Chapter 104 Memories of the Past
"Fiona!"
At that moment, Dagmar's voice rang out from behind the crowd.
Fiona was taken aback.
The gossipy old woman hurriedly greeted Dagmar, "Daggie, you finally came!"
Daggie was Dagmar's childhood nickname.
"Are you okay, Grandma?" Dagmar was still wearing a white coat, most likely coming straight from the hospital.
"I'm fine!" the gossipy old woman shook her head.
"And how about you?" Dagmar nervously looked at Fiona.
"I'm fine too. Why did you come?" Fiona whispered.
"The gossipy old woman called me," Dagmar replied, then glanced at the group causing trouble.
The gossipy old woman also explained in a low voice to Fiona, "I saw that they were all big men and were scary. You, a young girl, wouldn't be able to handle it. Daggie came to see me before and said to call him if anything happened."
"I see," Fiona said softly. "Gossipy old woman, you should go back and rest. We have enough people here."
"Uh!" The gossipy old woman was also afraid that a real fight would break out, and she would be dragged into it. She had lived her whole life, and going back to jail was definitely not worth it.
"Are you going to do the paternity test or not?" the man impatiently urged.
Another cunning man!
From the gossipy old woman's phone call, Dagmar already had a rough idea of the situation. He looked worriedly at Fiona.
"Don't worry, I believe in the character of my grandparents," Fiona's voice was neither loud nor soft, but it was enough for everyone present to hear.
The man gritted his teeth, thinking to himself, "What a load of nonsense about their character! Even animals have maternal instincts."
The two of them, living a comfortably wealthy life, abandoned their own child and paid no attention to him for decades. They didn't even think about leaving him anything when they died. They even left the house to their granddaughter, who doesn't even have their blood running through her veins!
The man thought about his own struggles over the years due to lack of money, his failed marriage, and career. He then looked at Fiona. He had previously dated a materialistic woman, so he had some knowledge about luxury items. Just the cashmere coat she was wearing cost tens of thousands. These were things that were supposed to belong to him!
Before long, Fiona and the man claiming to be her uncle, Joseph, finished the blood test.
Only then did Fiona realize that his name was Joseph.
Joseph was in a hurry and paid extra for expedited results. The results would be available the next day. "When the results come out, don't try to deny it!" Joseph sneered at Fiona before leaving.
Little did Fiona know, based on some payment receipts, where he got the confidence to assert that he was her grandparents' child.
"Are you okay?" Dagmar asked gently.
Fiona shook her head. "You shouldn't have come, Dr. The hospital is so busy..."
"I was worried about you," Dagmar said in a deep voice.
Fiona felt somewhat helpless. Dagmar was too good to her. Too good, to the point where she felt she couldn't handle it.
"Dagmar, brother, you should go back to work. I'll stay with the bodyguard," Fiona spoke up.
Dagmar glanced at Stuart and his face instantly turned pale.
Fiona knew he must have misunderstood and thought they were Darwin's people. She thought for a moment but didn't explain.
Sure enough, Dagmar didn't say anything more; he gave a few instructions and left.
Fiona reported her safety to Janna. Then she returned to her grandparents’ house on Sesame Street. The lock on the door of the house was covered in rust. Fiona stood in front of the door, her mind somewhat hazy.
After her grandfather passed away, she and her grandmother moved to Bay City, and since then, she had only come back twice. The last time was when her grandmother passed away. It's not that there was anything bad about this place for her. On the contrary, every memory here was too good. She grew up here, taken care of and loved by her mother and grandparents. But now, they were all gone. This place had become a forbidden zone of memories.
Fiona opened the lock and pushed the gate door open. The front yard, which her grandmother used to keep so tidy, was overgrown with weeds. Fortunately, before her grandmother left, she gifted many of the beautiful plants to the neighbors. Otherwise, they would probably have withered by now. The grape arbor where the family used to relax on summer days was also dilapidated, and the grapevines had dried up.
Fiona didn’t plan on staying too long. She opened the front door and went in. Most of the furniture in the house was covered with white cloth. Fiona stood at the doorway and looked around. Sure enough, every nook and cranny of the house held shadows of happiness from the past. Her nose started being stuffy.
After a moment, she walked into her mother's old bedroom from before she passed away. The nightstand in the room was filled with her mother's belongings. There weren't many things left behind. Apart from some clothes and a few pieces of jewelry, there was only one photo album.
Her grandfather loved taking photos when he was alive. Most of the album was filled with pictures of the family taken during their outings. Later, when Fiona wanted to take the album with her when they left, her grandmother didn't allow it. For this, Fiona went on a hunger strike for two days.
But her grandmother said, "This is what your mother loved. When we're gone, we have to leave her something." Fiona had cried all night holding the album. Then she carefully protected it, put it in the nightstand, and left home with her grandmother.
Fiona took out the album. She gently brushed the surface of the album. There were still doodles she made as a child, not knowing any better. She carefully removed the protective cover and delicately opened the album.
Fiona smiled through tears. The first photo was of her when she was just born, a wrinkled little bundle. Her mother had written in the bottom right corner, "My ugly doll."
She looked at each photo, reading her mother's witty captions. With a note, crying and laughing at the same time. Soon, she flipped to the last page of the album. Fiona thought there would be no more photos behind. But as she casually turned the page, she saw, revealed in the protective layer, a corner.
Fiona was stunned. She pulled on that corner and slowly pulled it out. There was actually another photo!
Fiona was somewhat surprised and couldn't wait to look at the photo. And when she looked at it, she was struck as if by lightning. The photo was a picture of two people. Though young and inexperienced, one of them was a girl who appeared to be twelve or thirteen, unmistakably her mother.
What shocked Fiona was that standing beside her mother was a man with a loving face. She had just seen him on Janna Rhoads' phone last night.
Joshua...
At the same time, the floodgates of Fiona’s memory burst open. She finally remembered why she felt that Joshua looked familiar yesterday. Fiona didn't remember too clearly what year it was.
That day, she was half-asleep and blurry-eyed when she lifted her head and saw her mother crying while looking at a photo. She crawled over, very anxious. Her mother held her in her arms, "Silly little one, Mommy is fine, Mommy is just..."
She choked up for a moment, "Just missing Daddy."
The words "missing Daddy" were said very lightly. Those few days, neither grandma nor grandpa were at home, so Fiona thought her mother was missing grandpa. She pretended to comfort her for quite a while. The more she looked at the photo, the more the memories came flooding back.
Isn't this photo the very one?
"Missing Daddy..." Fiona whispered this sentence, as if realizing something in a daze, and her spine went numb.
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