"Why ain''t you eating?" Abigail asked, looking all puzzled.


    Quinn stayed quiet for a sec, then reluctantly shoved the meat in her mouth. The second she bit into it, the greasy BBQ taste made her stomach flip. She dropped her fork, clutched her chest, and gagged into the trash can. But after a few dry heaves, nothing came out.


    Abigail stared at her, wide-eyed. "Is it really that bad?"


    Quinn grabbed the water cup on the table and took a big gulp. "Maybe I''m just used to eating light stuff. This greasy food is too much for me."


    "Really?" Abigail asked, giving her a skeptical look, thendled Quinn a bowl of soup with some chicken floating in it.


    "Try this. The chicken should be pretty light," she suggested.


    Quinn picked up the bowl and cautiously took a sip. This time, no reaction. Her stomach was still a bit queasy from earlier, so she took a few more sips. Seeing this, Abigail let out a sigh of relief. She rearranged the dishes on the table, putting the greasy ones on her side and the lighter ones on Quinn''s side. After eating, she took Quinn to check out some other spots. Seeing that Quinn wasn''t really into it, Abigail took her back.


    "Abigail, thanks for hanging out with me today. I''m kinda beat and wanna crash," Quinn said apologetically.


    "Then go to bed already. You didn''t sleep at allst night, so you must be wiped," Abigail said thoughtfully, nudging her and urging her to head upstairs. Quinn went upstairs, nced towards the master bedroom, hesitated for a moment, and chose the guest room on the left.


    She wasn''t actually sleepy, just tired and wanting some alone time.


    Sitting down on the chair by the window, she pulled out her phone and shot a message to Kyle, asking him to send over the info on the Mellon Group. Kyle was quick. In less than five minutes, all the info was in her email.


    Quinn logged into her email on herputer and downloaded the files, which turned out to be 2 GB in size.


    She wondered how long it would take to go through all this info, not to mention if she could remember it all. Before long, Kyle called her.N?velD(ram)a.?rg owns this content.


    Quinn answered the phone and heard Kyle say, "Just skim through it. I''ll swing byter to exin the important stuff."


    Quinn let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, got it."


    She put down her phone and scrolled through the content with her mouse. The room was quiet, and a gentle breeze blew in from the window, lifting the strands of hair by her ear.


    As she read, drowsiness hit her. She hadn''t slept in ages, and her mind was too foggy to absorb the info.


    She didn''t know when she closed her eyes, but once again, those bizarre images popped up. The scene of Alexander falling kept shing before her eyes. In her dream, she kept telling herself that he was dead. She couldn''t fight the thoughts in her dream. She ran towards him countless times, only to grasp at nothing each time.


    She could do nothing but watch him fall before her eyes. His deep eyes looked at her, and she couldn''t understand the meaning in them. She had never seen such a calm look in the face of death. Suddenly, the scene changed, and she saw Alexander alive.


    He was covered in blood, tied to a chair, his head hanging low, and his messy hair obscuring his face, looking barely alive.


    She wanted to approach him, but he slowly lifted his head, his cold gaze piercing through his hair and looking at her.


    As their eyes met, the world behind him shattered, fragmenting like a broken mirror and pulling her into a dark abyss.


    Quinn felt the sensation of falling, stepping into emptiness. The intense weightlessness hit her, and just before shended, she woke up.