Reuben leaned in closer, his graying eyebrows knitting together as he carefully examined the photo.
He then glanced at Callie, who was smiling radiantly, and was filled with shock.
Callie tilted her head. “The first time I saw it, I thought it looked like me too. Not just me, many people thought so. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos from my childhood. Reuben, do you remember what I looked like when I was little?”
In the photo, Maeve stood on a sunny lawn, smiling brightly. Compared to the shy young Callie, her demeanor was quite different. But the face… it was strikingly similar.
Reuben picked up the photo and studied it for a long moment, wiping away the dust with his finger. “It looks… really looks like you…”
In a flash of memory, Reuben suddenly recalled the first time he saw Callie when he was younger.
Years ago, a nurse found a sick little girl, about seven or eight years old, outside the hospital. She had suffered a severe head injury, and Reuben was her attending physician. It took about half a month before she woke up.
When she did, she looked at Reuben with unfamiliar eyes, filled with confusion but also clarity. She timidly asked, “Who are you? Who am I?”
Reuben’s heart softened instantly.
After she fully recovered, the police couldn’t find any information about her family. With nowhere else to go, the hospital held a meeting to discuss her situation. When no solution was found, Reuben suddenly stood up, his voice quiet but firm. “I’ll take care of her. I’ll raise her.”
He was still very young then, with a son who was only four or five years old. No one expected him to step forward and adopt her.
Later, when asked why he did it, Reuben’s feelings were complex. “After taking care of her for a month, she only recognized me. Sending her to an orphanage felt too cruel. I wanted to give her a home.”
This decision naturally displeased Yamilet, making her even more harsh.
Reuben had considered that if her parents ever came looking for her, he would return her to them. But no one ever came, not through middle school, high school, or even college.
So he raised her as his own daughter.
Even now, Reuben remembered what Callie looked like as a child.
Almost identical to the girl in the photo.
After waking up, Reuben had a poor and fragmented memory. Long-forgotten memories resurfaced suddenly, overwhelming him and causing his head to ache.
“Reuben, what’s wrong?”
Callie was startled by Reuben’s pale face and quickly helped him sit down.
“Who is the person in this photo? Someone from the Oconnor family?” Reuben asked strangely.
Callie frowned. “No… she’s not from the Oconnor family. Why? Did it scare you?”
Relieved that she wasn’t from the Oconnor family, Reuben quietly exhaled and then asked, “Then how did this photo end up here?”
Callie hesitated. “… This is Nelson’s private matter. She’s not from the Oconnor family; she’s more like his childhood friend.”
Reuben nodded in partial understanding. He placed the photo on the table and studied it in the sunlight. Some features were blurred in his memory, and many things didn’t make sense to him. Looking at the photo again, he started to think it didn’t resemble Callie as much.
“Nothing, just thought she really looks like you.”
Callie smiled and signaled Nancy to put it away. “I wonder if she still looks like me now that she’s grown up.”
Since both Nelson and Sienna cared about her, Callie hoped she was still alive.