Chapter 313: I’m Very Good, No Need to Worry
Melody Monroe nodded. "Yes, I grew up in an orphanage."
Rose Shaw’s heart sank!
’Melody isn’t my sister?’
’She remembers things from before she was five, but my sister was over five when Mom took her and left, and we lost all contact after that!’
Melody Monroe looked at Rose Shaw. She knew Rose must be feeling terrible.
’In the original novel, Rose Shaw’s relationship with the original protagonist was purely professional. Even though she suspected they were sisters, Rose never interfered with the protagonist’s antics. She kept the matter buried in her heart and never planned to acknowledge her.’
’For Rose Shaw to suddenly ask me this question today... could it be that she wants to acknowledge me as her sister?’
Although Melody Monroe deeply wished she was Rose Shaw’s sister, she still decided to let Rose know the truth.
"Think about it again. Maybe you were too young and misremembered? Or could you be mistaken about when you arrived at the orphanage—was it possible you were already over five?"
"No, I remember it very clearly. I was abandoned at birth and have been in the orphanage ever since." Melody Monroe shook her head firmly.
The last glimmer of hope in Rose Shaw’s heart was extinguished.
Melody Monroe was not her sister.
"Rose, why did you suddenly ask me this?" Melody Monroe asked, feigning ignorance, not wanting Rose to bear the pain alone.
Rose Shaw didn’t speak. Perhaps she hadn’t yet processed this fact.
After a long while, Rose Shaw finally spoke slowly. "I have a younger sister. After our parents divorced, my mom took my sister and left. After that, we lost all contact. I only found out a while ago that not long after my mother left, she was diagnosed with cancer and passed away soon after. My sister was sent to an orphanage. I thought you were my long-lost sister."
Rose Shaw shared her story frankly with Melody Monroe.
"I see." Melody Monroe looked at Rose Shaw and worked up the courage to ask, "Rose, can I think of you as my older sister?"
Rose Shaw froze for a moment, a little surprised.
"I’m very well-behaved. You won’t have to worry about me."
Rose Shaw couldn’t help but smile. In truth, she had long since started thinking of Melody Monroe as her own sister.
Even though she now knew Melody Monroe wasn’t her sister, she didn’t feel a great sense of loss.
"I’ve never been anyone’s older sister before. If I don’t do a good job, you have to tell me."
Melody Monroe nodded in pleasant surprise and leaned into Rose Shaw’s embrace.
Rose Shaw’s body stiffened for a moment, but a hint of a smile flashed in her eyes as she raised a hand to pat Melody Monroe’s shoulder.
In that moment, she felt a touch of familial warmth.
"Rose, since you know which orphanage your sister was in, why don’t we go look for her?" Melody Monroe suggested.
"I’ve already asked around. There was a huge fire at that orphanage that burned everything to the ground. It was abandoned for many years after that and was eventually demolished to build commercial housing. No records survived, so there’s nowhere to start looking."
Hearing this, Melody Monroe realized how difficult the situation was. There wasn’t a single lead to follow.
"While you were at the orphanage, did you ever hear of a child named Wanda Shaw?"
Melody Monroe shook her head.
"Maybe... she’s no longer in this world." For a helpless child with no mother’s protection and no other family to rely on, Rose Shaw would almost rather believe she was dead.
Better not to witness the ugliest side of this world, nor to experience its evils.
’Melody felt that her arrival had created a butterfly effect, changing the course of many events. And on top of that, a character named Felix Hughes, who wasn’t in the original novel, had now appeared!’