Aster Veren
Episode 178's

- Victor

"What's going on?" I asked when I saw Ansel holding Kalea's body with an expression that was difficult for me to explain.

My eyes widened in surprise when I saw the red liquid on the cloth that covered Kalea's stomach. "Lea?" My murmurs noticed her pale face that was unconscious.

"I'll take him to the hospital. You'll clean up the rest!"

"Huh? Tu–wait! Shouldn't I take care of my daughter? Let me take it to ru–" I stopped when I saw Ansel's red bead staring at me sharply.

What exactly happened? How could my daughter be hurt? What while he ran after Aster .. right Aster? Inner wondering.

"Where's Aster?" I asked before Ansel got into his car.

"You just find him. If you find him, call me immediately. Let me finish that kid!" He replied with a faint smile with his cold gaze, making me frown confused. What does it mean to finish? Is he crazy? Maybe he wants to kill his own daughter.

"I'm leaving!"

"Wait a minute!" Preventing me from being late, the car he was riding to go to the hospital with my daughter had already sped up quickly splitting the deserted road into the main road.

"We found the man from the Veren family sir!" Shouts my subordinates make me turn to him who has memapah–Hans? So Aster went with him?

"No–nona, where's miss?" Ask when I get in front of me. His condition was really alarming, it seemed like Hans was being beaten all out by those people. I became curious about Aster's condition, is he okay? Or did he also get a lot of injuries on his body?

"Victor! The car was–" Carel's voice caught my attention.

I saw him standing beside me with his hunting breath. Did he run?

"Hans? So that news ... Where is Aster?" He understood our situation immediately after controlling his breathing.

"I don't know either. I asked the lady to run away as I distracted the criminals." Obviously Hans made me wonder back with Ansel's attitude when he brought Lea back with him.

"I think Miss has met Mr. Ansel or his men. Seems not yet? Though the lady should get treatment immediately." Then with a soft voice made me cringe.

"care?" Me and Carel together.

"Before the car we were riding hit the road barrier, miss's head hit. Then when we were caught by the criminal gang, the lady also got a lot of wounds on her body because of the torture of those people. Not to mention before the shortness of– miss disease relapsed," he explained making the blonde child from the Alterio family immediately ran away from me and Hans. It seems like he's trying to find Aster.

"Find the daughter of the Veren family see you!" Tell my men, "and you! Take this man to the hospital. I'll catch up after I finish cleaning up all the mess here." I made him hurry.

***

- Carel

"Damn!" I felt annoyed at myself for being late. Yeah, I had to take a detour to get to the crime scene. Then I ran down the small road until I found some of the old man's men at the end of the road. And when I asked them, they had managed to catch those lunatics and point the way to where Victor was.

"Aster ... Where are you?" I continued muttering, still running around checking all over the place. Hope to find Aster.

No, I can't find that kid anywhere. I could only find signs of the rest of the fights and blood spots at some point. There seems to have been quite a fight between the two groups.

"How could the old man not find his son and instead be busy taking care of someone else's child? Where exactly did that common sense go?" Ocehku felt furious himself because he could not find the whereabouts of Aster.

I stopped my steps when I got the incoming call from Dwi, I quickly picked up the phone from her. "What's the situation?" The question sounds annoying.

"You can check for yourself, I'm busy!" My grunts continued my steps.

"busy? You mean busy making a scene?"

"Shut your mouth!"

"I heard the atmosphere there was quite chaotic, right? What about Aster? Is she okay?"

"No. I was looking for him so stop calling me!" I told her to decide on her call, but Dwi quickly shouted to hold me back.

"What do you mean by looking for him? Was the boy not with Uncle Ansel or Victor? What if he's with Hans?"

"I said no! Hans was alone with battered condition, the old man was busy taking care of other people's children. And Victor, he's busy tidying up the scene before the cops arrive." Obviously I clenched my left hand, put all my frustration there.

"Police will not arrive. I've taken care of it. I'll help you find the boy. Call me when you find him." Before turning off the call.

My fault! I wish I'd listened to Grandpa's story about the rumors. Maybe I won't be late. Maybe I won't know this bad news from television, nor will I know it from Kalea. My mind recalls Kalea's explanation of Aster's condition over the phone as I was on my way to the scene.

"Aster ...,"

***

- Esther

"Hiks ...," My sobbing on the street while sitting hugging my knee.

Mother ... Daddy–dia is really evil! I continued in my heart to remember his actions that shot at me without feeling the slightest hesitation. Even the look in his eyes really looked like he wanted to eliminate me.

Then the memory of Dad hugging Kalea, and staring at her worriedly with the gaze I so longed for returned swirled in my memory. Though my condition is not okay either, but Dad is more worried about Kalea than his own daughter.

"Dad even said evil things and threatened me. Asking me to go and hide from him ...," I still sobbed in pain all over my body.

"I–hiks, where to go?" I ask myself. I don't even have a place to go back to since mom and grandma died. That day even if Uncle Arsel hadn't saved me, I might have been living on the streets.

"Meong ...," I heard the sound of a cat eongan approaching me.

"... haha are you alone too?" I asked the dirty-looking white cat, standing in front of me. The blue bead met my eyes, making me think back to my cat who died a few years ago.

"Huwaaa..why does God always take away the things I love in my life? Why should you forget me? Why am I left alone? Why ... Why doesn't God take me away from this world?" My cry broke again, making the white cat move away.

Life is really unfair!

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Thanks for reading...