Leland looked at the information on his phone, and in an instant, his whole body stiffened. He saw Garrison’s picture and finally understood why Winifred had said he didn’t deserve that painting.
Touching his left eye where Winifred had pointed out that red mole, he realized how similar his features were to Garrison’s, especially that mole, which was almost identical.
No wonder… Winifred always liked to paint his features but never his nose or mouth.
Or more accurately, throughout these eight years, Winifred had never painted him in any of her paintings. Holding the brush and looking at his face, the eyes and brows on the paper were of another man, that man named Garrison.
Leland no longer had the heart to look at the other information on his phone. He put the phone down, calmed his turbulent emotions, and yet couldn’t resist picking up the phone to continue scrolling.
The information included trivial details like life abroad, academic achievements, the Reeves family’s assets, and the fact that Garrison left the country on August 30th eight years ago.
August 30th, eight years ago, was a day Leland knew all too well because it was the day Winifred parked her car in front of him, walked over, and said, “You little rascal, do you want to come home with me?”
That day, she suddenly brought him home, not on a whim to raise a dog but because Winifred had just sent Garrison off at the airport and spotted someone who looked somewhat like Garrison.
She treated him as a dog, even a stand-in, which was unacceptable to him, a cheap imitation, a knockoff.
Whenever Leland thought of Winifred drawing his features, he felt a wave of disgust.
Touching the “red mole” on his left eye, he originally didn’t have this mole; it was forcefully drawn by Winifred with a compass and pigment.
He detested this mole that didn’t belong to him.
As he touched the mole, he suddenly scratched it hard, blood and flesh remaining under his fingernails. The corner of his eye stung fiercely; he didn’t want to cry, but tears flowed uncontrollably from his eyes, a scorching pain crossing the wound.
Setting down the phone, he headed to the bathroom. Facing the mirror, he saw that the red mole above his left eye was gone, replaced by a small red wound, bleeding and coloring the corner of his eye.
Over the years, Leland had always been calm, but when it came to being a “stand-in,” he couldn’t control his emotions.
In fact, perhaps being a stand-in was better than being a dog. At least he was a person, but Leland would rather be a dog than a stand-in because what he wanted was that uniqueness.
Wiping away the blood from his eye, at that moment, Leland’s emotions were like stacking blocks, striving to build higher. Just as a perfect shape was about to form, the blocks collapsed in an instant, shattered before him. Emotional loss of control was instantaneous, but the accumulation process was lengthy.
That night, neither Leland nor Winifred slept well. The next morning, Winifred saw the scar above Leland’s left eye.
“How did you get that injury on your left eye?”
“I accidentally nicked it while washing my face.”
To get an injury from washing one’s face was quite an achievement, but Winifred didn’t think much of it; she just felt Leland was being foolish. After a few seconds of quiet observation, she noted that the scar serendipitously removed the red mole.
Later on, Winifred finally uttered, “What a pity.”
Just three short words.
What was a pity? Was it a pity that after he picked away that mole, he no longer resembled Garrison?
Continuing, Winifred said, “Your eyes and brows are quite beautiful, that red mole was the finishing touch. Now with the wound, I wonder if it will leave a scar.”
Listening to her words, Leland lowered his gaze, lips pursed, saying nothing.
After school in the afternoon, Winifred received a call from Garrison. She was going out for dinner that night, made a call to Mr. Hamilton, and then instructed Leland to go home after school and behave himself.
Of course, after last night, Leland had learned his lesson. Instead of going straight home after school, he went to the hospital to collect the DNA test results. Looking at the report, he then pocketed it, not immediately handing it to Winifred, but instead went to a nearby internet cafe. He contacted someone and had a fake test report created.
The fake report would only be ready the next day. Leland was holding both documents in his hands, one real and one fake, knowing that a lot could change with just a single thought.
What did he want to do?
A dark desire brewed in his heart, the scar above his left eye looked small but stung occasionally. Touching it, he closed his eyes and asked himself once again, was he content? Was he content being Garrison’s stand-in, always playing the role of Winifred’s dog without any recognition…
Leland was a man full of desires, and when one had desires, they needed to be fulfilled.
There were many desires he hadn’t fulfilled. When his mother died when he was young, standing by Winifred’s side, he always thought that one day he would make Winifred just like him.
As time went on, his desires for Winifred took a different turn. In his dreams, he made her cry, grabbed her legs, pinned her against the cold wall in a confined space where only their breaths intertwined.
He wanted Winifred to look at him and see a complete version of himself, not someone else.
He didn’t want to be a stand-in. But if nothing changed, he would forever be Winifred’s dog, playing the role she set for him.
How could he change the current situation?
The DNA test report in front of him could make Winifred resentful towards Gregory, make her believe Aubrey’s words.
Leland’s thoughts were simple, just like Winifred’s years ago.
He wanted Winifred to kill her father. With no family, the person closest to her would be him; they understood each other so well and could rely on each other, both slaves unto themselves.
Wouldn’t that be a good outcome…
Leland lightly pursed his dry lips, his Adam’s apple rolled, and ultimately, he tore up the hospital’s DNA test results and threw them in the trash. With the fake report in hand, he returned to the Dawson family.
Winifred told him to behave and wait at home, so he patiently waited for her, from dawn till dusk, till midnight when Winifred finally returned.