21
That evening, Grace Miller was there too when I video-called Isabella Turner.
She was very worried about me. “Has your older brother been giving you a hard time?”
“No. He’s worried Triệu Nghiễn Nam will come after me, so he said I could stay here until everything is settled.”
I made up a lie to put Grace Miller at ease.
“That’s good, Nina. And there’s more—the older brother agreed to let us get divorced.”
Grace Miller couldn’t hide her delight.
“He also said the divorce wouldn’t affect the business partnership between our family and the Zhao family, so I don’t need to worry.”
“Did he really say that?” I was a little surprised. I’d thought that simply not holding Grace Miller accountable was already lucky enough.
“He really did. The older brother is the best. Hearing him say that put all my worries to rest.”
Grace Miller finished speaking, then suddenly added, “Maybe it’s because the older brother’s big day is coming up. He’s in a good mood, so he’s easier to talk to.”
I froze. It felt as if my heart had suddenly leaped into my throat.
“Grace Miller, you said he has good news coming… What kind of good news?”
“I heard the older brother is about to get married.”
“To the third young daughter of the Jiang family, who just returned.”
“She was kidnapped and sold when she was little, but luckily she was rescued and taken to an orphanage. Then a Chinese-American couple raised her.”
“She’s lived a life of comfort for years. Then, out of nowhere, she came back a few days ago to find her relatives and was just recently reunited with her birth family.”
“The Jiang family was overjoyed and held a huge banquet. That was the first time the older brother met her, and everyone said it was love at first sight…”
“That third young daughter of the Jiang family is so lucky. Nina, just think—so many children who are kidnapped and sold either die or are left disabled. Otherwise, they’re sold off to some remote mountain village.”
“She really has had the best hand dealt to her at every turn.”
“The marriage… Is it already set?”
“Not yet, but the older brother hasn’t said no, either.”
“You know he’s thirty-two. The Zhao family elders are practically beside themselves with worry.”
“Now that he’s thinking about getting married, it’s only a matter of time before they set the date.”
“Nina, what’s wrong? Why do you look so pale?”
“I miss Isabella Turner. I’m worried she’ll cry and look for me tonight.”
“Don’t worry. Your godmother’s right here.”
After the video call ended, I was still so dazed and exhausted that I could barely pull myself together.
I hadn’t even noticed when Jordan Turner came into the bedroom.
22
He took off his tie and tossed it onto the sofa, then glanced at me. “What are you sitting there spacing out about?”
“I was thinking that with only three days left, I still need to figure out how to keep you happy.”
I stood and walked over to him, helping him undo his shirt buttons.
Jordan Turner looked down at me. “Were you video-calling your daughter?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“How old is she? Have you been raising her on your own all these years?”
“When she was three, Avery Anderson was already dead before she was even born.”
Isabella Turner was prone to illness from birth. At four, she looked barely three.
Jordan Turner’s voice was a little cold. “Avery Anderson? Isn’t he your brother?”
“No.”
Jordan Turner pushed my hands away. “Ava Walker, is there anything you say that’s actually true?”
He was the best man in the world. That was true.
But he clearly didn’t believe me, and saying it aloud would only put me at risk.
When I didn’t say a word, Jordan Turner gave a derisive laugh. “Go to sleep. I have things to take care of tonight.”
He didn’t come back for the next three days, either.
Maybe he’d gone back to Hong Kong.
They were already talking about marriage.
What did that have to do with me?
Was I really foolish enough to hope that a con artist who used her body to deceive people could have a future with him?
He’s about to get married, so it’s even more important that no one else learns Isabella Turner’s true identity.
I didn’t want to lose my daughter. I didn’t want to be separated from her.
I loved her. I wanted to give her every good thing life had to offer.
On the last evening Jordan Turner came back, he was a little drunk.
I helped him undress, then ran a bath for him.
He pulled me into the bathroom, too.
My dress got wet, and he roughly tore it off me.
He didn’t sleep with me. He only stared at the red mole on my chest.
“I let someone down.”
“Mr. Turner?”
Jordan Turner lightly touched the mole with his fingertip. “I told her I’d come back and save her.”
“But I couldn’t.”
“For years, so many people have told me that maybe she’s been dead for a long time.”
“But I don’t believe it. I can’t help feeling she’s somewhere, suffering and waiting for me.”
“A few days ago, I met someone.”
“She looked so much like her.”
“But she didn’t remember any of it.”
“So do you believe it’s her?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to convince myself that I should believe it.”
“But my gut tells me she isn’t.”
Jordan Turner’s gaze grew distant. “But it’s been so many years. It wouldn’t be strange if she couldn’t remember.”
“These past few days, I keep thinking—what if it really is her, and I let her slip away?”
“Ava Walker, I can’t lose her again.”
“I already owe her too much.”
