Chapter 55
Hearing the knock on the door, George locked the tablet screen and put on his glasses. “What’s the matter?”
“Mr. Lambert, it’s getting late. You should rest.” Paige opened the study door a crack, reminding quietly, “Tomorrow morning, Dr. Hoffman will come over to do a checkup for you and Ryan.”
“Okay, I heard you.” George turned to tell Paige, “Good night!”
Nathan was also sleepless tonight.
He had been discharged from the hospital and returned to the Franklin Residence.
He knew that the second episode of “Looking For Family” was broadcasting tonight and that Audrey had gone on the program.
During the broadcast of the program, he had been video chatting with Amelia, accompanying her to memorize her script.
After Amelia switched off the lights and went to bed, Nathan couldn’t help but click on the video.
He didn’t expect Audrey to say such words on the second episode of the program.
Nathan saw videos of Audrey’s award–winning speeches during school in the trending topics and
comments section.
In the videos, the young face with a high ponytail in his memory was full of vitality as she called attention to human trafficking and called for an increase in the buyer’s sentence.
Both her native and foreign speeches were eloquent. Audrey shone on the podium, sonorous and firm.
Nathan finally understood why Audrey had such a big reaction when he had called her “Autrey” that day and had said she was a rapist’s child. It turned out to be a wound in her heart that couldn’t be
healed in her life.
Her biological mother had been trafficked and had died due to trafficking That was why she had been working hard all these years to increase the sentence for buyers of human trafficking.
On the screen, with red eyes, Audrey held the microphone and continued, “Even though my mother has passed away, I want to tell her I’m living a good life now. Although she is not with me, Aunt Anne takes good care of me and gives me motherly love like a biological mother.”
Nathan unconsciously retracted his legs from the coffee table as he stared intently at the screen.
Did Anne give her the same love as a… biological mother?
He thought of the slap Audrey had given him at the morgue that day, which had made his ears ring.
So, was he considered… to have indirectly killed Audrey’s other mother?
A mother’s significance was different from that of an aunt.
22
Nathan fidgeted with his phone, feeling distressed.
His anger over Audrey slapping him and pushing Amelia dissipated.
Lighting a cigarette, Nathan got up and walked over to the floor–to–ceiling window, staring at the over–seven–foot–tall gardenia tree on the right side of the lighted cobblestone path in the yard.
The faint fragrance of gardenia in his memory seemed to linger at the tip of his nose. The scene of him stealing a kiss from Audrey and being pinned against the school wall by her in the afternoon emerged in his mind uncontrollably, accompanied by the fluster of his heart fluttering
Biting the cigarette irritably, Nathan lazily leaned against the wall.
He took out his phone and swiped the screen, moving his finger to Audrey’s contact. Yet thinking of her cold gaze and voice at the courthouse, he locked the phone screen again.
