Chapter 381: Two lifetimes of entanglement can’t be a lie

Ella closed her eyes and pinched the spot between her brows, "If you are going to continue with the same old bullshit of how I’m just a replacement, this and that, then you can stop speaking right away."Before Lana could say a word, Mr. Yu spoke, "The next time you use such a tone to talk to our daughter, I will have you thrown out of the mansion."

Ella paused. She spared one last look at Lana and ’the so-called happy family’ that the three of them were together.

After a moment, she simply sighed, "You don’t need to bother yourself. I will see my way out of this place."

"Why? Is the truth that hard to digest...?"

A voice rang by the top of the staircase just as Ella had turned to leave.

Ella halted in her tracks and glanced at the woman she hadn’t seen in a while.

Esther tightened her robe as she descended the staircase, "I think you should stay for a little longer. After all, we haven’t had a family reunion in a long time."

Mr. Yu and Mrs. Yu exchanged a glance before the latter spoke to Esther, "Your sister hasn’t had it easy, Essie. You know it better than us. Why are you making it tough for her?"

Esther looked at her parents and made a puppy face, "Mom, Dad, you guys are too heartless. No matter what, you raised sis for so long. How can you abandoned her when she seems to be in a terrible condition?"

Mrs. Yu sighed, "Dear, you are too young, naive and kind to understand these things..."

"Are you done yet?" Esther couldn’t take their fiasco any longer. She turned to Esther and smiled, "I don’t know which of your eyes saw me suffering in any way but well, I won’t thank you for your concern...’’

"Sis, you should stop pretending. You might look like you are fine but you would have never been here if you were not conflicted. It’s obvious that brother-in... ah, Mr. King hasn’t told you anything. Isn’t it?"

Ella rolled her eyes and turned to leave, rather admiring the guts that Esther was born with. Esther clearly had no idea about Adrian’s amnesia but she was still blindly trying to drive a wedge bewteen both of them.

It was not easy being so effortlessly evil all the damn time.

"You are running away... Is it because you are scared of confronting the truth that you already know?!" Esther’s voice rose.

"I’m bored..."

"She is not lying," Lana spoke up.

Ella halted in her tracks and looked at Lana from above her shoulder.

"All these years, I had never remembered him much until he approached me that day... when I was with Miss Quinn."

Ella smiled, "So, you mean to say you were familiar with Adrian before that? Why don’t you tell me when was the first time you met him?"

"Country A. We had played together for some time during our stay there but then..."

Mr. Yu and Mrs. Yu’s expressions changed when Lana mentioned that and there something genuine in their expression that was hard to miss. It was almost like just the mention of Country A seemed to have put them through some unexplanable pain.

Country A... She had been there with Adrian... When her health had fully deteriorated, he had taken her to Country A while she was still unconscious to be treated by Dr. Xiao. Adrian’s mother also lived there.

And when she was young, she had also stayed there with the Yu Family for some time.

So, Adrian’s connection with that country was not that far-fetched of an idea.

But...

"Don’t bring up those ugly memories anymore..." Mr. Yu scolded Lana, albeit in a gentle tone, "We don’t want to remember the place where we... almost lost you."

"Did you take me in from Country A too?" Ella’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Mr. Yu looked at her, his face cold, "We had recently lost our daughter and when we saw you, it was only natural for us to pity you. But now, I think it would have been better to leave you to beg on the streets and die of hunger..."

Ella inhaled a deep breath and ignored the brutality of his words as she continued, "Why... don’t I remember much of my childhood?"

She didn’t even remember being taken in by the Yu Family, let alone anything before that... She had barely any recollection of her time growing up, except for a few huge incidents that had taken place.

Something strange flickered in Mrs. Yu’s eyes as she spoke, "That’s because you were on the verge of death... We didn’t even expect you to make it."

Mr. Yu held his wife’s hand and nodded gently, "Now that our daughter had answered your questions, it’s time for you to get lost from here and never show up again..."

Ella paused, "The rest of the things... I still might believe. But I don’t believe he was with me because he saw you in me,’’ she looked at Lana straight in the eyes.

Two lifetimes of entanglement, love and hatred... It had only between her and Adrian. All the good and bad had only been between the two of them. She refused to believe that Adrian would make her a part of his game with Lana.

She refused to believe that she was anyone’s replacement.

At this moment, Lana tilted her head, her eyes misting over with a bittersweet light as she began to speak in a gentle voice, "I still remember the fresh blooms of magnolias, heavy with the scent of a sun that never set. He tucked a bud behind my ear and called me the most gentle and pristine.

Young as we were, he foolishly took my hand and made a childish promise to hold it throughout his entire life.

He told me I was his magnolia, a flower that blooms before the leaves can even grow. So fragile yet tough at the same time...

I suppose, like the seasons, even those promises had to disappear."