A Force Love Contract With GANG LEADER

Early the next morning, when Tristan had just got up, his cell phone vibrated.

He got it and frowned when he saw the number. He pressed the button and walked to the door, buttoning his shirt at the same time. But he stopped halfway.

Kate had been awake when the phone vibrated on their nightstand. She opened her eyes and saw Tristan standing still in the middle of the room. He looked stiff. “What is it?”

After keeping quiet for a few seconds, he turned back to her mechanically and looked at her. “My mom is gone.”

Gone? Where?

He repeated, “My mom passed away last night. Cerebral infarction.”

He only button the top two buttons of his shirt, and his abs were visible. His face was expressionless, and he seemed to be in a daze. He went back to the bed and sat down at the corner.

His shoulders drooped, and his arms hung by his side spiritless. He looked like a silent sculpture.

It took Kate quite some time to digest this news. She lifted up the blanket and moved to his side of the bed slowly. She touched his arm accidentally and was startled by the hardness of the muscle. She looked down to find that under his palm, the sheets were wrung into a ball.

She covered his hand with hers and asked softly, “Do you want me to go with you?”

She heard him heave a sigh a few seconds later, and he agreed in a low voice.

Before they set off, Kate put the bracelet on. She thought of the old lady’s persistence yesterday, and tears came to her eyes.

In the colorful room, Kate saw the old lady for the last time.

She looked peaceful as if she was just sleeping.

Kate felt both sad and helpless. Life was so fragile and unpredictable.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

She caught sight of the pizza in a transparent plastic container, and she could not hold her tears. Tristan, by contrast, was calm the whole time. Only the people who knew him well could see that air of sadness surrounded him.

Kate didn’t attend the following events. Tristan had somebody send her back after she stayed for one hour. In the evening, he called and said he would not be back and asked her to get some rest.

It was four days later that she received more information.

Ed, who she had not seen for a long time, asked anxiously, “Is Boss at home?”

Kate told him no.

“Did he call these past two days?”

“No.”

“Shit.”

“How’s that?”

“Boss disappeared.”

Tristan stayed a day with his mother, and the next day her body was cremated. Ed and the crew went together and sent the ashes to be buried in the same place as his father. On the way back, Tristan wanted to go alone.

They thought he needed to have some space and left him. However, a few hours later, when they called him again, his phone was off. His secretary said he hadn’t shown up at the company these past few days.

Tristan was a difficult person to understand, and the loss of contact under this situation made them worried. Ed was fretting, “I am worried that was more than he can take. He took it too hard.”

The scene of Tristan sitting on the bed with his hands wringing the sheet flashed in Kate’s mind, but she said, “No. He should be okay.”

“You don’t know that the time when his wife passed away, Boss was driven by an impulse to kill…” Ed stopped in time and sighed, “And it is his mother this time.”

Kate seemed not to hear the word he slipped out of his tongue by accident and muttered, “He won’t do anything stupid. He is a person with a sense and strong will…”

The sun was sinking into the sea inch by inch, and the strong and sensible man was sitting in a car.

The window of the car was slid down thoroughly, and the cold and hard sea wind blew in and hit Tristan’s face mercilessly. He seemed not to feel it. The collar of his coat was pulled up to resist some of the cold.

A row of beer cans stood on the dashboard. Every can was squeezed to an odd shape.

He fumbled in his pocket, but the pack of cigarettes he got out was empty.

He played with the lighter, flipping it on and watching the flame, and then turned it off. After some time, he got tired of this game and threw the lighter out of the window. It dropped into the sea and made a small sound when it hit the water.

He started the car, and the wheel of the limousine ground the gravel below and made loud noises. The noise stimulated his nerves and also gave him a feeling of self-abuse.

He got on the coastal highway and smashed the gas pedal. The car shot forward. Every man has some crazy genes. All the restraint and self-control were just suppressed temporarily and would explode when the time came.

Tristan turned the radio to the maximum volume, and the sound of the piano filled up the air inside the car and crashed into his ears. The music carried fury as well as sorrow.

What flew in his blood vessels was not blood anymore. It was roaring water.

Nothing could stop him. The car was at top speed until he heard a thud.