Five years ago.
City B.
The radio was announcing the news of City B in a summer afternoon. According to the station’s news, “A woman's corpse was found at the intersection point of the Western Suburbs of River City B and JS Road. The woman’s age was about 20 years old. Her death time was approximately 72 hours. The possibility of homicide was not excluded as the corpse’s identity was still under investigation…”
Natalie Graham’s heart skipped a beat after hearing the news. Her heart was beating vigorously a few times of a sudden. Homicide? Suicide?
Before Nat took some time to think more about it, suddenly, the door of her house was opened. Her father, Kane Graham walked in sullenly.
Nat slightly shook the radio and then spoke to Kane, “Dad, there is a murder case appearing again over the Western Suburbs!”
Kane said nothing. He went straight to the sofa and sat down. He seemed hesitant to say something.
“Dad?” Nat didn't know what happened to her father. She thought maybe he was recalling the sad things again. Therefore, she just kept quiet.
Then, Kane broke the silence out of the blue, “Nat!”
“Dad, anything?”
“...” Kane’s hesitant speaking mode made Nat feel uneasy. She was looking at her father with her breath being held.
While she was thinking, she finally heard Kane’s words in his long sigh, “Nat, two of us have been relied on each other for 20 years. Do you think dad being nice to you?”
“Dad, to me, you are the best person ever. Nobody loves me more than you!” She felt guilty when she thought of her father who hadn't remarried for her sake.
“I am going to take revenge for your mum and brother!” Kane continued his words.
Nat’s heart did a flip, “Dad, I also share the revenge. Just tell me, is there any evidence for it?”
“No evidence!” Kane rubbed his forehead, “But there is a great opportunity!”
“Hmm!”
“The female corpse in the River City B is actually Rae Baxter!” Kane said.
Nat’s eyes were widened suddenly. Rae? The woman who looked 100% alike as Nat herself? The woman was actually Rae? She was the enemy's daughter! It turned out that she was the deceased woman? !
Nat couldn't describe her feeling at the moment but she felt bad and her heart shuddered of a sudden.
Kane looked up and took a glimpse at Nat with an observing look in his eyes.
“Dad, how did she die?”
“It doesn't matter how she died. The most important thing now is that I want you to become the impostor, go to Rae’s house and become their daughter!”
Nat’s almond-eyes became wide again when she heard Kane saying that, “Dad, this is absurd!”
“Don’t you want to avenge your mother and brother?”
Nat was stunned and became speechless again.
According to Kane, she would be an impostor and go to Rae’s house. From that day onwards, she would need to give up everything in her past and sustain the great responsibility of avenging her mother and brother. Even if she did it successfully in the end, she knew that it was difficult for her to be back to her normal life. Another important thing would be, how did she meet Marcel Hopkins again?
Nat felt that she was suffocating when she thought of the result that she might never be able to have any interaction with Marcel in the rest of her life. She had been waiting for so long and she finally had a little chance to interact with her Mr. Right and yet it went to an abrupt end. How could she deal with it?
Her silence had drawn Kane’s dissatisfaction out. His brows were already frowned and the dissatisfaction in his eyes had overflowed.
When Nat thought of the tough time that her father had gone through, she looked at the grey hair on his temples. She tightened her lips. Then, it seemed that she had made her decision and said deliberately, “Dad, you have my words, don't be angry!”
Kane’s brows finally relaxed a little bit after hearing the good news. However, the frown on his face which looked like three deep gullies in between his brows had been formed long ago as he had been depressed for many years. It also indicated that he was having so much grief in his heart.
Kane’s eyes were filled with satisfaction when he heard of Nat’s answer. Then, his tone was changed to a helpless old tone, “Nat, I will not be able to live well for the rest of my life if I can’t take revenge for your mum and brother. Please forgive my selfishness. I'm sorry, Nat!”
Nat could barely remember how long her father hadn’t called her nickname ‘Nat’. She felt strange to hear that kind of pampering tone from him. Nat felt sad in her heart and bit her lip. “Dad, can I have my identity back after then?”
Kane looked at her and said, “If you are able to get the evidence successfully, I will help you recovering your identity. But if you failed to do so, just be Rae for the rest of your life, and we, father and daughter would not meet each other since then!”
“Dad!” Nat cried out in surprise.
“Anyway, you must get the evidence. Bare in your mind, you are Rae, the only heir of Leonard Baxter from now on. I have shown you all the information about Baxter family. I will let you know the detailed information of Rae in the police academy later. I will ask someone to collect and send the data to you. Just take all these things and go to Rae’s house now!” Just as Kane finished his words, he gave a bag to Nat. Nat was surprised to see Rae’s identity card in the bag.
Nat was staring at the photo on the identity card. It was a young face that looked exactly same as herself. Nat wondered how could they looked so alike! When Nat was staring at Rae’s photo, her eyes were struck by an inexplicable sadness. She thought maybe she just felt weird to see another face that was highly similar to hers, especially that young woman had already left the world.
From the day she went to Rae’s house, she would live a totally different life. Nat just felt lost and she couldn’t see through her own future.
City B.
Five years later.
Just as Rae got back to the police station, she received a task.
It was a homicide. The scene of the crime was located at South Road which was the area with the most inconvenient traffic and trading.
When Rae reached the scene with her captain and team members, she saw a young woman with her lower part of body naked lying in the grass. The woman’s head was stained with blood and they could see that her blood was drying up.
Although Rae had been a criminal police officer for three years, she still couldn’t control herself but sigh for the pity woman who had been dead for a while in such a miserable way.
Rae took a deep breath after spending a moment on sighing. Then, she put on a mask and a pair of gloves to check the state of the deceased woman together with a forensic doctor.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: A Moment in Destiny
the writing is quite childish, but maybe it's just the translations...