It was the weekend. Vicente was free, and Leon had nothing better to do. The five of them gathered to talk about Demi.
Leon sent all the servants away.
John sat down, Nina in his arms. Everyone else envied their love.
Vicente wanted to ask Leon to call the servants back. 'I don't want to leave these two alone any longer than I have to. They can't keep their hands off each other.'
But when she saw the happy expression on Nina's face, the words died before they could reach her lips.
They sat on the sofa side by side.
John sat on one end of the sofa with Nina on his lap.
Vicente sat to John's left. Noah sat next to her, and Leon sat on the other end.
Noah clicked the watch Nina gave him, revealing a projector. He aimed the beam at the wall, and the photos he snapped at Demi's house came into view.
"Last night, we found a young woman living with Demi. That's the girl in the photo. Daisy Ding, twenty-two years old, graduated from Visual Arts College. She's a professional photographer. That's all I could find on her."
Nina's eyes grew deeper. "Looks familiar, huh?" John asked.
"Well, Daisy looks like the girl in the photo which we found in Demi's handbag."
"This girl, right?" Noah changed the picture. This was an old, yellowing photo, in which there were two girls. "Daisy was fifteen. The older one should be Daisy's sister, who was twenty-four back then." The picture changed again. "Look at the back of the photo. Daisy and Darleen. So she should be Darleen Ding."
"Darleen..." Nina said, frowning. "It's her. Jett was once married with her. Those two must be close to Demi and Jett."
"Yeah." Noah switched the pic again. The new one featured three people.
It was the two sisters from the Ding family and Demi. Demi sported a pair of sunglasses.
Nina said, "Noah, see if you can zoom in on the reflection in the sunglasses. Let's see who snapped that pic."
"Okay." Noah did as he was told, revealing a blurry figure. "It's a man, I can tell you that much."
Vicente suddenly said, "It's Jett. I recognize the gray suit. He wore it on his twenty-fifth birthday, and I was not even twenty then. I was kind of ballsy, and said his suit was cheap. Of course, I said it in a mild way. He beat the crap out of me, and his rep suffered for it.
This next part I remember vividly. He grabbed my collar and punched me until I fell down. He said, 'This suit is the best in my eyes. People like you never will never understand. No really cares about you.'
They say words can never hurt you, but that's a lie. It hurt. Especially that last sentence. I was so angry I was ready to fight him." Vicente curled her lips, and sadness flashed in her eyes.
'I guess Jett was right. No one really cares about me.
Maybe someone cared when I was Vicki. My parents did. And so did my brother. Then my father died, and my brother too. My mother forced me to disguise myself as a man. Now that I think of it, no one really cares about me.'
"You shouldn't have insulted his suit." Noah raised his hand and patted Vicente on the shoulder. Vicente's body stiffened slightly. 'I don't think we've ever touched before. Right?
Why is my heart is beating like a drum?'
Noah thought he'd gone too far, so he quickly explained, "I'm not blaming you. Maybe you didn't know the suit was a birthday gift from someone Jett liked. She may have made it herself."
"I think so," Nina nodded. "John gave me a similar birthday gift last year, a cheongsam he made. If anyone made fun of it, I'd beat him silly. I'd make sure he couldn't walk again."
Vicente felt a chill run down her spine.
'I guess I was kind of a jerk. I deserved the beating.'
Vicente turned to look at Nina and asked, "So the cheongsam you wore two days ago was a gift from John. Handmade, you said?"
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