finally sit down, he handed me another list of duties.

​Apparently, being a princess or the wife of their Alpha meant absolutely nothing inside his clinic. I wasn’t treated with a single grain of royal respect.

​My legs hurt, my back ached, and I was fairly certain I had climbed those stairs enough times to last me the rest of the month. But even with everything Dr. Vance had me doing, I couldn’t stop thinking about Owen.

​Every time I passed the clock on the wall, my heart did a terrified flip.

​Two o’clock.

​Three thirty.

​Five.

​Each passing hour made the knot in my stomach tighter. Owen had said tomorrow night. That meant tonight.

​I had the money now, but that didn’t make me feel any better. What if thirty thousand wasn’t enough? What if I gave him the money and he demanded more? What if he had already told someone?

​"Annabel."

​I nearly jumped out of my skin. Dr. Vance was standing several feet away, staring at me with one eyebrow raised.

​"Yes?"

​"I called you three times."

​"Oh." I quickly straightened, brushing off my hands. "Sorry."

​His eyes remained on me for a moment. "You can leave."

​I blinked. "What?"

​"You’re done for today."

​I glanced at the clock on the wall. Six o’clock. Finally.

​"Thank you."

​I didn’t wait for him to change his mind. I grabbed my things and left the clinic as quickly as my exhausted legs could carry me.

​The evening air was cool against my skin as I started the walk back to the mansion. My eyes moved constantly from one side of the path to the other, searching between trees, buildings, and every dark corner I passed for any sign of Owen hiding, but I didn’t spot him.

​By the time the mansion came into view, I still hadn’t seen him. I wasn’t sure whether that should make me feel relieved or even more nervous.

​I entered the mansion and headed straight upstairs to my room. The moment the door closed behind me, I kicked off my shoes, collapsed against the wood, and let out a tired sigh. My entire body hurt. All I wanted was a warm bath and a bed.

​I went into the bathroom, stripped off my dirty clothes, and filled the bathtub with warm water. I sank into it with a tired groan, letting the water ease the ache in my muscles.

​Then I heard it. Rain.

​It started softly at first, tapping against the windowpane. But within minutes, the sky broke open, and the sound became a heavy, violent downpour.

​I frowned, glancing toward the glass. By the time I finished bathing, it was pouring continuously, slamming hard against the mansion.

​"Perfect," I muttered.

​I dried myself, pulled on my light nightclothes, and climbed onto the bed while the storm raged outside. I stared at the ceiling, my mind racing. How exactly was I supposed to meet Owen in a downpour like this? Would he even come?

​I sighed and sat up, panicking. Without thinking, my hand went to my hair to loosen the ribbon holding it together, but my fingers touched nothing.

​I froze.

​I quickly touched the top and back of my head again, my heart dropping straight into my stomach. My hair was completely loose.

​My ribbon was gone.

​"No."

​I began panicking. It wasn’t just a ribbon. It was my mother’s tie—the one I had gotten from Alpha Kenneth, the only precious thing I had left that belonged to her. With my mother refusing to admit who she was and everything else in my life falling apart, that little ribbon was all I had left of home.

​"No, no, no."

​I scrambled off the bed and searched the sheets first, throwing the pillows aside and pulling back the duvet. Nothing.

​I dropped to my knees and looked beneath the bed. Nothing.

​I hurried into the bathroom and searched around the bathtub, the counter, the sink, and the floor. Still nothing.

​Panic began crawling up my chest. I couldn’t lose it.

​I rushed out of my room and searched the hallway carpet. I retraced my steps toward the staircase, checking the floor as I went, but there was nothing.

​"Where did I...?"

​I stopped mid-step as a sudden memory flashed in my head.

​The clinic.

​My mind raced through everything I had done today as Dr. Vance’s assistant. The stairs. The storage room. Dr. Vance’s office.

​Then I remembered the herb garden. Earlier today, while I was gathering plants, a sharp branch from a rose bush had caught in my hair. I had yanked my head away in a hurry without thinking twice about it. It must have pulled my ribbon right off.

​My stomach dropped. "That has to be it."

​I hurried back toward the window and looked outside. Rain was pouring so heavily that I could barely see beyond the mansion grounds. For one second, common sense tried to speak, telling me it was dangerous to go out there. But I ignored it entirely.

​Without even putting on shoes, I ran downstairs on bare feet. By the time I reached the front doors, one of the guards stepped into my path, raising his hands.

​"Princess Annabel?"

​I grabbed the heavy door handle.

​"Where are you going?" His eyes widened as I pulled the door open, wind and rain immediately blowing inside. "Princess, it’s raining heavily outside."

​"I know."

​"You can’t go outside in this. You will get soaked!"

​"I lost something in the herb garden," I said quickly, my voice trembling with urgency. "I have to get it."

​He stepped slightly into my path. "Whatever it is, someone can search for it tomorrow."

​"No." My answer came immediately. "I need it tonight."

