Chapter 110 ANOTHER LANCASTER
Chapter 110 ANOTHER LANCASTER
Nancy's POV
After Jaxon left, I immediately made my way to Kelvin's room. Knocking on the door, I waited for a response. It took so long that I nearly left, thinking he wasn't around.
I was just about to turn away when the door finally pulled open, revealing a pair of blue eyes that looked like they hadn't slept a wink all night. Bruises still marked the corner of his mouth from yesterday's fight, but the moment our eyes met, he immediately looked away, his gaze dropping to the floor.
“We need to talk,” I said.
Without a word, he stepped back, giving me enough room to enter.
I walked toward the couch and sat down while he remained standing across from me. He still wouldn't look at me.
“Kelvin, I—”
“He already told you, didn't he?” he interrupted before I could begin.
A bitter laugh escaped him.
“He's right. I'm not really an orphan after all.”
The pain in his voice made my heart ache.
I could tell how nervous he was. His hands trembled visibly, and instead of looking at me, he kept staring at them as though they were the only thing grounding him.
“Kelvin...” I called softly.
“I was nine when she left me at the orphanage,” he began, his voice barely above a whisper. “She said she was going to come back for me. She said she was going to get back the life that was stolen from us.”
He paused, swallowing hard.
“I asked her so many times who my father was. Every single time, she would point to Mr. Lennox and tell me he abandoned us for another family.”
A hollow smile crossed his face.
“She said he never wanted me. Never wanted anything to do with me. So she made me promise to lie to the people at the first orphanage she took me to. She told me to say I had lost my mother.”
His eyes finally lifted, but they were filled with years of hurt.
“So I did exactly what she said.”
He laughed again, but there was no humor in it.
“I was only a child who wanted a little of his mother's time. But all she ever talked about was the Lennox family... and how they stole everything from us.”
His voice cracked on the last words, exposing the pain he had carried alone for far too long.
“I was young, and I didn't understand much, but I understood enough. I understood that I needed to keep quiet and pretend I didn't remember anything about myself except my name, just so she could have the life she believed was hers.
A few months after she moved me into the orphanage, the accident involving Jaxon and his mother happened. I didn't understand what had happened, but I knew she visited me that day, and she was happy. Happier than I had ever seen her.”
He paused, running a hand through his hair.
“After that day, she stopped visiting me as often. I didn't understand why, but as time went on, I started seeing her on TV. She was being introduced as Mrs. Lennox.”
A bitter laugh escaped him.
“I couldn't understand it. So when she came to see me again, I thought it was finally over.
I mean, I had spent years watching her burn every newspaper that mentioned Mr. Lennox and his family. She would get angry and curse at them, claiming they had ruined her life.
She started drinking too. Most times, when she was drunk, she'd say things I couldn't understand. But then again, I was just a kid. Just a little boy wishing his mother would want him... wishing she would tell him she loved him despite everything.
I wished she would let it all go so we could live a normal life.
But that wasn't what she wanted.”
His voice grew quieter.
“She wanted the entire Lennox Lux hotel chain for herself.
During her last visit, I begged her to take me with her. I told her I didn't want to stay there anymore, but she turned me down immediately. She said my existence would ruin everything if the world found out about me.
After that day, she placed strict security around me. I wasn't put up for adoption either. She just left me there while she chased her dreams.”
My heart shattered even more as I imagined how lonely he must have been.
He was just as much a victim as Jaxon.
Just another child whose life had been destroyed by the same woman.
“Kelvin...” I called softly, moving closer to him.
But even with me standing right in front of him, he still wouldn't look at me.
“Kelvin, look at me.”
My voice softened further.
Slowly, he lifted his head.
Tears had already clouded his eyes, and almost immediately, he looked away again.
“I didn't mean to hurt you or lie to you, Nancy. I just... I just thought the best thing I could do for her was stay out of her way.
I've done that for almost twenty-one years of my life.
Staying away.
Being invisible.”
His voice cracked.
“Then when Jaxon started looking for me, she began moving me from one orphanage to another. Every single time I had to move, it became harder because I knew the cruelty waiting behind the walls of every orphanage.
I've lived through all of it.
I've been bullied by the other children, by workers, and let's not even talk about the church orphanages.”
He let out a shaky breath.
“They were hell.
A hell I never wanted to remember.
But through all of it, that little boy she promised to come back for kept hoping she would keep her word one day.”
A tear finally rolled down his cheek.
“So, instead of hating her, I hated Jaxon.
I hated my father for abandoning us.
I mean... I'm his son too.”
The more he spoke, the less I saw the man standing before me and the more I saw a broken little boy.
A child abandoned because his mother's selfish desires mattered more than he did.
“Kelvin, I need you to listen to me.”
My voice was firm now.
“I know you already know the truth. Deep down, you know Jaxon is another boy just like you. A boy whose childhood was cut short and turned into a nightmare.
He's another child whose life your mother destroyed by stealing a life that was never hers.”
The moment the words left my mouth, something in him snapped.
“But what's wrong with that?” he demanded.
His eyes burned with years of pain and resentment.
“Don't we matter too?
Why do we have to be cast aside while they got to live the good life?
If my father had accepted my mother, maybe she wouldn't have had to live as someone she wasn't.
Maybe...”
His voice broke.
“Maybe Jaxon and I could have been good brothers.”
I stared at him in shock.
He really didn't know.
He had no idea how his mother had taken someone else's identity.
“You didn't know, did you?” I muttered, my eyes fixed on his confused expression.
“She had already sent you away before she plotted everything.”
His brows furrowed.
“Know what?” he asked.
“Kelvin, do you have a photo of what your mother looked like before she became Mrs. Lennox?”
I asked, clinging to the hope that somewhere, somehow, he still had a childhood photo of himself and his mother.
I watched his brows knit together in confusion.
“I'm confused. She has always looked the same,” he replied, leaving me even more confused.
“No, I mean what your mum looked like before. I'm sure she looked different before she stole Mrs. Lennox's identity,” I said.
But Kelvin only shook his head.
“They already looked alike.”
He said it so casually, as though I was supposed to know that his mother and Jaxon's mother had shared the exact same face.
My breath caught.
“Wait a minute... are you saying Jaxon's mum and your mum are...” My voice died in my throat before I could finish the sentence.
“Twins,” Kelvin answered.
The word hit me like a truck.
“They were identical twins.”
For a moment, I couldn't even speak.
While I sat there completely stunned by the revelation, Kelvin looked equally lost, as though he didn't understand why I was reacting so strongly.
And suddenly, everything started making sense.
That was what his mother had been so afraid of.
She wasn't afraid of Kelvin exposing some random secret.
She was afraid of him revealing who she truly was.
Kelvin was the only person who knew her real identity and how she had ended up with the face she wore today.
But even then, something still didn't add up.
I had always believed the Lancaster family only had one daughter.
So how was there another woman with the exact same face?
How had nobody ever known?
How on earth could two people share the same face, yet one of them had been completely erased from history?