Chapter 177
Elyse walked over and took his hand. “Dad, don’t be sad.”,
“How can I not be sad?” The man lost control of his emotions and burst into tears. “Ellen was so ill, yet I knew nothing about it. I’m such an incompetent Dad. She was probably afraid of burdening me further. That was why she hid her illness, pretended to be rebellious, and ran away from home. Back then, I always heard from your grandmother that she was a rebellious child. I believed her, and I even continuously criticized and scolded Ellen. It’s true that Ellen ran away from home, but judging by her health condition… She’s absolutely..
The middle-aged man cried so hard that he couldn’t get the words out. Elyse, too, wiped away her
tears.
Meanwhile, Leo remained standing quietly with a solemn and gloomy expression.
The reason why he spared Elyse was because of her sister, Ellen Clayton.
After his sobbing fest, only then did the middle-aged man come over and hand a small box covered in dirt to Leo. “There are Elie’s diary, medical records, and farewell letter inside this box, which she buried in the backyard. Her uncle discovered it when he wanted to build a pigsty over there a few days ago….. Why don’t you have a look, Mr. Alston?”
Leo took it silently, lowered his head, and opened it.
Inside, there were a few small items lying neatly.
When Elyse saw these items, she choked with tears to the point that she lost her balance and fell into the arms of the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man caressed her back lovingly. “Elie is really a kind young lady. She still worried about El until the day she passed away. Her only hope was that El could live happily. She even said something like asking El to live on her behalf… T-These words… They anguished me like sharp blades.”
And then, he let go of Elyse and walked up to Leo. “Thank you, Mr. Alston. It was a good thing that you were with her for a period of time and gave her happiness before she left this world.”
Leo felt a lump in his throat and couldn’t answer a word as he held the yellowed diary in his hand.
Every word and sentence in the diary were a memory of his past meetings with Big Eyes. He flipped through the diary in silence when suddenly, a page shakily fell to the ground.
Leo looked down and picked it up.
His pupils constricted when he saw the content on the page, and his heart pounded even harder.
At once, a sense of unbearable pain engulfed him.
“Are you okay, Mr. Alston?” Laura, who climbed up from the mountain’s base, hurried over to help him after seeing him in such a state.
Leo waved her off, letting her know he didn’t need help. However, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t straighten his back.
When Laura saw this, she had no choice but to have someone come up and help Leo down the
mountain.
Behind them, Elyse’s father, Michael Clayton, watched as they went away. Then, he looked at Elyse with a worried look on his face. “Is this strategy reliable? What if he finds out…”
“Find out? Find out about what?” Elyse’s eyes were clear, and her gaze was calm and confident. “Everything is real, so how will he find out?”
And then, she glanced lightly at the tomb. The smile on her lips grew deeper.
In the car, the pain in Leo’s body finally dissipated slowly.
Although his forehead was beaded with sweat and looked weak, he still stubbornly stayed strong.
“What can I get for you, Mr. Alston?” Laura asked with concern.
Leo shook his head, took out his phone, and dialed a number. “Help me investigate something,” he said to the person on the other end of the phone.
She remained silent as she watched Leo on the phone. Normally, it’s me who does the errands. Mr. Alston definitely attached great importance to this matter, judging by how he directly bypassed me and sought help from a professional.
As she thought of that, her eyes flickered a few times before she practically blurted, “Mr. Alston, what will you do with Elyse if this matter truly turns out to be true?”
After she posed that question, only then did she realize she had crossed the line. Therefore, she hurriedly lowered his head and apologized, “I’m sorry.”
Nevertheless, Leo seemed to not hear anything she said and kept looking in a particular direction.
He pursed his lips tightly as he gazed far in the distance. At this moment, no one knew what was on his mind.
A young man was already standing inside Leo’s office by the time Leo arrived.
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