Chapter 150
After Amelia sent me the time and location, I headed straight over.
The car pulled up in front of the café. The moment I walked in, I spotted Amelia already deep in conversation with a woman who radiated artistic elegance.
One glance and I knew it was Doris. Though she'd never formally studied under our teacher, Victoria, her skill was exceptional. Even Victoria couldn't praise her enough.
Plus, she'd won the international ballet competition four years ago.
"Cindy."
Amelia waved me over the second she saw me. I walked up with a smile, greeting Doris warmly. "Doris, it's been too long."
Doris beamed back. "Lucinda, you're even more beautiful than before. Please, sit."
After exchanging pleasantries, Amelia sensed I might want to speak with Doris privately and excused herself.
Doris picked up on it too, asking curiously, "Cindy, what did you want to ask me?"
"Doris." I met her eyes with a smile. "I wanted to ask—three years ago at my teacher's birthday party, were you the one who walked me back to my room?"
"Ms. Salazar's party three years ago..." Doris thought for a while before nodding. "You'd had a bit too much to drink. I did walk you back. But..."
I was about to press further when her tone shifted. I gestured for her to continue.
"I think I bumped into someone. They fell, and their heel broke. I couldn't just leave them." She paused. "And you said you weren't feeling well. A staff member showed up right then, so I gave him your room key and asked him to get you inside safely."
My heart skipped a beat.
Right when Doris had bumped into someone, a staff member had conveniently appeared, allowing her to hand me off with a clear conscience.
The timing was far too convenient.
"Do you remember what the staff member looked like?"
Doris slowed her speech, thinking as she continued. "I didn't get a good look at his face. I just remember he wore thick-framed glasses that covered most of it. He had a name badge—I think it said Tom."
I made a mental note of the name and pressed on. "Any other details you remember?"
Doris gave me a puzzled look, as if wondering why I cared so much about this. But she still added, "This was over three years ago. I can't recall much else. But after I dealt with the situation, I went back to check on you. I knocked on your door, and Mr. Leopold Percy answered."
My chest tightened. "You're saying you saw Leopold?"
Doris nodded. "Yes. Mr. Percy said you were already resting and that he'd look after you. He told me not to worry, so I left."
My breathing stopped.
Before this conversation, I'd considered countless possibilities. But I'd never imagined Leopold being part of this scenario.
"Are you absolutely certain you didn't mistake him for someone else?"
Doris fell silent.
A moment later, she looked me directly in the eye, enunciating clearly. "I see Mr. Percy in business magazines all the time. I'm certain I didn't mistake him."
A chill crept up my spine.
If Leopold had been in my room that night, why had he left afterward? And the Percy Manor butler had told me that when Leopold returned home, not only had he looked terrible, but he'd refused to discuss what happened.
If it was just the two of us in the room and I'd been asleep, what was there to be evasive about? None of it made sense.
I pulled up the photos in my camera roll—candid shots of Leopold from daily life—and showed them to Doris. "Doris, could you take another look? Is this him?"
Doris immediately leaned in. As she studied them, she suddenly drew in a sharp breath.
My nerves went taut. "What? What's wrong?"
Doris's finger traced across Leopold's image before pointing at his face. "I feel like the Mr. Percy I saw that night was... slightly different from these photos."
I froze, not quite understanding. "Different how?"
Doris shook her head. "I can't put my finger on it. Their features are the same, but something just feels off. That night, Mr. Percy's gaze wasn't as sharp. He was very polite. But in your photos, Mr. Percy looks cold and intimidating. You can tell he's not someone to mess with."
Following her description, the first thought that popped into my head was—could she have seen Leo?
But I dismissed the idea immediately. Leo's features weren't similar to Leopold's. Only their aura matched. And according to Ethan's investigation, Leo had only appeared recently. There were no records of him before that.
So he couldn't have been around four years ago. If it wasn't Leo, it had to have been Leopold himself.
"Could it be that the lighting at night versus daytime made him seem different?"
Doris frowned slightly. "Maybe. After all, that was my first time seeing Mr. Percy in person. The impression might have been different."
I nodded gently. "That's probably it."
The butler had mentioned Leopold drove through the rain all night to get back that evening. The long, exhausting journey would naturally affect someone's appearance and demeanor.
After working through the logic, my anxious heart settled.
"I actually thought you and Mr. Percy would end up together. I never expected him to get engaged to someone else." Doris brought this up with clear regret.
The wound deep in my heart was inadvertently touched. Fine threads of pain spread through me again.
I forced a smile. "Maybe we just weren't meant to be."
Seeing my expression darken, Doris belatedly realized she'd said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something painful."
I waved it off. "It's fine. He and Sophia love each other. I was just an accident."
Hearing this, Doris looked uncomfortable and quickly tried to console me. "Don't say that. Everyone is unique. You'll definitely meet the right person."
Did even outsiders think Leopold and I were mismatched?
Realizing I was being oversensitive, I quickly dismissed the thought. "You're right."
I went to put my phone away, accidentally opening Leopold and Sophia's engagement photo.
Doris happened to see it and couldn't help exclaiming, "This girl looks so familiar. I feel like I've seen her somewhere before."
I looked at her quizzically. "That's the woman getting engaged to Leopold. You've probably seen her."
"No, I only heard Mr. Percy's fiancée's surname was Guise, but I've never seen her in person." Doris explained, then suddenly said, "I remember who she is now! She's the girl I bumped into in the hallway three years ago."
The thought I'd just suppressed rose again like dust kicked up by a sudden gust of wind, flooding back into my mind.
I reined in the turmoil churning inside and asked gravely, "Doris, are you sure you're not mistaken?"