​"Princess..."

​"I’ll be back soon."

​Before he could stop me again, I pushed past him and ran out of the mansion into the storm.

​Cold rain hit me like a wall, gasping as it instantly soaked my nightclothes and pasted my wet hair to my face. I ran barefoot through the wet grounds, mud squeezing between my toes as I pushed forward. The herb garden was a three-minute walk from the main building, and the dirt path had turned into slick, freezing mud.

​Thunder crashed overhead, making me flinch, but I kept running.

​By the time I reached the wooden archway of the herb garden, I was breathing heavily and shivering uncontrollably. My bare feet were caked in mud, and the heavy rain made it almost impossible to keep my eyes open.

​"Okay," I whispered breathlessly, wiping rain from my face. "Where are you?"

​I started searching through the plants, pushing wet leaves aside and bending down to check the bushes, desperately trying to remember where I had been standing earlier. But I found nothing.

​I moved farther into the dark garden, shivering violently. "Come on..."

​A sudden flash of lightning lit up the entire sky, illuminating the garden for one brief second.

​Something caught my eye.

​I froze.

​There, several feet ahead of me, my mother’s ribbon was caught on a low branch of a berry bush, moving wildly in the wind.

​A wave of pure relief rushed through me. "Oh, thank the Moon Goddess," I whispered, completely forgetting about the storm for a second.

​I rushed forward, my eyes locked on the ribbon, too focused on getting it back to pay attention to where I was stepping.

​I reached out my hand toward the branch. Almost there. My fingers were only inches away when I took another step forward, but my foot came down on nothing. The ground under me suddenly gave way, and for one terrible second, I felt like I was hanging in the air.

​"What the...?"

​I screamed as I suddenly fell, sliding through the wet dirt before crashing hard into freezing water below. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, and I went completely under the dirty water for a few terrifying seconds.

​I struggled, coughing and gasping for air until my feet finally touched the bottom and I pulled myself upright.

​Pain shot through my side, but I barely noticed it. I wiped the muddy water from my eyes and looked around, trying to understand where I was. The freezing water was already almost at my waist, and dark, muddy walls surrounded me on all sides.

​I slowly looked up toward the rectangular opening far above my head, surrounded by dark clouds and pouring rain.

​"Oh my God."

​I had fallen into a huge, deep pit. I had no idea what it was doing near the herb garden, or if it was a newly dug drainage trench, but I knew one thing for sure: I was completely trapped.

​I rushed toward the nearest wall and dug my fingers into the mud, lifting one foot and desperately searching for somewhere to place it as I managed to pull myself a little higher, but the wet soil immediately gave way under my fingers.

​"No!"

​My hands slipped, and I crashed straight back down into the freezing water with a hard splash.

​I gasped, wiped my face, and tried again, pushing my fingers deeper into the wet soil and using my bare feet to climb the slippery wall, but the soil gave way, and I slipped again.

​"No, no!"

​I fell back into the water harder this time. Panic exploded through my chest.

​"HELP!" I screamed toward the opening above me. "SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP ME!"

​I waited, praying to hear a voice, footsteps, anything at all, but nothing came back. There was only the endless sound of the rain.

​"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"

​A loud crack of thunder sounded above me, drowning out my screams completely.

​I stared upward, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps. The mansion wasn’t close enough. The clinic was already closed for the night. Nobody knew I had fallen in here—except the guard at the door who knew I had come to the herb garden.

​"HELP!" I screamed until my throat hurt. "PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

​Nothing. No one answered.

​I grabbed the muddy wall again and tried climbing, but the mud was becoming worse with every passing second. Rainwater poured down the sides like mini waterfalls, washing away every grip I tried to make.

​I slipped again, landing heavily. "Fuck!"

​I stood in the water, breathing heavily, my whole body shaking uncontrollably from the freezing cold and terror.

​Then I felt something against my stomach.

​I froze and slowly looked down. When I had first stood up, the water had been just below my waist. Now, with the rain pouring nonstop into the pit, it had already risen above my waist and was slowly climbing up my stomach.

​"No." I stared at it. "No, no, no."

​The rain was pouring into the pit without stopping, and the water kept rising. I threw myself at the wall again, no longer caring about the mud beneath my nails or the pain in my fingers. I had to get out. I climbed desperately, digging my fingers into the wet soil, but my foot slipped, and I fell back into the rising water.

​"HELP!" My voice broke into a desperate sob as I looked up. "PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

​Thunder crashed above me, swallowing my scream. I tried again, louder this time, but there was still no answer. Only the sound of the rain pouring down around me.

​My breathing became faster as I looked at the muddy walls surrounding me. Suddenly, they felt too close, and a familiar fear slowly began to crawl through my chest. No. I knew this feeling. The tight space. The walls around me. Nowhere to go. My chest tightened as I struggled to breathe normally.

​"Please..." I whispered, looking desperately at the opening above me. "Please, somebody hear me."