Hearing Andrew's words, Lilia's eyes widened in shock, 'Died in an accident… five years ago?'
She immediately turned her head towards Mellie— Mellisa. If Andrew's words were correct, then Mellie was the oldest daughter of the Irwan Family! Lilia had already guessed that this woman had something to do with the Irwan Family. But she did not think that Mellie had such a great identity.
Even Jean couldn't keep his flat face and narrowed his eyes when he heard that. His razor sharp gaze fell upon Mellie.
"Is it true?" Jean asked coldly. The look in his eyes said that he would know right away if Mellisa was lying.
Others would have shrunk when faced with a Jean like this, but Mellie's reaction was different. She looked up and met the man's gaze. Her eyes were calm and clear, without a trace of lies.
"What he said is true. Mellisa died five years ago." She calmly answered.
Andrew took a sharp breath when he heard Mellisa repeat that fact. He did not escape detecting the intense hatred that colored the woman's voice. But it didn't surprise him if Mellisa held a grudge after an accident five years ago.
The man still clearly remembered the tragedy on the toll road. News of the accident was like lightning in broad daylight. The Irwan family and the Austin family rushed to the scene of Mellisa's accident, but they were too late. The SUV the woman was driving was burning so badly that it was almost out of shape. In the driver's seat, there was a corpse that had been burned to death.
The SUV was a gift for Mellisa's 18th birthday and was specially ordered from abroad. Because the Irwan family knew how reckless Mellisa was, they deliberately modified the car to prioritize safety. But all of their efforts were in vain. In the end, Mellisa died in that car.
When Mellisa's mother saw the unrecognizable corpse of her daughter, the woman burst into tears while hugging the corpse. How could a mother mistake her own daughter?
Mellisa's mother's attitude convinced Andrew that Mellisa was really dead. In addition, the favorite ring of the daughter of the Irwan family also circled the ring finger of the corpse. The ring was specially made by Grandpa Simon and never left Mellisa's finger.
No one knew exactly what caused the accident. The Irwan family and the Austin family work together to investigate the incident, but the results were disappointing. They could only conclude that there was a malfunction in the engine of the car, which caused the gas tank to explode and killed Mellisa.
Even after five years passed, the details of the accident were still firmly planted in Andrew's memory. After this tragic incident, Mellisa's body was buried in the grave of the Irwan family. The topic of their eldest daughter was something taboo to discuss. But now Mellisa reappeared in front of Andrew, like a ghost in broad daylight.
Next to Mellie, Lilia shuddered when she heard the woman's voice. How could she possibly speak of her own death so calmly?
"Brother Drew, now I'm Mellie." Strictly speaking, the woman deliberately used a nickname for Andrew when she spoke.
Andrew's heart felt like it was twisted when he heard that. It had been years since he last heard someone call his nickname.
Mellisa was only half a year older than Andrew's younger brother, Mike. The two grew up together as childhood friends. Both were naughty children and could not be controlled by anyone. Mellisa would plot mischief, while Mike would follow along and add his own ideas. Their favorite activity was to prank Andrew in a variety of different ways.
Then Leila was born, and she became a devoted follower of the two children. Mellisa didn't really care about her sister, so Mike was the one who always took care of Leila. When they were kids, Mike always said that he would marry Leila one day. Therefore, the two families happily arranged their marriage.
But as Mike grew older, his attitude towards Leila took a 180 degree turn. He became colder and cooler, as if he didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. The climax was when Mellisa died five years ago.
Mike shut himself in his room for over a week. No matter who tried to persuade him, the young man refused to come out of his room. When Mike finally recovered from the shock, his attitude became increasingly cynical and out of control. Andrew's brother's behavior looked more and more similar to Mellisa. Maybe that's his way of keeping his childhood friend in mind.
As Andrew was deep in the past memories, he suddenly realized something. When Mike first met Lilia, the man was acting weird. His gaze never left Lilia's figure, but he didn't look like a man in love. Could it be that Mike had noticed the similarities between Lilia and Mellisa since then?
Andrew rubbed his chin as he considered that possibility. Mellisa was a very precious childhood friend to Mike. Unlike Andrew, who tried not to think about Mellisa, his younger brother was always thinking about her. No wonder Mike ignored Andrew's warnings about Lilia and kept on approaching Jean's wife. Every time Mike looked at Lilia, he saw Mellisa's figure in her.
The whole apartment was silent as everyone was deep in their thoughts. It was so quiet in the living room that they could hear the sound of the clockwork.
Lilia continued to stare at the side of Mellie's face with sparkling eyes. She wanted to express the suspicions that had been filling her mind lately, but Lilia didn't know how to put it.
As if feeling Lilia's gaze, Mellie looked away from Andrew and stared back at the model. For a moment, the two of them stared at each other without saying anything. Finally, Mellie opened her mouth first.
"… As you heard from Brother Drew, my real name is Mellisa. I'll be 27 this year, three years older than you. If you want... " Mellisa paused, as if trying to gather her courage, "...You can call me 'sister'."
Lilia gasped when she heard that. Mellisa had voiced a suspicion that she couldn't say. By asking Lilia to call her sister, Mellisa showed that she recognized the Pangestu Family's daughter as her real sister.
Lilia opened and closed her mouth several times, but she couldn't make any sound. The two of them had just met and there was no evidence of their blood relationship other than their similar appearance. But for the first time, Lilia felt that she had found her family.
Mellisa smiled faintly as she saw the mixture of surprise and joy on Lilia's face. She grabbed the cigarette case in front of Andrew before taking out a cigarette. Her movement was so natural it's easy to figure out that she was a smoker. Mellisa then lit her cigarette.
Andrew frowned and looked at Mellisa closely. Upon closer inspection, the man noticed that the index and middle fingers of Mellisa's right hand were slightly yellowish in color. The sign indicated that the woman in front of him was a heavy smoker, different from the Mellisa he remembered.
"Since when did you learn to smoke?" Andrew asked in a voice that was sharper than he realized.
Mellie glanced at Andrew as she exhaled her cigarette smoke. The cigarette tasted stronger than the one she used to smoke, but Mellie didn't mind.. She shrugged and replied, "The day I escaped death."
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