At dinner that evening, Brittany took over all of Louis’s work and inexplicably threw challenging glances at Louis. During the meal, Elisa sensed the silent competition between the siblings. When Louis tried to sit next to her, Brittany quickly seized the spot, leaving Louis no choice but to sit on Elisa’s left. Each time Louis tried to serve Elisa some food, Brittany promptly had a servant place the dish in front of Elisa. In between bites, Elisa glanced at Louis and saw him glaring at Brittany with anger in his eyes. If they weren’t eating, he might have grabbed her by the collar. Brittany appeared indifferent, solely focused on outmaneuvering her dear brother.
After dinner, Mrs. White suggested that Elisa stay the night, as it was getting late. Elisa agreed after some consideration. “Are you and Louis going to sleep in the same room?” Mrs. White’s question caught Elisa off guard. Mrs. White immediately understood that although the two were cohabiting, they hadn’t reached the stage of sharing a bed. Louis, in certain respects, was a bit naive. Despite his usual enthusiastic and puppy-like demeanor, when it came to crucial matters, he would shy away. Sensing her mother’s unusual gaze, Louis felt somewhat uncomfortable, his eyes darting around, his ears turning red. “What are you looking at? We need to be married to sleep together.” For Louis, marriage was a sacred matter. There were boundaries to be respected, and some things should only happen after marriage. He wanted to be responsible for Elisa and provide her with a sense of security. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend every moment with Elisa, but he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself. The thought made Louis visibly uneasy. Mrs. White wanted to laugh but managed to hold it in. She hadn’t realized her son was so rigid and spineless. “We have plenty of rooms. I’ll have a room prepared for you,” she said to Elisa. Elisa was about to nod when Brittany, seemingly out of nowhere, interjected, “Don’t bother, let Elisa sleep with me.” She looked at Elisa expectantly, waiting for her response. Elisa thought to herself: It must be the result of today’s gift that has caused Brittany’s attitude to change so drastically.
“Alright, then,” they say women who act cute have good luck. Brittany took hold of Elisa’s arm, shaking her from side to side with all her might, even giving herself goosebumps. After a couple of shakes, Louis stepped forward, pushed Brittany aside, and shielded Elisa. “Step aside; Elisa doesn’t like sleeping with others.” Brittany retorted, “Elisa hasn’t said anything. How do you know she doesn’t want to sleep with me? We girls can have many chats at night.” Brittany looked at Elisa, who was behind Louis, and said, “Elisa, why don’t you sleep with me tonight? I’ll tell you stories about my childhood.” Her brother, standing tall like a wall, prevented any eye contact between Brittany and Elisa. Brittany was well aware that this might be her only chance to sleep with her idol. If she missed this opportunity, she might not have another, especially considering her brother’s possessiveness, which would likely prevent her from having any similar opportunities.
Elisa was not particularly interested in Brittany’s childhood stories. She was more interested in Louis. Louis had a poor memory and rarely spoke about his past. Furthermore, she was concerned about the remarks Mr. White made while playing chess today. There was more to his words than met the eye. The more she tried to ignore them, the more impossible it became. She couldn’t find another opportunity to ask Mr. White, and now Brittany had taken the initiative. Perhaps she could learn something from her. Elisa made up her mind and gently pushed Louis aside, saying, “Alright, tonight I’ll sleep with Brittany. Aunt Burns, there’s no need to prepare another room.” Louis was struck as if by lightning, looking at Elisa in shock as his expression slowly collapsed, resembling an abandoned stray dog. Mrs. White sought confirmation, “Are you really going to sleep with Brittany tonight?” Elisa replied with a simple “Yes” and nodded. Brittany jumped up happily, grabbing Elisa’s hand, “Then I’ll take Elisa to my room.” Mrs. White reminded her, “Take good care of Elisa.” “I know.” The two left, leaving Mrs. White looking at Louis, still standing as if in a daze. She patted his shoulder symbolically as she left, “Look at how proactive your sister is. Learn from her.”
“Mom,” Louis called out to Mrs. White, who was about to leave, and asked nervously, “Is there anything that might happen between two women sleeping together?” “Nothing will happen. Atmost, they might just cuddle or even bathe together.” Mrs. White teased her son before leaving, leaving Louis speechless. He didn’t dare to ask any further about what was normal or not.
Elisa usually went to bed early. Following Brittany into the room, she took a look around. It was spacious, and she had expected Brittany’s room to be more like a princess’s chamber, but it was surprisingly simple and tidy. Brittany held Elisa’s hand and suddenly became nervous after they returned to the room. She couldn’t believe how easily she had managed to bring her idol into the room. “Elisa, you freshen up first, I’ll wait for you. This is the bathroom, the shower gel and shampoo are over there. Oh, you didn’t bring your pajamas, do you want to wear mine?” Elisa hadn’t expected Brittany’s sudden warmth. “Sure,” she replied. Brittany found a nightgown, white lace, and her intentions were obvious. Elisa didn’t notice her motives; she simply thought… the nightgown was a bit revealing, but it was only for sleeping and not for going out, so it didn’t matter.
While showering, Elisa got her hair wet, so she decided to wash it as well. After finishing her shower, Brittany prepared a towel for her to dry her hair and even placed a hairdryer by the bed.”Elisa, I’ll blow-dry your hair for you.”
“No need, I can do it myself. You go wash up first.”
