“Brittany’s photos have been there since she was young, but Louis’s photos have only increased in recent years. According to your affection for the children, it shouldn’t be like this. It’s too discordant, isn’t it?” Elisa countered.
Mrs. White listened to Elisa’s words in silence and after a moment, she smiled quietly. “Have you ever thought that the absence of photos might be due to some accidents?”
“I believe in my judgment. Besides, one incident might be accidental, but several incidents piled together… can they still be called accidental?” Elisa’s expression was serious.
“Are you deliberately hiding something? Let’s take the scars on his body, for example. Brittany said that the removal of the scars was for entering the entertainment industry, but I have seen all the photos and videos of Louis since his debut in recent years, and I have never seen him bare-chested. So, even if he didn’t remove the scars, it wouldn’t make a difference because he doesn’t like to show his upper body in front of others.”
“Then, think from another angle. Could it be because you are afraid he would remember something when he sees those scars, for example, that he was treated in a foreign hospital not because of a heart condition, but because of a gunshot wound?”
One sentence followed another, leaving Mrs. White unable to respond. She knew that Elisa knew something, but she had not expected her to know so much, even that Louis had been shot and treated abroad. Why did Elisa know so much?
“Why do you know so much…”
Those memories were the ones Elisa least wanted to revisit, but the things one tries hardest not to remember linger longest in memory, like an injury deep in the bone, aching with every rain.
Elisa had been tormented by this pain and now, as she uncovered it, her eyes were red from the pain. Her heart felt as though it was being twisted by a rope, and every breath was painful. She looked out of the window.
“Aunt Burns might not believe it, but I have known Louis for a very long time.” If one had to measure it in time, it would have been in the previous life.
“He was shot in front of my eyes, and at that time, I thought he had died.” She didn’t know how she managed to say it in such a calm manner.
Stained with blood at the chest, the fallen figure, overwhelming despair, heartrending pain, she was like a fish hooked and pulled ashore, unable to do anything but watch as he was taken away.
That became her lifelong nightmare, an unforgettable past.
Mrs. White’s pupils trembled, her tone excited. “You say Louis was injured in front of your eyes? Do you know who shot him?”
“Finn.”
“Actually him?” Mrs. White seemed to recall something, her emotions becoming more unstable, her voice escalating as if out of control.
“So… Aunt Burns, can you tell me specifically what happened afterwards? Why doesn’t Louis remember anything from before?”
“This is what I want to talk to you about tonight.” Mrs. White explained the whole story to Elisa, such as when the child was swapped by a servant of the Burns family, and then discussed Louis’s injury.
“Louis suffered a brain injury when he was a child. Due to not receiving timely treatment, he was mentally impaired for over a decade in the orphanage. When he was shot, Finn came to inform us and said he had found our son.”
“How did he know at that time that Louis was the son you were looking for?” Elisa asked puzzled.
“Perhaps because Louis inherited from your Uncle White, his heart is on the right side. Combined with his age, he might have been investigated, which led to the accidental discovery. At that time, to thank Finn, I gave him shares in the Burns family.” Mrs. White explained, but at the thought of the person who hurt her son being Finn, she was filled with fury. Finn had calculated that his methods were clean and nothing could be found out, but he had not anticipated that Elisa, who was believed to be dead, would return, and that too, just as Autumn appeared.
Now it all made sense. That was why Autumn, who had clearly been shot in the left chest, did not die.
“Why doesn’t he remember anything from the past? Did you hypnotize him?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you do that?”
Mrs. White spoke, “There are reasons for what happened. You don’t know. Louis was in a coma for two years before waking up. After waking up, he was mentally disturbed, crying and shouting to save someone, saying that someone was waiting for him. At that time, his body had not fully recovered, and his brain, having just recovered, couldn’t handle the stimulation. The doctors advised us to seek psychological treatment, and we chose to use hypnosis. Firstly, for hishealth, and secondly, because the memories left in his mind were not pleasant. Since they would bring him pain, we thought it better for him to forget.”
“How did you know that he wanted to forget the past, when he could have received psychological treatment? Instead, you hypnotized him to forget everything and forcibly implanted a memory that didn’t belong to him. In the end, it’s selfish!” Elisa’s eyes turned red, and she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. Perhaps she recalled being hypnotized herself, or thought of Autumn, who had woken up after two years of sleep, even though she was mentally unstable and unable to move, still wanted to save her. The thought broke her heart, and at the thought, her heart ached as if it had been gnawed at.
Mrs. White also began to shed tears.
“Elisa, you have never been a mother, you do not know the feeling of finding a lost child. At that time, Louis was lying on his deathbed, barely clinging to life. He had been given a dozen critical condition notices, his heart stopped beating every other day, and the doctors said he might spend his whole life lying in that bed and never wake up. I admit that it was selfish of us to use hypnosis after he woke up, but I didn’t want him to risk his life to find someone! I just wanted him to be safe and sound by our side. Is it wrong for parents to have such thoughts?”
Elisa had never been a mother, having lost two children and undergone a hysterectomy, which deprived her of the opportunity to be a mother. Furthermore, she had never experienced a mother’s love. Indeed, she did not understand, but that did not mean she could not empathize. Elisa, with red eyes, found Mrs. White’s words to be like characters she couldn’t understand, jumping into her ears, constantly stimulating her nerves. She felt fear along with those words, as if she could see her past self, constantly struggling on the sickbed. It turned out that Autumn, just like her, was enduring the same pain.
