Winson saw me deep in thought and couldn’t help but smile. He spoke gently, “Don’t worry, take your time.”
“After we get home, let’s go take a look at my family’s old photo album.”
“Okay,” Winson added, “Now that we have photos, it should be easier to investigate this person, Betty. I’ll make sure to have someone look into it as soon as possible.”
“Don’t have Philip do it.”
Winson spoke warmly, “I understand your concerns. To prevent anyone around me from revealing anything to Philip, I’ll use someone new to investigate.”
I nodded in agreement.
Winson sent a copy of the photos to Edward. After finishing the intravenous drip, they headed home. I called Bran and asked him to take our parents out for a walk. When we arrived home and made sure our parents weren’t there, we went into their bedroom together. I took out all the photo albums my mother had saved and gave half to Winson while I looked through the other half.
To my surprise, I found that in every photo my mother had saved over the years, there was almost always a photo of me with Winson. I even suspected that I forced this man, who didn’t like taking photos, to take so many pictures with me.
I unconsciously looked up at Winson, and he noticed it too. We both looked at a photo of us together, and the sweet memories of our happy past were written all over our faces.
He finally realized just how much he had once had. I was quick, flipping through all the photo albums in my hands in less than ten minutes. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any pictures of Betty.
Then my attention was drawn to the last album in Winson’s hand. I opened it hopefully, only to quickly furrow my eyebrows in frustration. Even after flipping through nearly twenty albums, I couldn’t find even a single trace of Betty.
I closed the album and put it back where it belonged. Just as we were about to leave, we heard our parents’ voices from outside. How did Bran manage to bring them back so quickly?
I looked around, considering jumping out the window with Winson. But he stopped me, grabbing my wrist and speaking in a low voice, “Don’t do that, it’s dangerous.”
“What do we do then?”
“If our parents catch us sneaking into his room, they’ll get suspicious,” I whispered as Winson led me out.
“Don’t worry, stay calm,” he replied, still holding my wrist.
Winson calmly opened our parents’ door just as Murphy and Elsa walked up to it.
“Why are you two in here?” Murphy asked curiously as he saw us in their room.
“Dad, we… we just got back and figured you had seen this afternoon’s news, so we came to talk to you about it,” Winson said respectfully.
At the mention of the news, Murphy cleared his throat and glanced at me. “We need to talk,” he said with a serious tone.
“Natasha, what happened this afternoon?” Murphy asked.
“I whispered, ‘Dad, it was a misunderstanding. Someone secretly filmed me,'” I said quietly.
Winson added, “Uncle, this afternoon Natasha went to the hotel to discuss business with Nicola. After that, she was with me the whole time. I can testify that she spent only a short time in that room.”
Murphy nodded. “I know Natasha wouldn’t do anything wrong, but people can be suspicious. Daughter, I’ve told you many times not to go to hotels or into men’s rooms. Rumors can be very damaging.”
I listened as Murphy lectured me for almost half an hour before the two of them finally left the room together.
“Winson, you just wanted to see me get scolded,” I said to him.
Winson smiled faintly. “Uncle was bound to ask about it sooner or later. We can use this incident to resolve some of the current awkwardness. It’s better than having you jump out of the window.”
I returned to my room and let out a gentle sigh. Betty… where have I seen you before?
After pondering and brainstorming to no avail, I got up and headed to the bathroom.
When I finished my shower and came out, Bran was in my room.
As soon as she saw me, Bran said, “It wasn’t my fault just now. After we left, Mom wasn’t in a good mood because of your news today, so she didn’t want to stay out, and we came back.”
“It’s alright, I know it wasn’t your fault.” I replied.
Bran then asked, “Did my parents scold you just now?”
“My sister has thick skin, she’s not afraid to speak her mind,” Bran pouted and said, “If I had come back half an hour later, you would have saved yourself from getting scolded. I feel so guilty, oh no.”
“You deserved to be scolded, how could it be saved?” I said.
“Oh, by the way, did you see the news yet? Nicola’s company released a PR statement, saying that you had arranged to discuss business with him. They even provided surveillance footage showing you entering his room and leaving after a few minutes with Nicola. Anyway, that video proves your innocence, which is all that matters. I didn’t expect Nicola to be so honorable. I thought he might try to extort you during this opportunity,” Bran explained.
“Extort?”