You, Me And Our Genus Twins

Chapter 216

"Maddie..." Leigh did not take her eyes off the picture of Holly as she muttered, "I guess I never told you how I became an orphan, huh?"

Everyone in Mansion were orphans, including Madeline previously. There were a handful of lost children who had never known kinship in their lives, and Leigh was no different.

She had kept her life story vague and told Madeline she had no parents or other relatives to care for her while growing up, but she never did say how her parents had died.

Could Holly have something to do with it? Madeline thought after seeing how Leigh had reacted to the photo earlier.

"It's her," Leigh said as if confirming Madeline's suspicions. She pointed once more at Holly's figure in the photo and said, "It was her and another man who killed my parents!"

There was unmistakable hatred in each word she bit out.

A chill ran down Madeline's spine when she heard this. She pointed at George's figure next to Holly in the picture and pressed worriedly, "Is he the man you're referring to?"

Leigh shook her head. "No."

Madeline heaved a sigh of relief, but she was still anxious as she asked, "Are you sure?"

"A hundred percent," Leigh said through gritted teeth. "I will never forget what they look like. I still dream of them every now and then. The man resembles this woman. Their faces are burned into the

back of my mind." © NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.

"The woman's name is Holly Baker, and she's married to my Uncle George." Madeline asked softly, "Are you sure she was one of the two people who killed your parents?"

"Definitely!" Leigh looked like she wanted to poke a hole through the screen where Holly's face was. "She even has the same mole right here, just along her upper lip line. I remember it as clear as day. She could have been reduced to ashes and I'd still remember exactly what her face looked like!"

Her fingertips were shaking as unbridled hatred and fury coursed through her. Madeline put her arm around the girl's shoulders and asked softly, "Leigh, how did they kill your parents?"

"My parents died in a car accident. It was this woman and that other man who killed them." Leigh had her gaze fixed on Holly, as if staring at the photo of her made her elaborate better. "I was only six that year, and my mom was pregnant with her second child. My parents brought me out on the day of the accident, and we went shopping. We came out of the mall and used the pedestrian crossing to get to the parking lot across the road, but that was when a car ran the red light. It came hurtling toward us, and I would have been hit had my dad not pushed me and my mom out of the way. In the end, he couldn't dodge the car in time, and it knocked into him and sent him flying..."

She took a deep, shaky breath as if to keep from crying, but fat teardrops started to fall from her eyes. "Maddie..." Leigh did not take her eyes off the picture of Holly as she muttered, "I guess I never told you how I became an orphan, huh?"

The sounds and images from the scene of the accident came rushing back to her all at once. She could still remember the way her father had been sent flying, then fell in a trajectory before landing on the ground with a loud thud. She remembered her mother crying out her father's name, and how he had

responded by spitting out a mouthful of blood.

She saw herself falling to the ground, a helpless toddler who could only watch as her father coughed up blood onto the road next to him. He couldn't even utter a word.

"Oh, Leigh..." Madeline whispered sadly, tightening her arm around the girl's shoulders.

"A man and a woman—this woman in the photo right here—came down from the car," Leigh continued, viscerally angry as she jabbed a finger at Holly's picture. "And they ran over to my dad. When they saw how badly hurt he was, the man turned and immediately got into the car, and the woman followed him. My mom managed to grab hold of that man and begged him to save my father and to take him to the hospital, but he refused. He shoved my mom, but she clung to him fiercely and kept begging for him to help. Then, that woman came up to my mom and pried her hand off the man, shoving her to the ground."

She clenched her fists as her eyes turned red. "My mom was pregnant at the time, and I could tell how much pain she was in after the woman pushed her to the ground. She was holding onto her belly and she couldn't get up, but that was when the nightmare happened. The man and the woman got back into the car. He drove the car forward and ran my mom over."

"What the hell?" Madeline's eyes widened in shock. "How could he do such a thing? What was that dirtbag thinking?"

"They're animals, I tell you," Leigh said ferociously in a cracking voice. "My mom and dad died not long after. I remember crying while I crawled over to their lifeless bodies. I shouted for them to wake up, but they didn't. A passer-by ended up calling the police for me, and when the police arrived, it didn't take

them long to catch the culprit, but you know what? Maddie, they—"

She broke off as she finally looked away from the photo and met Madeline's concerned gaze. There was a sad curve to her lips, and she looked like she was about to fall apart even as she said in the midst of a dry laugh, "The man they caught wasn't even the same guy who ran my parents over! They caught somebody else instead."

"You mean, the guy found someone else to take the blame?" Madeline asked.

"Yeah." Leigh nodded. "That was exactly what he did, and the impostor pleaded guilty to all the charges. When the police told me it was that impostor who killed my parents, I denied it and insisted that it was someone else, but they brushed it off and told me I was too young to know for sure, and that I had probably mistaken another man for the real culprit."

"I can't believe they just invalidated you like that!" Madeline was belligerent, and her face was flushed as she pointed out, "That's a load of bull!"

"Oh, you'd think that would be the end of it, but no!" Leigh shook her head and added in frustration, "My grandmother died before my parents got married, so my grandfather was all I had left, and he took the news of my parents' passing hard. The police might not have believed me, but my grandfather did, and he went around broadcasting the truth. He did all he could to raise awareness of this cover-up, but then..." At last, the sob that she had been holding back finally escaped her. She dug her nails so deep into her palms that the skin tore. "But then one day, when my grandfather was out, he got run down by a car. The police claimed it was an accident, but a voice in my head told me not to believe that."

She tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling stubbornly to keep her tears from falling. "Maddie, I've kept all these to myself for years, and the memories haunted me every day, refusing to leave me

alone. When I got older, I finally understood that my grandfather did not die from some freak accident; he was silenced forever. I didn't fully understand it back then. I mean, I was only six, and I didn't know what I was supposed to know at that age."

"Leigh..." Madeline was at a loss for words. All she could do was hold the girl in her arms and dry her tears. "Go on, cry it out. It must have been so painful for you to have bottled this up for years on end."

Leigh tried smiling, but she couldn't bring herself to, and it only made her tears fall faster. "I was only so young, and at the age of six, I had no idea what was going on around me, and I couldn't do anything either. I was orphaned all of a sudden, and the police sent me to an orphanage. After that, I was adopted, and I thought I would get to start a new life in a new home, but the man who took me in was a maniac with violent tendencies. One day, I ran away and met my master. He saved me, and I stayed with him from then on. When he knew his time was up, he couldn't bear to leave me all alone in this world, so he sent me over to your master's place and had him take care of me instead."

Madeline wasn't sure if there was anything she could say that would make Leigh feel better. In the end, she murmured helplessly, "Oh, Leigh, you poor thing..."

With a deep breath, Leigh added, "After that, I grew up and I figured out a lot of things. The memories of my parent's and my grandfather's accidents became clearer over time too. You know what, Maddie..."