“Do you want to marry her?”
Jordan Turner slowly leaned back against the tub and closed his eyes.
“Maybe.”
His hand braced on the edge of the tub. His wrist was thin, and the bite marks were still there.
I gently touched the scar. “Why haven’t you had this scar removed?”
“I was afraid I’d forget her, so whenever it was about to heal, I deliberately made the wound get infected.”
“That’s why the scar ended up so deep. It can’t be removed now.”
“What about that woman?”
“She went to college, she’s well educated, and she grew up beautiful.”
“She’s very lucky. She was rescued and adopted, and her adoptive parents treated her very well.”
“And now she’s found her birth parents…”
I slowly lowered my eyes. That was good.
She wasn’t beaten or forced to learn all that messed-up stuff.
Drugs didn’t destroy her healthy body. She was a good girl with a spotless reputation.
Nothing like me, with the worst past and the most broken body.
When I gave birth to Isabella Turner, I was barely alive. That was when the doctor told me I could never get pregnant again.
23
“Ava Walker, tell me a little about your past.”
I smiled and let go of his hand. “There’s nothing to tell. You already know it all.”
I started doing this kind of con work when I was seventeen.
But I still had a conscience. It always made me feel especially awful to scam good people.
I’d find a way to secretly use the money I’d saved to help the kind people who’d been conned.
Over the years, I’d secretly helped more than a dozen trafficked children escape.
In the end, after I got ten million from Jordan Turner, I completely won those people’s trust.
I spent years painstakingly gathering evidence and got them all sent to prison.
While Avery Anderson was fleeing, he slipped, fell off a cliff, and died. That was when I discovered I was pregnant.
In the end, I made amends for my crimes and was found not guilty.
If Jordan Turner wanted to know, he could find out with a quick search.
Actually, I later realized that our scams weren’t all that sophisticated.
I’d escaped that time because Jordan Turner hadn’t pursued the matter.
As for why he hadn’t pursued it, I only figured that out just now.
He loved to touch the mole on my chest and the old bite marks on his wrist.
Maybe he was thinking, what if I was that girl?
That was why he let me off once.
My heart felt as if it were being tortured.
He’d never know.
Actually, I thought so too.
What if it was him?
What if he was the one who gave me the silver lock all those years ago?
Then how lucky I would be.
24
Jordan Turner touched my face. “Ava Walker.”
For the first time in five years, he looked at me so tenderly.
He said my name so gently.
“Don’t deceive people anymore.”
“Find a good man and live a good life.”
I curled my lips into a smile, but the tears that came were agonizing. I forced myself to bear it and nodded. “Okay.”
Jordan Turner cupped my face and kissed me gently on the lips.
In the last hazy moments of my consciousness,
I thought I heard him murmur very softly,
“Ava Walker, why couldn’t it have been you?”
25
The extraordinary love story between Jordan Turner and Casey Walker, the Jiang family’s third daughter,
gradually made its way from Hong Kong to Australia.
“It was because of this silver lock.”
Casey Walker smiled sweetly for the cameras. “Mr. Turner only just recognized me.”
“It’s just such a shame I was so young back then…”
Her eyes grew slightly red:
“I was beaten and scolded by the traffickers, then rescued. The auntie at the orphanage said I had a high fever.”
“I must have forgotten a lot of things back then.”
“But Mr. Turner still remembers everything so clearly.”
Casey Walker carefully held the silver lock up to the camera:
“Actually, last year I happened to notice the character ‘Triệu’ on the silver lock.”
“But at the time, I never imagined it would lead to a connection like this.”
“I found my birth parents, and the boy who relied on me when we were little…”
“So many, many people love me. I’m truly, truly happy.”
Casey Walker wept with happiness in front of the cameras.
And sitting in front of the TV, I silently cried until I felt ready to fall apart.
When Casey Walker held up the lock, the camera zoomed in.
I saw a pink birthmark on the side of her neck.
Those long-buried, forgotten memories suddenly came back to life.
I remembered everything.
That silver lock was mine.
Jordan Turner gave it to me when we were children.
It didn't belong to Casey Walker.
She was the one who stole it from me.
She stole my lock, then was lucky enough to be rescued.
And today, that lock had once again brought a love story to light.
But it wasn't her love story.
It wasn't hers.
But I didn't even have the right to fight for it.
I heard the main reason the Jiang family took her back was...
because she was pure and accomplished.
The Zhao family agreed to the marriage.
That was because she was pure and accomplished, too.
And I had neither of those things.
So even if my birth parents found me, they might decide I would bring shame on them and refuse to take me back.
Even if Jordan Turner wanted to repay his debt of gratitude, the Zhao family wouldn't let him marry me.
They wouldn't even show Isabella Turner any affection.
I was nothing but a pathetic, despicable fraud.