Is this destiny?

Albert stared at his phone while trying to process the current situation.

His house was robbed, his bank accounts are emptied, it all points to Sarah, she is in the Council, and he can\'t reach her! 

He wanted to check his investment portfolio, but it\'s the weekend so the website is down for maintenance. Or is it? What if that\'s part of robbing him? 

Albert took a few deep breaths while telling himself that he has several stashes of money and deeds through Switzerland, and he should not panic. 

Assuming that it\'s Sarah, she must be doing this with an agenda. After all, Albert didn\'t make a move against her, so her actions can\'t be retaliation.

Albert decided to reach Sarah and demand an explanation, but she is unreachable, so... now what? 

A minute later, he got an idea and made another call. "Jarred, I need to get in touch with Sarah."

"I heard that she has some family emergency.", Jarred responded right away.

"This… This is unacceptable!", Albert hissed.

"I don\'t know about you, but I also practice that family comes first. We just saw Sarah, and she said that she will meet with us in a week. What is so urgent that it can\'t wait?"

"She robbed my bank accounts!", Albert shouted.

Jarred exhaled heavily. "She robbed your house, stole the medallion, and now she robbed your bank accounts? Don\'t you think you are overdoing it? We all know that you don\'t like her presence in the Council, but you might want to tone it down because you sound like a madman."

"You don\'t…", Albert stopped talking when he realized that Jarred ended the call.

"AHH!", Albert shouted angrily, unsure how to vent his frustration.

He wanted to go to Sarah and trash the place, but he was well aware that in Los Angeles, Sarah is untouchable. This is her territory, and if he tries anything funny, there will be a heavy price to pay. Now what?

Dejectedly, he spoke to the driver. "To the airport, Aram… We are going home…"

…

~ Los Angeles, LA Medical Center ~

Sarah reached the hospital only a few minutes before JoAnna and Liz ended their exam on Vasily.

Aiden was there already, and the two of them waited in the hallway in order not to interrupt the two MDs.

The couple didn\'t talk about Sarah\'s meeting with the Council. Aiden watched it through Eve-lens, and it all went according to their plan.

"Any improvement?", Sarah asked as soon as JoAnna and Liz exited Vasily\'s room.

"The good news is that there are no bad news.", Liz responded. "At this point, he is stable. I can confirm that the surgery stopped the degradation of his condition. However, in order to tell you if that was temporary or assess potential improvements, we will need more time."

"How are his chances of waking up?", Sarah had to ask.

"They are the same as they were before the surgery.", Liz responded.

Liz wished to have better news for Sarah, but it is what it is.

"I will come tomorrow for another exam, and after that, I will be in touch with Anna. She will send me the patient\'s status daily and I will exam the data. If I find anything suspicious, I will return…"

…

Sarah and Aiden went to Vasily\'s room to see him before they head out.

Sarah\'s heart fell. Vasily lost even more weight, and his appearance didn\'t look good.

The man who always looked at her with a smug smile and a sparkle in his eye was now just barely more than a shadow. It was heartbreaking.

Aiden hugged Sarah from the side and wished to take some of her worries away, but he didn\'t know how.

Related to Vasily, Aiden couldn\'t do anything, but there was something else…

"Your father sent us some information…", Aiden said and paused until Sarah looked up at him. "I think we have it."

Sarah didn\'t get it. "Have, what?"

"The locations of the vaults."

Sarah\'s face lit up. "Of the Council?"

Aiden nodded. "You were in a meeting, so I didn\'t want to disturb you. I combined information what we had, the one from Mia, and the one that Edward sent. There are three locations. Felix is working on creating exact copies of your medallion so that we can send three teams to loot them at the same time..."

Sarah\'s lips lifted into a smile and she turned to Vasily. "Did you hear that, Uncle? We are doing just fine, so you don\'t need to worry about us. Focus on your recovery and come back to us. I am waiting for you to wake up so that we can have our second wedding. If you are willing, I would love that you escort me to the altar this time… The Council thought that they can force me to dance to their tune, but I am a Lebedev, and I will make them pay for their arrogance, just how you would…"

Aiden listened to Sarah talking to Vasily and he felt a mix of emotions. It\'s a long time since she spoke to Vasily like that. In the last week or so, she would just stand next to his bed and look at him while struggling to contain her tears from falling. Aiden hoped that Vasily pulls through this, because if he doesn\'t… it will be a big blow to Sarah. 

…

On the way out of the hospital, Sarah was in a visibly better mood.

Thoughts about plundering the Council\'s vaults included imagining sparkly valuables.

Often, when they enter one of their numerous warehouses, Aiden is teasing Sarah that she was a dragon in her previous life because she collects shiny stuff. His lively comparisons of their warehouses and dragon dens, and descriptions of how Sarah could sleep on a pile of gold, always make Sarah laugh until her belly aches.

"We should thank Mia.", Sarah said.

Aiden agreed. "Do you think we can open a collaboration channel with them?"

Sarah had a good feeling about Mia and Hunter, but she still had to act with caution. "Let\'s start with some information exchange and take it from there."

"Do you want me to take care of it?", Aiden offered.

"Leave this to Igor and Zack.", Sarah said before explaining further, "Zack has the experience, and Igor is willing to learn. I want Igor to be the primary, while Zack mentors him."

Aiden shot Sarah a side-glance. "I see that you are sparing Noah."

Sarah bobbed her head. "He just got engaged. I want him to enjoy with Chloe. The poor girl suffered with her family, she should be subjected to the joy of suffering with her fiancé."

What Sarah didn\'t know was that the one suffering was Noah because Chloe got her period. Noah was elated that Chloe embraced him, together with their relationship, and they were intimate, but now he had to hold back and act gentlemanly. For four more days. Pure torture.

In the last few days, Noah and Chloe settled pre-wedding documents with the Long family, and Steve made sure that Chloe gets a good dowry (at the expense of her seniors).

Steve was generous, and seniors didn\'t dare to complain, so it all ended up better than what Noah planned originally.

Noah scheduled another meeting with the Long family, in order to start a discussion about the wedding. Of course, Noah requested that Chloe\'s seniors need to attend.

The Long seniors got excited. They love to be part of the decision-making and hope that young master Bennet (aka Noah) will show up with some presents.

Noah can\'t wait to see their faces when he drops a bomb that the bride\'s side of the family needs to pay for the extravagant wedding, and that as people who volunteered to guide Chloe through this process, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Leo, and Uncle Kevin are the ones responsible for the cost.

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