A SETTLEMENT AND DISSAPPEARANCE

River didn't want the money to be transferred to her bank account because her father monitored it and she couldn't cash out a lot of money because it was not convenient.

"I don't have cash," Ranon said coldly, he didn't know what was in this woman's mind, but he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.

"I don't need much, just give me twenty thousand dollars and we will call it a day."

"No. Take the blank check and leave." Ranon didn't want to exert any effort for her. He still didn't know if Hazel was a victim or a willing party in this entire scheme. He gave her the benefit of doubt, but he didn't want to put an extra effort to meet her ridiculous demands.

River took a deep breath. This was not the first time for her to face someone as obstinate as Ranon. Arlo was also a strong headed man…

River didn't want to dwell on it any longer and took the blank check. "Fine. I will leave now."

"You can't use the front door," Ranon said. He didn't want anyone to learn about what happened last night. He assumed River knew about that too.

River stood up and looked around. When she found Ranon's jacket, she took it. "I will take this with me, treat this as an interest." She then slipped the check into the pocket, since her dress didn't have one. "Don't worry, you only need to get rid of the evidence in this room. I will take care of the rest."

Ranon frowned. He didn't understand what she was talking about, but he immediately stood up when River started walking toward the balcony. "Where are you going?"

This room was on the third floor and there were no emergency stairs from the balcony. What did Hazel think she was going to do?!

"Stop right there!" Ranon hastened his steps when Hazel didn't listen to him and kept walking away, before her figure disappeared behind the sliding glass doors.

However, once he was there, she disappeared.

"Damn it!" Ranon felt his throat turn dry when he approached the railing and looked down. Three floors were not too high, there was a chance for her to survive if she jumped from here. He couldn't care less even if she died, but it would make him put extra effort to cover it up.

Extra work was always annoying.

Ranon expected to see her bloody body on the ground, but when he looked down, there was no one there. Everything looked normal. There was nothing suspicious at all.

"What the hell?" Ranon looked around, but he couldn't even catch a shadow of that woman. She simply disappeared. She vanished as if she didn't exist in the first place.

Ranon looked around from this grand balcony in his suite for five more minutes, but he couldn't find any trace of her. How could that possibly happen?

He then walked inside the room, which was still a mess, especially the bed. Somehow, last night, in the middle of their passion, they managed to get to the bed.

On the white sheets, he saw a red stain. There was no mistake in it.

He fished out his phone and dialed someone. "I want you to check on something."

On the other hand, the certain woman, who had made Ranon Leighton's head fill with confusion, was walking on the street casually. She was still wearing his jacket and the nightdress, barefooted.

People looked at her with confusion and whispered, but River couldn't care less about that. Her problem was bigger than minding what people thought about her.

With the blank check, she went to the bank and cashed it out. She also opened another bank account in her name.

But, as a little petty revenge on Ranon, she put a lot of zeroes behind the number and smiled smugly. "I told you to give me cash, but you insisted on doing this."

Once she was done, River went to buy clothes for herself, so she would look a little bit decent.

Again, she saw her reflection in the mirror and sighed deeply. She would have never imagined, not even in her wildest dreams did she imagine she would live as Hazel Rose.

The original Hazel's memories kept flooding her mind, but she was too tired to discern it all, so she let it be. It almost felt like watching a movie in her own mind…

Once she was done with everything, it was almost evening and she needed to go back home. Or, Hazel's home. River knew the location.

============================== 

That afternoon, Ranon received a call from the bank, informing him that there was a big transaction and asked him whether or not he was going to proceed.

Ranon's eyes turned dark when he heard the number, but he allowed it.

"There is nothing." Ares showed the monitors. "She doesn't appear on any camera. Are you sure she was here? Maybe you are drugged by something else that made you hallucinate."

Ranon glared at him and Ares shut his mouth.

Currently, they were in the CCTV monitoring control room, searching all the footage throughout the day to catch a glimpse of the woman that Ranon mentioned, but they couldn't find her anywhere.

"There are only two possibilities," Lucian said, touching his chin, deep in thought. "First, you were drugged with something else aside from the aphrodisiac, just like what Ares said and that woman didn't even exist and the second possibility is; she is an expert, like an assassin level expert, if she could dodge all the CCTV cameras."

Ares waved his hand. "Hazel Rose is an assassin? I don't think she will be able to kill an ant. I met with her before and she was as feeble as an elderly woman. Raise your voice in front of her and she will cry for three days and three nights straight."

The second option didn't make sense, but the first one was even more bizarre. Ranon lost his money and the red stain on the sheets was so glaring for fuck's sake!