Mrs. White’s voice murmured in her ears, and Elisa lowered her head, looking at her own clenched and bruised hands. She listened to her trembling voice as she asked, “So, what now, I know…?”
Mrs. White placed her hand on Elisa’s fist. “Elisa, let go of the past Autumn. To you, they are the same person, but to us, Louis is our son.”
So they abandoned the “silly” Autumn from the orphanage, as if Autumn had never appeared in this world. Mrs. White added, “Those memories are actually unimportant now. You and Louis are together now, aren’t you?”
“Are you afraid that if he regains his memory, he will blame you for ‘losing’ him carelessly all those years ago? Are you afraid that once he remembers, he will leave you?” Elisa’s voice quivered.
“Yes, I know the likelihood of that is very small, but even the smallest possibility can occur, can’t it? I now know that last year when Louis woke up in a daze, he kept saying he wanted to find someone, and that person was you. I don’t know how you two knew each other before, or what happened in between. I don’t want to ask too much, after all, everyone has their own secrets.”
Mrs. White mentioned the incident from last year when Louis thought he was a substitute and pulled out his teeth. It was both heartbreaking and funny to think about. He had been so jealous, only to end up being jealous of his own past.
“The misunderstanding between you and Louis was resolved last year. Whether there is an Autumn or not is not important. Moreover, isn’t the person you love now him? Just consider that nothing happened, that everything has always been this way. Autumn is Autumn, Louis is Louis. It’s clear in your heart that you have always loved him. Even if he forgets the past, he fell in love with you again at first sight. So, the memories of the past are not important at all,” Mrs. White emphasized, as if brainwashing Elisa, trying to make her let go of her guard.
Elisa’s face turned pale. Mrs. White reached out and hugged her. Her body trembled in Mrs. White’s arms. Mrs. White was warm and fragrant, easily engulfing Elisa. It wasn’t the first time Elisa had been hugged by Mrs. White. She had thought before, if her mother were still alive, would her embrace have been as warm as this?
The embrace that had once made Elisa feel so warm, now held her, making her feel a suffocating pain. Her soul split in two, detached from her body, watching her struggling self below. One voice told her she could tell Louis the whole truth; feelings should be mutual, and she should tell Louis that she had always loved only him. Another voice told her to stay silent, as if nothing had happened, just as Mrs. White had said. The past wasn’t really that important. Those memories were not good memories at all, and it was better if she kept them to herself, especially since she had been keeping them to herself for over a decade.
The two voices argued incessantly in her mind, tearing her apart, until Mrs. White spoke up, interrupting them.
“Just consider it as an aunt’s plea.”
Elisa felt her heart trembling. After a long while, she answered in a trembling voice, “Okay, I promise you.”
Mrs. White breathed a sigh of relief. She admitted she was selfish. She was afraid that if Louis remembered everything, he would become distant from her. He was already of a cool nature, and he didn’t even like coming home. If those hypnotic memories were erased and he remembered that he hadn’t grown up with his parents, not in the White family, would he become even more indifferent to this family?
Mrs. White didn’t dare to take that risk. Just the thought of it made her emotionally fragile, unable to withstand even the slightest disturbance.
Mrs. White wanted to say something more, but seeing Elisa’s bored expression, she found herself unable to speak the words she had in mind.
Elisa, however, noticed her thoughts. “Don’t worry, tonight, consider as if nothing happened, I won’t tell Louis. But Aunt Burns, hypnosis cannot last forever. I don’t want you to use drugs to forcibly hypnotize him. If I find out, I will tell him the truth at any cost, and if one day he remembers on his own, I don’t want you to stop himfrom remembering.”
“I understand. Our thoughts are aligned. We both want what’s best for Louis.”
Mrs. White released Elisa and walked to the door. After a few steps, she couldn’t help but glance back at Elisa, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, head lowered. She couldn’t see her expression clearly, but the light shining on her made her appear very lonely.
Brittany, sitting on the balcony at the end of the corridor, saw her mother coming out alone and hurried over to ask secretly, “Mom, what did you talk about? Has Elisa figured out what to do now?”
“Tonight, just pretend that nothing happened, pretend not to know.”
“And you plan to keep it from big brother?”
“We’ve kept it from him for so many years, what’s a little longer?” Mrs. White patted her daughter’s head. She wished Louis had grown up by her side, then maybe she wouldn’t have been so anxious every day.
If Louis had grown up with her since childhood, maybe he would have been as clingy as Brittany, telling her everything, and wouldn’t have secretly locked himself in his room to pull out his teeth whenever something happened.
“Tonight, don’t go in.” Mrs. White looked at the tightly closed door.
“Huh? Then where should I sleep?”
“Don’t we have plenty of rooms in the house? Let her be alone for a while, and right now she probably doesn’t want to see any of us.”
Brittany thought to herself: She doesn’t want to see you, but that doesn’t include me.
Brittany felt a small surge of rebellion, but in the end, she agreed and went to sleep in the guest room.
Elisa, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep all night. She turned off the lights, leaving only a table lamp on, flipping through all of Louis’s recent photos on her tablet.