Douglas looked up, trying to take a glimpse of Summer’s expression. She did not turn a hair, so he continued, “Rachel was a photographer. During a photographic trip to the snowy mountain, there was an avalanche. The rescue team wasn’t able to find her…”
Douglas’s voice was reduced to almost a whisper toward the end of the sentence. Summer was startled. For a moment, she did not know what to say.
“When did it happen?” she finally asked, looking up at him.
“Five years ago.”
“Your elder brother and her…
Douglas bit his lip as he lowered his head, looking a little sad. “She was my elder brother’s fiancée.”
Summer was struck dumb, not really knowing what to say. She looked down at the message from Adams on her mobile screen, typing a reply. “Okay, I’ll talk to Leonardo.”
Since the rescue team could not find her after the avalanche, she was most likely dead, buried under the snow. She would probably never be found again.
Summer did not know what to make of her feelings now, but her previous emotions had faded away. Earlier on, she had vaguely sensed that Leonardo was not too happy with her and Adams seeing each other. Perhaps this explained everything now.
She then asked again, “Are Rachel and I look-alikes?”
Douglas glanced at her, then said, “Yes, I guess.”
Summer fell into silence.
…
Leonardo came home right before lunch. Since Summer was a patient now, lunch was made by one of the bodyguards. Leonardo just nipped at it before he put down his chopsticks. The same went for Summer. Douglas was the only one who had an appetite. After throwing every available food down his throat, he left.
Leonardo and Summer sat opposite each other, and Leonardo suddenly said, “What do you want to say to me?”
Summer looked up at him in surprise. She had not uttered a word yet. How the hell did he know she had something to say?
Leonardo had read her mind from her expression. “It’s written all over your face that you have something to say and ask me.”
She reached for her face. Was it that obvious? Clearing her throat, she asked, “I can ask you anything I want?”
Leonardo cocked an eyebrow. When he went out that morning, the woman looked like she could not wait to eat him alive. But now, she was hesitating, and that made things all the more suspicious.
Curling his lips up, Leonardo looked at him with a faint smile. “Since you already know it’s a taboo, don’t ask.”
“Why can’t I ask you questions when you have checked every detail of my background?” Summer mimicked him, curling up her lips and looking him in the eye. “You think I look like Rachel, too, don’t you?”
His I-don’t-care expression evaporated, and his face appeared grim. “Douglas told you that?”
“I can find out anything if I want to, even if someone doesn’t want me to know!”
Judging from her words, Leonardo knew it was Douglas who told her about Rachel. Squinting his eyes, he said, “He told you that you and Rachel are look-alikes?”
Rachel? How affectionate it sounded! Leonardo had only been addressing her by her full name, Summer all this while. He had only called her “honey” once when he wanted her to attend the party. She started to find herself pathetic, jealous of a woman who most likely no longer existed in this world. She pursed her lips and made a straight face, not saying a word.
“I think you two aren’t look-alikes,” Leonardo suddenly said before he got up and left.
…
Things came to a stalemate once they talked about Rachel, adding to their already stormy relationship.
Feeling uncomfortable about sleeping with Leonardo, Summer decided to take her pillow and sleep in her previous room at night. Just as she lay down, Leonardo came and stood at the doorway. He had his arms crossed as he looked at her with a stony expression.
“Summer, aren’t you going to sleep with me?
His expression frightened her a bit. Hesitating for a moment, she found an excuse, “I’m afraid you’ll jostle my injured leg by accident while sleeping.”
His lips curled up in a smirk. “I even managed to avoid your injured leg while we made out until you passed out in the bathroom. How would I jostle your leg in sleep?”
She blushed big time as her lips parted. She could not find the words to respond, but she hurled a pillow at him. “Get out!” she shouted.
Leonardo swiftly dodged the pillow that flew toward him and said in a calmer tone of voice, “Come on, go back to the room and sleep.”
Hell! He was the one who had been showing his sour face the entire day. He was especially different today—quieter and colder—even drifting into his own world. That was aside from his already-stony face.
He still looked okay when he came back, but since she mentioned Rachel in front of him, every part of him began to go haywire. Did he really think she could not sense it? He could check her every detail, everything about her childhood until her adulthood, yet when she just asked him about his cousin’s fiancée, he spiraled out of character.
Since he could behave so abnormally because of a woman, why could she not express her displeasure? Did he just see that as her throwing a tantrum?
He always thought he was right, and when she tried to show her dissatisfaction, he dismissed it as nonsense. F*ck it.
“I’m not going!” The more she thought of it, the angrier she got. Adding to her displeasure was what happened at the party that night.
“Remember when your cousin held my hand at the party that night? Why did you overreact? Were you suspecting anything? What were you angry about? Even if you were mad, you should have taken it to your elder cousin, not me!”
She was indignant and aggressive like a cornered animal. There was rarely anyone who could stir Leonardo’s emotions, and the series of strange reactions from him had everything to do with Rachel.
“Your overreaction was because you thought from the very beginning that I looked like Rachel, right? Adams must have also thought I looked like her. That’s why he held my hand under the influence of alcohol. You knew that and you got angry!
“Leonardo, ask yourself; were you angry because Adams held my hand, or because Adams held Rachel’s hand?
“You were lying when you said that I didn’t look like Rachel!”
Summer ran her mouth, coming apart at the seams and finding herself gasping for air.
Leonardo still stood at the doorway with little expression on his face. After a long while, he said, “That’s what you think?”
“What I think isn’t important. What’s important is what you think!” She smiled bitterly. “When I first married into the Emerson family, you resented me, but you occasionally teased me. Was that also because I look like Rachel?”
This time, his stony face gave way to a hint of panic. “Summer, stop this nonsense!”