Nicole thought about it for a second before replying, “It’s getting late. Good night.”
She hung up after that.
Sheila looked at her phone and then glanced at the two men. “She hung up on me. I don’t know if she’s willing to help us.”
John sighed. “Looks like she still refuses to trust Mr. Seet…”
“If she’s unwilling to help, then it’ll be down to the three of us to figure out a plan then,” Davin said with a frown.
Sheila stood up all of a sudden. “I’m going to the Wicked Palace. I have to see her and convince her!”
“I’ll go with you,” Davin said, he was worried for her safety.
“There is no need,” Sheila said. “Levant will definitely send someone to track you down. I’ll go there myself.”
John nodded. “I think Ms. Muir should go alone on the pretense of bidding her farewell. Bringing you along would only raise suspicions.”
He turned to Sheila and said, “I need you to cut back on the coaxing and just tell her a story. If she isn’t moved by the story, then it would mean that Mr. Seet and Nicole were never meant to be.”
“Story? What story?” Sheila asked, raising an eyebrow.
“The story that I didn’t get to finish…” John said, his gaze downcast.
The next day.
Sheila arrived at the Wicked Palace early in the morning to meet Nicole. Noticing that the latter’s face was rather pale, she told her to take care of herself before she cleared her throat and revealed the true intentions of her visit.
“Ms. Nicole, you’re not going to like this, but I need you to listen to me,” Sheila pleaded. “I’ll leave after this. Is that alright?”
Nicole simply stared at her wordlessly, waiting for her to speak.
“I’m sure John had already told you the story of Evan sleeping with the urn that supposedly contained your ashes in his arms, right?” Sheila started. “Would you like to know how he brought the urn back home?”
“It had been raining heavily that fateful night. Evan unearthed the urn with his bare hands, ignoring the mud and grime that coated his arms as though his germaphobia never existed. When he finally dug the urn out, he held it close to his body, fearing that the rain would mar its surface. The elders from the Seet family had tried to stop him from bringing the urn back home, but he refused to obey their orders. He wanted to keep the urn and his love for you safe, even if it meant going against his family’s wishes.”
“Sending you to jail was a decision he hated himself for making. The victim had been his beloved grandfather, and you would never hear the end of it from the Seet family if Evan had not intervened.”
By then, Nicole face had already turned a ghastly shade of white. Her fingers dug into the fabric of her shirt.
Sheila took a deep breath. “If this isn’t true love, then I don’t know what is. Maybe the two of you are just not fated to be together.”
She moved closer to Nicole before continuing. “I’m done with my story, but I still have a question for you. How would you feel if you pulled the same trick in order to stay close to Mr. Seet?”
When Nicole did not answer, she decided to try another angle. “I know you aren’t actually in love with Levant, and I’m sure Mr. Seet feels the same for Susan. How would you feel if you were forced to impersonate Susan just to get close to him?”
Tears fell from Nicole’s eyes.
She used to berate Evan in her mind for stealing Levant’s identity, but Sheila’s story made her realize how powerless he had been against fate and circumstance.
An arrogant man like him has gone this far to stoop so low.
He must have hated using someone else’s identity just to talk to me.
I won’t be able to do the same even if I don’t have a choice.
The thought of it almost made her gag.
“By the way, there’s something else that I need to clarify,” Sheila said. “Remember the jar of paper stars that you said was a gift from Mr. Seet to Susan? John and Davin have taken a closer look at it after Mr. Seet mailed it over. The truth was Mr. Seet had made those stars for Susan back when she saved him and got hospitalized, but the words on them seemed freshly written. The person who wrote them is pretty adept at forging Mr. Seet’s handwriting, but it’s still pretty obvious that those words weren’t written by him”
