Chapter 70
Susan finally managed to steady her emotions.
The car left the cemetery, winding down the mountain road.
She leaned back in her seat, but her mind wouldn't stop racing.
Evelyn's background, Emily's child... there were too many mysteries here.
Why did Evelyn have the Arden surname instead of her father's?
The caretaker said Emily didn't have a daughter, so where did Emily's child go?
There had to be some truth here she didn't know.
After thinking for a moment, she told the investigator in the front seat, "Go to the hospital and thoroughly check Evelyn's birth records, including everything about Emily back then."
"Don't miss any details!"
The investigator nodded.
Susan closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat.
No matter what the investigation revealed, she'd already decided—she would be good to Evelyn.
She owed Emily, owed the Arden family, far too much...
On the other side, Evelyn arrived at the Arden Villa alley.
Betty's noodle shop was still open, warm yellow light spilling from the windows.
Evelyn walked in and called out a greeting. "Betty."
Betty was wiping down tables. She looked up and her eyes brightened. "Eve! Back again?"
Evelyn smiled. "Came back to check on the old house."
"Good." Betty wiped her hands. "Hungry? Want me to make you a bowl of noodles?"
"Not yet, I'll come back later," Evelyn said. "I'll go look at the house first."
She walked through the alley to the old Arden family house, pulled out her key, and opened the door.
Since she'd just been back recently, there wasn't much dust inside.
Evelyn stood there for a while, then walked toward her parents' room.
She pushed open the door. Everything was just as it had always been.
That old-fashioned wooden bed, that wardrobe used for years, that desk.
On the desk sat a photo frame—a picture of her parents and her together.
Evelyn walked over and picked up the frame.
In the photo, Mom was still young, smiling gently. Dad stood beside her with his arm around her shoulders, also smiling.
She herself was only five or six, pigtails tied up, standing in front with a wide grin.
That had been her happiest time.
Back then Dad hadn't gone bankrupt yet, Mom wasn't sick yet, Grandpa and Grandma were still alive.
Evelyn set down the frame and turned to the bookshelf beside it.
The bookshelf was old, the wood darkened with age.
It was crammed full of books—Dad's engineering books, Mom's novels, and her own childhood textbooks.
Her gaze fell on several old notebooks.
They were... Mom's diaries.
Mom had always kept a diary, starting from when she began working, recording for decades.
Evelyn pulled out the most recent one and opened it.
It was from the period when Dad went bankrupt.
Mom's handwriting was somewhat messy, but every word was pressed hard into the page.
[The company situation keeps getting worse. Heath leaves early and comes home late every day. He's lost so much weight.]
[I told him, if the money's gone we can earn more, as long as you're okay. He doesn't speak, just shakes his head.]
She flipped further.
[More debt collectors came to the door today. Heath locked himself in the study all day. I knocked, he didn't answer.]
[I could only stand at the door and tell him, no matter what, I'm here with you.]
Further still.
[He's gone.]
Just one sentence, but the handwriting had gone wild, and tear stains had soaked into the paper.
Evelyn's tears fell.
After that, Mom's diary entries stopped, and she lost her mind.
Evelyn took a deep breath and flipped backward.
Back to earlier times. Mom recording life's small moments—Dad got promoted, Evelyn started elementary school, Grandma's cat had kittens...
Those ordinary days, in Mom's writing, glowed with warmth.
Evelyn cried and laughed at the same time.
It was as if through these yellowed pages, she'd traveled back decades to see what Mom looked like when she was young.
Until she reached the very first diary.
She finally understood why Mom had said the word "diary".
The diary recorded something she'd never heard of before.
Mom had a long-lost twin sister, Emily.
Evelyn's hand trembled.
Emily?
The person Mrs. Maple had been searching for all along? Mrs. Gray's daughter-in-law?
She was her aunt?
Her fingers shaking, she kept reading.
Medical procedures back then weren't transparent. The Arden family had always thought Mom was their only child.
It was many years later that the younger sister found her way back.
That's when the Arden family learned there had been twins, but the younger sister had been lost all those years.
Grandma and Grandpa felt so guilty. They did everything they could to make it up to this long-lost daughter.
But when Emily came back, her mental state wasn't good. And she revealed a secret: she was pregnant.
She didn't give details.
But the Arden family could tell from her condition that she must have been terribly hurt in her marriage, possibly even forced to leave.
Grandma and Grandpa's hearts broke for her. They told her to stay home, they would raise the child, they would raise her well.
At first, everything slowly improved.
But after giving birth, Emily's postpartum depression combined with her previous trauma all erupted at once, and she ultimately chose suicide.
Before she died, she left a letter.
[I hope Mom, Dad, and Linda can help me raise this child.]
[Let her take the Arden surname, let her background remain a secret, keep her from any entanglement with that family.]
[I've failed you all. If there's a next life, I will repay you.]
Reading this, Evelyn's heart clenched, some suspicion circling in her mind.
But she forced herself to stay calm and keep reading.
The Arden family remained in despair for a long time.
Finally, they made a bold decision—to hide that the child was Emily's daughter and claim publicly that Linda had given birth to her.
Linda and Heath had just gotten married then. They voluntarily took on this responsibility.
They raised the child as their own, naming her Evelyn Arden.
Grandma and Grandpa found a way to switch the birth certificate at the hospital. From then on, Evelyn was registered under Linda and Heath's names.
This secret had been kept until today. Even as relatives passed away one by one, they never revealed it to anyone.
The diary fell to the floor.
Evelyn didn't notice.
She was that child?
Emily was her biological mother?
Shortly after giving birth to her, Emily had died of depression.
Because of the Gray family's misunderstanding, because of someone's scheming, Emily had left this world in the prime of her life.
And she herself had never even met her, had no memory whatsoever of her biological mother.
If Emily hadn't found the Arden family back then, where would she be now? Would she even be alive?
Evelyn's whole body trembled.
Her heart ached for that mother she'd never met.
Emily had been only in her twenties when she endured so much suffering, never even getting the chance to watch her own child grow up.
She felt rage—rage at those who had harmed Emily: Howard, Iris, and that Susan who back then had condemned without understanding.
She also felt moved—moved by everything Grandpa, Grandma, and her parents had done.
They could have chosen not to do this, but they'd raised her as their own for over twenty years.
Evelyn couldn't sort out what she was feeling anymore—heartache, anger, sadness, and an indescribable confusion.
A breeze blew through, and a photo fluttered out from the diary.
Evelyn picked it up.
It was a yellowed old photograph. The person in it looked melancholy, yet couldn't hide an innate beauty. Her features resembled Evelyn's own.
Below was a line of small text: Emily.
Her biological mother. Her... mom.
Evelyn stared at that face, tears streaming down once more.