“Tell me, is it as I said? Why else does he look so much like Autumn? Why don’t you have a single childhood photo of him? Why did your dad say he grew up in hardship?” Elisa was agitated, trying to control herself, but her eyes were red.
Startled, Brittany, who had been standing, suddenly sat down on the bed.
Elisa, looking down from a higher position, questioned each word, her imposing manner exuding a cold and intimidating force from within. Brittany tried to speak, but her teeth were chattering.
The expression on Brittany’s face said it all, but Elisa wanted an accurate answer, one from her own mouth. She took a slight breath, Brittany regained her composure, but still felt uneasy. “Elisa, I can’t tell you. If you want to know, you can ask my parents.”
Elisa bit her lip, her emotions so intense that her mind was reeling, her chest still heaving. Her whole body felt like boiling blood, making her fingertips tremble. She turned away so Brittany wouldn’t see her disheveled expression.
“I want to ask right now.” Her nightgown was too thin to wear outside, but Elisa tried to change and was stopped by Brittany.
“I’ll call my mom right now.” Brittany took out her phone, Elisa watching as she made the call. It didn’t take long for the call to connect, and Mr. White’s voice came through.
“Brittany? Did you accidentally call me? Why are you calling at this hour?”
“Where’s my mom?” Brittany interrupted Mr. White’s rambling. “It’s important. When she’s done washing up, tell her to come to my room. Elisa has something to ask her, about my brother’s heart.”
Alerted by Brittany’s unusual tone, Mr. White changed his tone and said, “Alright.”
Brittany looked at the hung-up phone, then slowly raised her head to Elisa. “I’ve called. My mom will be here in a while.”
“Thank you,” Elisa said.
Brittany shook her head, coming out of her shock, and started to wonder why Elisa knew these things. Why was she so emotionally stirred about her brother’s past?
Neither of them spoke, and the room suddenly fell silent. They could hear each other’s breathing. Brittany couldn’t stand the silence, but she couldn’t break it. She sat on the edge of the bed, not daring to move until they heard a knock on the door.
“I’ll go open the door,” Brittany suddenly stood up and hurried to open the door, signaling Mrs. White outside.
Mrs. White took a deep breath, prepared before coming in. “Brittany, go outside and wait. I need to talk to Elisa.”
“Alright,” Brittany was eager to leave at that moment.
She carefully closed the door behind her. The room had soundproofing, so even if she pressed her ear to the door, she wouldn’t be able to hear anything inside.
Elisa stood and watched Mrs. White walk in. “Aunt Burns.”
“Sit, let’s talk.”
The use of the word “talk” was very clever, not a statement, nor a chat. Mrs. White was intentionally hiding something.
Mrs. White sat down. “Can I ask what your relationship is with the Autumn from the orphanage?”
“He’s very important to me.”
“Do you like Autumn?”
Elisa nodded without hesitation.
Mrs. White paused, then asked, “Did you get close to Louis because of him?”
“To be honest, initially yes, but not anymore. I know very well what I like and want. I’ve never seen Louis as a replacement for Autumn, even though I now know they are the same person,” Elisa spoke directly, not wanting to beat around the bush with Mrs. White.
Mrs. White sighed. “I was initially worried that if Louis changed, you wouldn’t like him anymore. It seems my worries were unnecessary. But I’m curious, how did you find out?”
“If you don’t tell me clearly tonight, then I will directly ask Hamish and Finn. I think they should also know very well,” Elisa said.
Mrs. White was now more than simply astonished; she realized that she couldn’t see through the person in front of her at all. She had investigated Elisa before.
She came from a small village before her debut, how could she know Hamish and Finn, and how could she know about the White family’s affairs?
Could it be because she had met Louis before? But where did Elisa get the chance?
“How did you find out?”
“I suspected when I first looked at his face. Autumn had suffered many injuries, and I had asked Louis about it, but he denied it, even saying that in his memory, he was always with you or receiving heart treatment abroad. I think he must have been hypnotized by you.”
Elisa paused and continued, “That alone wasn’t enough for me to confirm that he was Autumn. Today, Uncle White mentioned that Louis had grown up accustomed to hardship, and just now Brittany showed me your family photos, but among the two or three thousand photos, there isn’t a single childhood photo of him. His photos only started appearing frequently in recent years…”