Chapter 2059qWhen Francesca woke up the following morning, Layla was nowhere in sight.
Initially, Francesca was not bothered as she thought Layla had returned to her room. However, just as
she was getting changed, Anthony came barging in while he shouted, “Francesca, this is bad-”
Anthony quickly found himself choking on his word, for he ran into a half-naked Francesca. The scene
had him turning around immediately, and with a nervous tone, he said, “I-I didn't mean it!”
“Remember to knock next time.” On the other hand, Francesca took her time putting on her shirt and
jeans. “What happened? Why are you so nervous?”
“Ms. Layla and Mr. Lincoln are gone,” Anthony replied hurriedly, “I went to see Mr. Lincoln this morning,
but he's not around. Then there's also Ms. Layla! Both of them are gone. They both left in a jeep.”
“They have something they need to attend to.” Francesca replied casually, “Why are you acting like it's
a big deal?”
“No. That's not it! The door to the armory in Mr. Lincoln was opened!”
Upon hearing this, Francesca stiffened up for a second before she put up a serious expression. “What
did you say?”
At the same time, she was also walking toward the door while Anthony followed. His tone was anxious
as he said, “Something is wrong with them and I'm sure of that. Mr. Lincoln gave me a morning lesson
every day and acted like he was making a funeral arrangement for himself. Moreover, Ms. Layla also
stopped scolding me for some reason. She even cooked a big meal for me yesterday.”
“Get to the point,” the impatient Francesca said sternly.“I think they're gone because of something else. They might not return, or Mr. Lincoln wouldn't open the
armory. It's been a long time since they lay their fingers on those weapons,” Anthony finally voiced his
opinion after being reprimanded.
Meanwhile, as Anthony continued his long-winded talk, Francesca was already in Lincoln's room. The
armory door was locked, but a color pattern was gone from the rainbow marking imprinted on the lock.
When Lincoln designed that armory, he once said he hoped he would never have to open it again, for
that meant that they would be able to live peacefully for the rest of their lives alongside Layla.
And in case there was a need to open it, he wished there would be a limit to how many times he would
open it.
Hence, he made a rainbow marking and imprinted it on the armory's lock, which signified that the door
could only be opened seven times. Each time the door was opened, one of the seven color patterns
from the rainbow marking would be gone.
Long ago, when they first got here, they were often harassed by the local mobs. The mobs looking for
trouble had also injured the orphanage's employees and children.
Hence, out of anger, Layla and Lincoln opened the door to the armory three times and had the local
mobs entirely removed from their roots.
Later, they opened it up again during Chrono's revenge to retrieve some self-defense weapons against
Chrono and his men.
By right, after all these incidents, there should be only three more color patterns on the rainbow
markings, but there are just two of them right now, which means that the armory was opened once
again by them the night before or in the morning.Seeing the disappeared color from the rainbow marking and recalling everything Layla said to her,
Francesca finally understood everything. She eventually learned why the straightforward and decisive
Layla tried to talk sense into her and why she slept with Francesca. Those were all Layla's farewell
messages.
Yet, there she was, completely unaware of anything.
In an instant, overwhelming guilt swallowed Francesca. She hurriedly dialed Layla's number, only to
discover that she had already switched off her phone. Unable to reach Layla, Francesca immediately
called Lincoln, and it was the same. His phone was switched off, just like Layla's.
Francesca was anxious, and she immediately grabbed the car keys from Lincoln's table. As she was
about to leave to chase after Layla and Lincoln, she heard Anthony shouting, “Wait!”
“What now?” Francesca replied impatiently.
“There's a letter here.”
Anthony pulled a letter out from the bottom of a vase and delivered it to Francesca. It was a letter
written to Francesca.
Navig@te back to th€ roots of thïš substance at n0v^lebookThe young lady immediately opened the letter, filled with familiar handwriting. The words were all
written with love and care, just like Layla's tone last night.
Dear Frannie, Lincoln and I are already gone when you see this letter. Many enemies are on the hunt
for us now that our cover is blown. Therefore, we decided to leave before we drag you into this mess.