Dear Ex-wife Marry Me novel (Maja) novel Chapter 1565

The glass cabinet wasn't made of the ordinary kind one saw in storefronts. Under the weight of some unseen force, it had shattered, sending shards skittering across the floor where they lacerated the back of his hand, leaving behind a trail of blood.

But he didn't care, not even enough to bandage the wound. Instead, he just turned around and headed back to his room to sleep.

Ian watched the scene unfold with a mix of confusion and disbelief. What was this guy on?

It wasn't until Ian passed by another room and heard noises that should have been private -noises so cringeworthy that he wished he could unhear them. The deliberate cooing and feigned innocence emanating from a woman in her fifties sent shivers down his spine.

He knew what was happening behind that door, and he heard the name the woman was calling out.

Suddenly, it all clicked for Ian. Philip had lost his marbles. In a desperate bid to please this woman, he had thrown his own brother to the wolves - or rather, to an old vixen with a heart of stone. No wonder the guy was losing his mind.

After all, Philip was a man of pride.

A smirk of irony touched Ian's eyes. The world was a twisted stage, and Philip, who thought he was pulling all the strings, was just as much a puppet as the rest.

What went around, came around.

When Ian got back to his room, an hour had passed. He had gotten a good sense of the layout, except for Dylan, he'd located all the living souls. But he suspected there were parts of the air ducts he hadn't accessed yet. So far, he hadn’t detected any area that likely belonged to the higher-ups of the research base.

Like that man in the central hall earlier - his quarters remained elusive.

Ian had thought the ducts ran through the entire base. Now it seemed they only covered three-quarters of it. The remaining quarter housed the elite.

For now, Ian had also learned about some of the toxins in the core lab, but he wasn't about to make a move just yet.

A few more days of observation were in order.

Elsewhere, Maja had been on edge ever since she lost contact with Ian. She couldn't sleep, so she decided to take a stroll down the hallway.

Ian had made her promise not to leave the building, and she had been obedient, only venturing as far as the corridor. Their people occupied the rooms on all three floors, giving her a sense of security.

Her gaze drifted outside the hotel, where she spotted a woman staggering about. It was her neighbor, who had been missing for two days. Didn’t expect she’d appear tonight.

Maja frowned, and then she saw the woman collapsed at the hotel's entrance. She wanted to go check herself but was stopped by Ian's men.

"Ms. Pennyfeather, Mr. Raymond insists you stay inside."

"My friend has just collapsed outside the hotel. Please, check on her."

Upon saying this, she instinctively glanced at Maja's belly, and as if afraid she might contaminate her with something vile, then quickly turned away, "Keep your distance from me."

"You've been checked; you're healthy. But do you realize how contagious that sickness is?"

The woman forced a smile, "I told you before, I always felt my brother was still alive. I met a local in the village who claimed he saw a boy wearing a jade bead bracelet."

"There are plenty of people in the world with jade bracelets."

Maja didn't want to douse her hopes with cold fact, but if she continued venturing recklessly into dangerous places, she might not make it out alive.

The woman's head drooped as she stared at the cup in front of her.

"Yeah, but I just have this gut feeling that he's waiting for me to rescue him. I can't sleep. After my brother disappeared, my mom went crazy and vanished too. My dad didn't think so; he believed she ran away with my brother, leaving behind their useless daughter. He remarried quickly, and there was no room for me at home. A year later, I found my mom's body in a trash heap, swarming with rats. I heard she wandered those places for a long time, always searching for her son."

Her grip on the cup tightened, her lips turning pale, "If only I had held onto my brother's hand tighter, if only he hadn't been taken away..."

Maja took the cup from her hands and sighed, "Be careful with your wounds. Rest for now."

The woman's eyes brimmed with tears, and she was left speechless.