Andrew replied, “Grandpa, nothing’s even started yet. Why are you so worked up?”

    Winston shot back, “Can’t I just have that girl take a look at me? Listen, I don’t care how you do it, just get her here or I’ll go myself. Andrew, it’s up to you.” With that, he hung up the phone.

    Andrew walked over to the floor–to–ceiling window with his ss, his expression aloof and a restrained smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He muttered, “Phantom Healer.b” /b

    Meanwhile, at Shea Manor in Kingtonelle, Winston was reclining in an armchair, absentmindedly rubbing the reading in his hand. He muttered, “Fated to be alone–love simply isn’t in the cards.”

    Back then, the fortune–teller had said something else, but Winston had kept that part from Andrew.

    The fortune–teller said, “If you want to break this fate, marrying a heiress from the Summers family might be the answer.”

    At the same time, the fortune–teller had read Ivy’s fortune too, and Winston remembered every word.

    The reading said, “The road ahead is unknown, ever–changing. Fate begins with you, and everything is already set in motion.”

    Because of those readings, Winston and Samuel set up a marriage contract between Andrew and Ivy.

    But life threw them a curveball. Ivy was only three when she was kidnapped, and Samuel grieved so hard it felt like his heart was literally breaking.

    Winston looked up at the ceiling, feeling ba /bheadacheing on. He muttered, “What am I supposed to do about this engagement?” He then thought, “Whatever, let the kids find their own happiness.”

    As soon as Olivia got home, Grace anxiously examined herb, /bmaking sure she was alright from head to toe, inside and out.

    Grace grabbed her hand and said, “I bwas /bso worried. me me for not spotting that fake DNA report sooner. Thank goodness you’re okay.”

    Olivia reassured her, “Rx, Grace. You know how clever I am–nothing can get past me.”

    Grace nodded, finally feeling like a weight had been lifted off her chest.

    While Olivia was gone, Grace had been worried sick every single minute. Now that Olivia was back safe and sound, she could finally rx.

    bJue/bb, /b9 bsept /b

    66%

    Olivia said, “By the way, Grace, do you still remember anything about Magnolia Town? I can’t recall a thing myself.

    “I went back there, but none of my memories came back. It’s like someone dug those memories right out of my head–I can’t remember a single thing.”

    Grace lowered her head, lost in thought for a moment. Her mind wandered back to those days in the vige years ago.

    She said, “When I first met you, you were just a tiny kid, not even up to Sean’s shoulder. It was the dead of winter, and you barely had clothes on–no proper shoes, just cracked, aching feet.

    “You’d plunge those little hands into icy water to scrub clothes until they turned scarlet, your lips. blue. Every winter, the chilinse back, don’t they? It must hurt so much.”

    Bathed in moonlight, Olivia smiled softly, her expression gentle and calm. She replied, “It doesn’t hurt at all.”

    Grace picked up the ointment and gently massaged it into Olivia’s fingers. As she worked, she reminisced, “Back when I was doing research there, I’d walk past your house every day.

    “No matter how rough things were for you, you always greeted me with the brightest smile. That afternoon–thest day of my stay–your foster father was about to press a red–hot iron to your face when I stepped in band /bstopped him.

    “You looked so helpless and pitiful, I just couldn’t leave you there. So I told you to wait for me under the tree at the vige entrance at eleven that night.”

    Olivia listened in silence, feeling nothing inside. She had no recollection of these painful memories at all.

    Grace continued, “Honestly, it was as if fate itself couldn’t bear to watch anymore. That night, the foster family’s house caught fire; the mes spread so fast they devoured the entire vige.”

    Grace had feared the worst for Olivia, but to her shock, Olivia burst out of the inferno with several other abducted girls right behind bher/b.

    Even after all she’d suffered, Olivia never forgot the other trafficked girls–she helped them escape.

    toob. /b

    With Grace’s help, some of the girls made it back to their families, some came to the orphanage with Olivia, and others were weed by kind–hearted strangers.

    Grace said, “It’s the oddest thing. After you escaped the fire, you were unconscious for days. When you

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    08:30 Tue, 9 Sept 6

    finally woke up, you couldn’t remember a thing–except me, somehow.

    “I took you to a psychologist, and the doctor said it was most likely dissociative amnesia.”

    “Dissociative amnesia?” Olivia echoed, frowning a little.

    Grace nodded and exined, “Traumatic–or dissociative–amnesia is a serious psychological condition. After a massive physical and emotional shock, the mind blocks certain key memories to

    shield itself from the trauma.

    “So all your everyday knowledge is still there, but your family, your friends, everything that happened in Magnolia Town–gone. Usually, those memories start to return within months, maybe a year.

    “Ten years on and you still draw a nk–that’s the part no one can exin.”

    It felt less like psychological amnesia and more as if someone had tampered with Olivia’s memories

    on purpose.

    Olivia’s fingers tapped unhurriedly against the edge of the table, her eyes unfocused, lost in thought. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

    She asked, “Grace, who was looking after me those days I was out cold?”

    Grace replied, “That was me.” Then, as if something had just urred to her, she added, “Hold on- actually, there was a man who came by to check on you during that time.”

    “A man?” Olivia echoed, her curiosity piqued.

    Grace nodded and said, “He said his daughter had gone missing and wanted to check if she was here. He looked at the kids outside first, then came in to see you–only stayed for three or four minutes.

    “After that, he said you weren’t his kid and just left. Never showed up again.”

    Olivia thought for a moment and then asked, “Was it just the two of us in the room back then?”

    Grace replied, “That’s right. The orphanage was hectic at the time. I was about to go in with him when someone called me baway /bfor a few minutesb. /bHe was handsome–maybe in histe twenties or thirties -and he carried himself with a quiet,manding bair/b.”

    Olivia caught a whiff that something wasn’t right. She realized the man was the missing piece.

    She thought, “I’ve always had ba /bsteel–trap memory and steady nerves. Not even those hellish days in theb broke me—so how could that fire in Magnolia Town wipe everything away? Impossible.”