Chapter 235 Belle's Past
Although Jasper had once stepped in and helped her, Amelia reminded herself that they had only spoken twice before—both times over the phone. Today was the first time she had seen him in person.
She did not really know this man. Even if he counted as a friend, her instinct was to keep her guard up, to measure her words, and to avoid revealing too much about herself.
"It is not about pursuit or luck," she said lightly. "It is just a matter of timing... fate, if you like." Then she shifted the focus. "So, Jasper, did you come to Celestria for travel, or is there another reason? If it is sightseeing, I can put together a guide for you—food, places worth visiting. If you would like, I could even take a few days off and be your guide."
"Miss Martinez, you are very thoughtful."
Jasper's smile deepened, but his reply carried a weight that made her pause. "I did not come to River City for tourism. My purpose is different... and it requires your help."
Amelia's brows lifted slightly. "Oh?" She could not guess what business could bring him here and involve her directly.
Jasper reached into the inner pocket of his coat and drew out a photograph. He slid it across the table toward her. "Please, take a look at this."
She picked it up without thinking, her gaze falling on the image—and froze for a fraction of a second.
It had been taken at the Prestige High School anniversary fair. Amelia was in the frame, standing beside the dessert stand, but she was not the subject Jasper cared about. His attention was fixed on someone behind her—a young woman captured only in profile.
Belle.
The resemblance between Jasper and Belle was suddenly impossible to ignore. Amelia's mind connected his earlier words with that face, and the realization came swiftly.
"You are Belle's..."
"Belle?" Jasper's eyes flickered with recognition. "So the Belle you mentioned on the phone two months ago... was Christine."
Amelia inhaled slowly. "Christine?"
Jasper pointed to the delicate profile in the photo, the doll-like beauty of the girl unmistakable even without a full view. "Christine is my younger sister. She is the girl in this picture. And she is the one you have been calling Belle."
"I came to River City because, a few days ago, I saw this photograph. I realized Christine was here, in Celestria, and—more importantly—that she was with you. I need to know how you met her... and what her situation is now."
Amelia had been quietly watching for any sign of Belle's family for months. Without quite meaning to, Belle had been living in her apartment for nearly three months. In all that time, Belle's memory had not returned, and Amelia had seen no missing-person announcements from her relatives.
Belle had adapted to River City quickly. Two months ago, she had asked to work at the dessert shop. Amelia, treating her as a friend, had given her a high-limit bank card to use freely, but Belle had been shy about accepting it. She wanted to earn her own money. When she received her first paycheck last month, she had spent most of it on a gift for Amelia.
Now, hearing Jasper's question, Amelia's thoughts went back to the day they met.
"I met Belle in a place where traffickers were holding girls captive."
The words made Jasper's smile vanish. His head lifted sharply, disbelief flashing in his eyes. "What did you just say?"
"Three months ago," Amelia continued, "my friends and I learned that a man was the leader of a trafficking ring. We caught him. From him, we learned the location where the girls were being kept."
"It was a basement. When we arrived, there were about seven or eight girls locked inside. Belle was one of them."
"Fortunately, she was only shaken, not physically harmed."
At that, Jasper's tense expression eased just slightly, as if a breath he had been holding had released. "And after that?"
"Belle told us she had been in a car accident before being abducted. A head injury left her with amnesia. We thought about contacting the police to help her find her family... but whenever she heard the words 'go home,' she became agitated. It was as if she were terrified of her own family."
"We worried she might have suffered abuse, maybe worse. So I let her stay at my apartment. Her memory still has not returned."
Amelia's gaze was steady on him. "If you are her brother, that means she was in Sulien before. You should know why she is afraid to go back... and how she ended up here in River City."
Something flickered in Jasper's pale green eyes when she mentioned the memory loss, but his voice remained calm. "I do not know how Christine came to River City. But I do know why she fears going home."
He paused. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, each word deliberate.
"My father was the only Duke of the First Rank among the Sulien nobility. My mother was Celestrian, beautiful, but mentally ill.
"Three months ago, on a night of heavy rain, her illness overwhelmed the fragile control she had left. She stabbed my father to death. Christine saw it happen."
Amelia's breath caught.
"She tried to run. But she made a sound... and my mother came for her. Tried to kill her. My mother's hands were around her throat when Christine fought back for survival on instinct and cut my mother's throat with a knife.
"The next morning, all I found were my parents' bodies. Blood everywhere. And Christine... she was gone."