Chapter 19: Old Photograph
Early in the morning, Vivian was woken up by her alarm. She quickly got up and got dressed.
Last night, Sharon Galahad had been messaging Vivian non-stop, complaining that Shelly’s progress was too slow and demanding that Vivian find time to come home and tutor her again. She wanted Vivian to teach Shelly etiquette, dancing, and other social graces so that Shelly could uphold the Lowell family’s reputation at her engagement ceremony with the Grant family next month.
Vivian hadn’t replied to a single message.
She didn’t have the time today. She had already agreed with Vance Wyatt to go to the Faulkner Group to sign an agreement and rent the floor below their headquarters for her studio!
In the first-floor dining room.
Vivian was still walking down the stairs when she heard Rachel Faulkner’s cheerful chatter.
"It’s rare for me to be back. I heard there’s an evening banquet at the Grand West Aethelburg Hotel in a few days, and a lot of people are going! Grandma, I want to go too. Can I?" Rachel looked at Grandma Faulkner with anticipation.
"Go on, then," Grandma Faulkner said, helpless against Rachel’s pleading. She probably figured that since Rachel had just gotten a divorce, going out to have some fun and clear her mind would be good for her, so she agreed.
Rachel was thrilled. Just then, she spotted Vivian coming downstairs and greeted her. "Vivian, are you free later?
"I want to go shopping! It’s been years since I came back to the country, and I have no idea what kind of clothes and jewelry are popular here now! Since I’m going to the banquet, I’ll definitely need to buy a few things."
Vivian remained silent for a moment. Looking at Rachel’s enthusiasm, Vivian almost felt as if the unpleasantness from last night had never happened.
"I have to go to the office." Vivian smiled and politely declined. "If you want to go, Rachel, I can recommend a few boutiques. Their items are quite nice."
Rachel was inevitably a little disappointed to hear that Vivian wasn’t going, but she happily accepted the recommendations and asked Vivian to send her the names of the boutiques.
The two of them added each other on WhatsApp. Vivian forwarded the contact cards of a few stores and casually glanced at Rachel’s profile picture.
It was a landscape photo.
It looked like it had been taken at an overseas estate. The flowers and plants were flourishing, and there was a small wooden sign to the side with a few lines of English written on it. Due to the focus of the photo, Vivian couldn’t quite make out what was written on the sign. However, she instantly felt that the place looked incredibly familiar. She seemed to have seen a similar garden in her old photographs.
In her past life, after finding out she wasn’t the true daughter of the Lowell family, Vivian had been curious about her origins and had gone to the hospital where Sharon had given birth to investigate. She learned then that on the day she was born, a couple had been brought into the hospital for emergency resuscitation after a severe car accident. The couple was barely hanging on by a thread.
The husband had even begged the doctors to do whatever it took to save his wife.
Unfortunately, heaven did not grant their wish. Neither of them survived, but the baby girl in the woman’s womb was successfully delivered via cesarean section, perfectly healthy.
It was said that the woman could have protected herself under her husband’s shelter, but doing so would have left her unborn child exposed to the impact. She chose to protect her baby, sacrificing her own life in the process.
Vivian was the child of that tragic couple. Because she and Shelly had been switched at birth, the hospital assumed Shelly was the orphaned baby and sent her to an orphanage shortly after she was born.
Shelly was an adorable baby and was adopted by a childless couple. However, when that couple later had a biological child of their own, they stopped caring for her. Shelly endured a lot of hardship growing up. Without money for school, she was sent out to work. Her upbringing left her with a rather difficult personality, and her skin was a bit rough and tanned from the labor.
Shelly had a vintage yellow rosewood box with a very rustic design. It was said to have been left behind by the couple who died in the car crash. Since the hospital believed Shelly was their child, they handed the box over to her when she was sent to the orphanage.
Shelly had kept the box safe all these years. By pure chance, Vivian had discovered that it contained some old photographs and a silver bracelet. Originally, there had been more items inside. However, Shelly had sold off everything of value, leaving behind only the cheap silver bracelet and the yellowing old photographs.
Vivian must have been staring at Rachel’s profile picture a little too intently, because Grandma Faulkner noticed her unusual behavior. "Vivian, is everything alright?" she asked.
Hearing Grandma Faulkner’s voice, Vivian snapped back to reality. She forced a smile and explained, "It’s nothing. I just thought the scenery in Rachel’s profile picture was beautiful, so I was taking a closer look."
With that, she turned to Rachel and asked tentatively, "Rachel, where is this place?"
Hearing the question, Rachel pulled out her own phone, opened WhatsApp, and glanced at her profile picture. Almost instantly, her expression soured. Her smile vanished, and a look of pure hatred filled her eyes.
"This was taken at my scumbag ex-husband’s grandfather’s house! I completely forgot to change my profile picture!"
After gritting her teeth in anger, Rachel quickly found a gorgeous selfie in her photo gallery and replaced the landscape photo. When Vivian tapped on Rachel’s profile again, the picture had indeed changed.
Vivian pursed her lips and opened her own photo album to check. Thankfully, she had saved the photo to her phone before asking Rachel about it.
Looking at the picture again, Vivian still felt that strong sense of familiarity. However, it had been a lifetime ago—literally—since she had seen Shelly’s old photographs. Her memory was a bit hazy, and she couldn’t be entirely certain if they were the exact same place.
She thought, "It looks like I’ll have to find an opportunity to go back to the Lowell family’s home and take another look at Shelly’s old photos!"
Her mind made up, Vivian locked her phone and quietly lowered her head to eat her breakfast.
After breakfast, Grandma Faulkner firmly ordered Julian to drive Vivian to her office. Julian nodded in agreement, wearing a look of helpless compromise.
In the car.
Vivian sat in the passenger seat. After buckling her seatbelt, she leaned back and looked at the pictures Eleanor Rhodes had sent her of the stray cat they had rescued the day before.
The cat was doing much better than yesterday and looked a lot more energetic. In the photos Eleanor sent, the little feline was happily devouring a can of wet food!
"Eat up and get well soon!" Vivian texted back.
At that moment, Julian, who was in the driver’s seat, suddenly broke the silence. "That photo. Do you care a lot about it?"
Vivian was taken aback.
Hearing Julian’s voice, she glanced at him. It took her a moment to process his words before she belatedly realized he was asking about Rachel’s profile picture.
She wondered, "He noticed?"