“What did Laura do to you? Clara, tell me all about it,” Clara was convinced by Helena’s question that her conversation with Isaac must have been heard by Helena.
Since Helena wanted to know, Clara did not plan to keep her in the dark anymore. At first, Clara thought that Helena knew how evil her biological daughter was, yet, on second thought, Clara believed that Helena must have been deceived by Laura.
Then, Clara told Helena everything that Laura did before, which shocked Helena greatly. It was astonishing to Helena that Laura had lied to her about everything and never told her any truth.
Moreover, she herself had also been tricked into helping Laura hurt others.
After knowing the truth, Helena was so shocked that it took her quite a long time to recover her composure. It turned out that she had mistaken Clara as the evil one for all the time-Laura was the mastermind while Clara was the exact victim.
Helena wanted to hug Clara, console her and apologize to her, “I’m so sorry for what you have been through all these years.”
However, Helena knew that she no longer had the right to offer Clara her consolation since she chose to be on Laura’s side.
Helena now had a mixed feeling-she did not know what she could say to console Clara while she was also sure that Clara did not need her comfort.
Helena’s expression told Clara that Laura must have made up a perfect lie, tricking Helena into helping her, which made Clara further amazed by Laura’s evil talent.
Clara thought of Shane Doyle who had also been tricked by Laura.
Had it not been for Laura’s abetment, Shane would never have betrayed Clara.
Clara squeezed a bitter smile. She knew that nothing could be done now to rewrite her miserable history since the past could not be changed.
“Clara,” Helena said with a twinge of guilt. She wanted to apologize for her partiality to Laura, for her distrust of and what she had done to hurt Clara.
Yet, at this exact moment, she could not utter even one word to express her guilt.
She loved Laura more than she could say and she had given this girl every coin she had, yet, unexpectedly, in the end, she had been used and almost been killed by this beloved biological daughter.
Helena looked miserable. Realizing Helena’s sadness, Clara left the room after giving Helena a piece of tissue.
Clara knew that Helena was gonna give vent to her misery, and her presence would hinder her from doing so; thus, she gave Helena some private space.
Helena was grateful to Clara that she could be left alone so that she could digest her tears secretly. Clara wandered around the hospital and then walked to the convenience store inside the hospital.
She thought that Helena must be thirsty after crying for such a long time, so she decided to buy a carton of milk for Helena.
After wandering randomly around the hospital for about an hour, Clara believed that Helena must have digested the whole story and decided to go back.
Clara stood outside the room for a few minutes to the crying had stopped inside, and then entered the room after a knock.
It was obvious that Helena had gotten rid of her negative feelings since there was no tear in her eyes anymore. Clara walked over, handed Helena the carton of milk, and then turned around to sit down on the sofa.
It had already been 5 pm. Afraid that Helena’s condition would still worsen after all that they had done to save her life, Clara asked for a few days off to take care of Helena until she could fully recover and leave the hospital.
Seeing that Helena sat still in a daze, staring at the milk, Clara did not urge her to drink since she knew that Helena would drink it when she truly wanted.
The room lapsed into silence as Clara was playing her phone on the sofa and Helena sat on the bed absentmindedly.
“Clara,” Helena was to confess the whereabouts of Neo when Clara’s phone rang.
“What?” Clara decided to let Helena finish her words first.
Whereas, Helena signaled Clara to pick the call up. Realizing that Helena was in no urgency to tell her something, Clara left the room to answer her phone. It was a call from Horace. Clara guessed that he must have something important to say.
“Hey, what’s…” Clara was interrupted by Horace with panic as she had just greeted him on the phone, which scared her a little.
“Clara, Neo’s body has been found. Maybe we should go and have a look,” Horace told Clara to wait for him in the hospital and then he would pick her up soon. The news shocked her and deprived her of her last power to talk.
Did he mention “Neo’s body”? Clara now was convinced that Neo was doomed to leave her at such a young age. She began to curse herself as an irresponsible mother.
With a helpless smile, Clara sank down to the ground against the wall and then buried her face in her arms, sobbing quietly.
She always believed that the death of Neo was only a lie of Laura; yet it turned out to be true.
Overwhelmed by the choking shock, Clara shook her head violently, “No, it can’t be!”
Then, as she saw Horace run over to her, she rushed into his hug and shook his shoulder with all her strength.
“My Neo! He couldn’t be dead! Right? He couldn’t be! Tell me that you are lying to me, Horace!” Clara cried her eyes out and let tears blur her views.
Although her tears almost blinded her, she still knew that Horace was exactly there for her. She totally depended her body on Horace and believed that he could help her to figure out the truth. Then, she began to question him about everything.
Horace was the one to blame.
Yet she did not have extra time to blame Horace for what had happened now because it was urgent that they should go and check if it was really Neo’s body or not-the police might have mistaken it.
Supported by the faint belief, Clara went out of the hospital and got into the car with Horace. Her paleness made Horace worriedly frown.
At first, Horace wondered whether he should tell Clara that the police had found the body, and on his second thought, he decided to tell her since she, as Neo’s mother, had the right to know everything.
Yet he regretted telling her the news after he saw her anguish. He was now afraid that she would break down and hurt herself again.
Now that she had learnt the news, he could only hope that the police had mistaken.
All the way, Clara kept on urging Horace to drive faster. Although Horace was anxious and longing to see the body too, he could not drive faster or he would break the traffic rules.
Then, they finally arrived at the spot.
Once there, Clara understood why the police would tell them that it was Neo’s body-they were at the place where Neo was last seen.
Actually, the police did not know that Neo had also been seen somewhere else. Therefore, after some simple checks on the body and found that it partly matched Neo’s characteristics, the police concluded that it was Neo’s body.
“Hello, Mr. Kirkland?” distracted by the arrival of Clara and Horace, one of the policemen walled over and asked.
Horace nodded his head and walked closer to the body with Clara and the policeman.
Afraid that something dangerous might happen to Clara, Horace held her hand all the way while Clara now had all her attention fixed on the body that nothing else could bother her.
Clara was transfixed when she saw the body.
The body was obviously burnt and there was such chemical stuff as sulfuric acid covering it, which stopped others from touching or moving it without protection.