Brittany couldn’t miss the chance to blow-dry her idol’s hair up close. “I like to wash before going to sleep. I don’t feel like sleeping yet. Elisa, sit down. I’ve plugged in the hair dryer,” she said as she pressed the switch. The hot air blew on Elisa’s damp, long hair.
Elisa was forced to sit down and accept the hair-drying service.
Brittany’s technique was gentle, her fingers slipping into Elisa’s long hair, testing the temperature as she blew. “If it feels too hot, remind me.”
“Okay.” Elisa was silent at that moment, while Brittany behind her seemed to have opened up.
Waving the hair dryer in her hand, Brittany praised Elisa, “Elisa, your hair is really nice.”
Seeing one praise after another, one second praising the hair and the next second praising the skin or figure.
Elisa had never had a close female friend in her life, very few friends, let alone female friends, and the only female friend who was close to her age who had ever helped her was Doctor Hattie.
But their relationship was not this close. When Elisa encountered difficulties, she couldn’t help but wonder how to deal with someone like Brittany, and suddenly she began to suspect whether the seemingly cold Brittany was an illusion.
“Brittany, didn’t you say you wanted to tell me about your childhood?”
“Just a moment…” Brittany dried her hair and picked up her tablet from beside the pillow. She turned it on, and the screensaver was a photo of Elisa.
Brittany was startled when she saw it and tried to hide, but it was too late, Elisa had seen it.
She had opened the tablet in front of Elisa, and she couldn’t have missed it even if she had tried.
Brittany awkwardly smiled and swiped her finger, clicking into the photo album to change the subject.
“Elisa, let me show you some of my old photos. This is my one-month-old photo, a picture of me just learning to walk, a family photo, I drew lots…”
Elisa’s attention was diverted as she browsed through each photo one by one, realizing something was wrong.
These were photos of Brittany from childhood to adulthood, essentially a record of her growing up. But in these photos, Brittany had taken pictures with many people, there were family photos, but Louis was conspicuously absent.
Elisa grew tired of flipping through the photos and only saw pictures of Louis in the last few years.
Elisa casually asked, “Did you not like taking pictures with your brother when you were little?”
“It’s not that I didn’t like it, there just wasn’t an opportunity to take pictures.”
“Your brother didn’t want to?”
Brittany hesitated, her eyes downcast as if in thought, and after a while, Brittany uttered a “yeah,” almost as if admitting it.
Elisa frowned, she hadn’t asked much about Louis’s past, but she knew he had received treatment abroad for heart problems early on. Could it be because of this that there were no childhood photos of him?
But from Brittany’s tone, it sounded more like Louis didn’t like taking pictures. But if he didn’t like taking pictures and didn’t want to face the camera, how could he have entered the entertainment industry?
Initially, Elisa had suspected Louis was Autumn, but Louis had always insisted to her that he had been abroad for heart treatment and hadn’t suffered any gunshot wounds. In addition, when Autumn collapsed in front of her, she had been shot in the left chest, shoulder, and leg, but Elisa had not found any signs of injury on Louis’s body.
“Did your brother have heart problems before? Did he undergo surgery?”
“How do you know, Elisa? Did my brother tell you?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it to me, but I’m just curious. If he had heart surgery, why doesn’t he have a scar on his chest?”
“Medicine is advanced now. They can cure cancer; what’s the big deal about removing a few scars? He insisted on entering the entertainment industry and having his scars removed for his image.”
“Are you saying he had his scars removed?”
Brittany didn’t understand why Elisa seemed so surprised, but she nodded.
Elisa felt weak. Only now did she realize that three years after her death, the world had already changed.
Just as Brittany said, some cancers can be cured, so what’s the big deal about removing a few scars?
Could it be that Louis was actually the Autumn from back then? He was shot in the chest but didn’t die, and Finn andHamish had lied to her from the beginning. Elisa trembled as she covered her mouth with her shaking hands, her mind blank. When one is emotionally overwhelmed, they can feel as if they are in a world of emptiness, as if their soul has left their body. She fell into deep thought, repeatedly piecing together every possible scenario from the beginning.
For instance, Louis had indeed stayed in a foreign hospital because he had been shot and had slipped into a coma due to a nerve injury, and after waking up, he had undergone scar removal surgery. Five years ago, she had been hypnotized by Hamish to forget everything. Could Louis also have been hypnotized?
The most crucial questions were still with Hamish and Finn. Why did Hamish sow discord between her and Louis, telling Louis that she only saw him as a stand-in for Autumn? How did Hamish know that the person she had always liked was Autumn, and why was he so sure when telling Louis this?
Seeing Elisa in a distraught state, Brittany called out to her several times without a response. She couldn’t help but feel a bit panicked, shaking her arm, “Elisa, what’s wrong?”
Elisa stiffly raised her head and, moving her lips, confirmed, “Brittany, is Louis really your brother?”
“He is my brother, though I hate to admit it. When we go out, everyone says we look alike, and he looks a lot like my dad too.”
“Did you two grow up together?”
“Well…” Brittany’s eyes began to evade Elisa’s gaze.
Elisa’s heart sank, and she pressed on, “Do you know someone named Autumn from Goodlife Orphanage? Wasn’t your brother treated abroad not for a heart condition but because he was shot in the chest?”
Brittany’s lips parted in disbelief as she looked at Elisa, “Elisa, you…”