A Matter of Wife and Love
Chapter 177

Chapter 177

Elyse walked over and took his hand. "Dad, don't be sad.",

"How can I not be sad?" The man lost control of his emotions and burst into tears. "Ellen was so ill, yet I knew nothing about it. I'm such an incompetent Dad. She was probably afraid of burdening me further. That was why she hid her illness, pretended to be rebellious, and ran away from home. Back then, I always heard from your grandmother that she was a rebellious child. I believed her, and I even continuously criticized and scolded Ellen. It's true that Ellen ran away from home, but judging by her health condition... She's absolutely..

The middle-aged man cried so hard that he couldn't get the words out. Elyse, too, wiped away her

tears.

Meanwhile, Leo remained standing quietly with a solemn and gloomy expression.

The reason why he spared Elyse was because of her sister, Ellen Clayton.

After his sobbing fest, only then did the middle-aged man come over and hand a small box covered in dirt to Leo. "There are Elie's diary, medical records, and farewell letter inside this box, which she buried in the backyard. Her uncle discovered it when he wanted to build a pigsty over there a few days ago..... Why don't you have a look, Mr. Alston?"

Leo took it silently, lowered his head, and opened it.

Inside, there were a few small items lying neatly.

When Elyse saw these items, she choked with tears to the point that she lost her balance and fell into the arms of the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man caressed her back lovingly. "Elie is really a kind young lady. She still worried about El until the day she passed away. Her only hope was that El could live happily. She even said something like asking El to live on her behalf... T-These words... They anguished me like sharp blades."

And then, he let go of Elyse and walked up to Leo. "Thank you, Mr. Alston. It was a good thing that you were with her for a period of time and gave her happiness before she left this world." Leo felt a lump in his throat and couldn't answer a word as he held the yellowed diary in his hand.

Every word and sentence in the diary were a memory of his past meetings with Big Eyes. He flipped through the diary in silence when suddenly, a page shakily fell to the ground. Leo looked down and picked it up.

His pupils constricted when he saw the content on the page, and his heart pounded even harder.

At once, a sense of unbearable pain engulfed him.

"Are you okay, Mr. Alston?" Laura, who climbed up from the mountain's base, hurried over to help him after seeing him in such a state.

Leo waved her off, letting her know he didn't need help. However, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't straighten his back.

When Laura saw this, she had no choice but to have someone come up and help Leo down the

mountain.

Behind them, Elyse's father, Michael Clayton, watched as they went away. Then, he looked at Elyse with a worried look on his face. "Is this strategy reliable? What if he replaces out..." "Find out? Find out about what?" Elyse's eyes were clear, and her gaze was calm and confident. "Everything is real, so how will he replace out?"

And then, she glanced lightly at the tomb. The smile on her lips grew deeper.

In the car, the pain in Leo's body finally dissipated slowly.

Although his forehead was beaded with sweat and looked weak, he still stubbornly stayed strong.

"What can I get for you, Mr. Alston?" Laura asked with concern.

Leo shook his head, took out his phone, and dialed a number. "Help me investigate something," he said to the person on the other end of the phone.

She remained silent as she watched Leo on the phone. Normally, it's me who does the errands. Mr. Alston definitely attached great importance to this matter, judging by how he directly bypassed me and sought help from a professional.

As she thought of that, her eyes flickered a few times before she practically blurted, "Mr. Alston, what will you do with Elyse if this matter truly turns out to be true?"

After she posed that question, only then did she realize she had crossed the line. Therefore, she hurriedly lowered his head and apologized, "I'm sorry."

Nevertheless, Leo seemed to not hear anything she said and kept looking in a particular direction.

He pursed his lips tightly as he gazed far in the distance. At this moment, no one knew what was on his mind.

A young man was already standing inside Leo's office by the time Leo arrived.

Laura recognized this young man. He's the detective hired by Mr. Alston recently.

unreliable.

Laura didn't dare to disturb the two of them, so she left immediately after she served them coffee.

Leo pulled his necktie and nodded to Victor, motioning him to take a seat.

"How's the investigation?" he asked.

With that, Victor spread out some documents in front of him. "Everything the Claytons said is

true."

"What about these then?" he asked again as he handed over the box in his hand.

Victor opened the box. Then, he checked everything meticulously. He even took out a magnifying glass.

Finally, he closed the box and nodded. "These are real as well. The years basically match the timeline."

Leo fell into dead silence after he heard what Victor said. I won't doubt Victor's competency, let alone his sentiment. After all, I wouldn't have hired him immediately if I had no absolute certainty about his competency. In that case, all these can't possibly be fake now that even Victor himself confirms they are genuine.

During Leo's silence and his trip down memory lane, Victor had collected Ellen's notes and everything else. Then, he compared them one by one with the information he obtained. Everything was a match, ever the handwriting.

"At the very least, this shows that Ellen indeed wrote the diary and farewell letter and that the Claytons didn't falsify her identity," Victor concluded.

Leo looked down for a long time before he hummed in a low voice.

As Victor couldn't guess what Leo would do, he could do nothing but wait quietly.

"Thank you," Leo said.

Victor knew that it was time for him to take his leave upon hearing those words. Thus, he gave Leo a polite nod, turned around, and left."

Once Victor left, Leo allowed his body to sink into the couch. He moved his fingers and once again fell into thought as he looked at the piece of paper that fell out of the diary earlier. This piece of paper is a copy of the application form for corneal donation involving a living donor, which I'd discovered at the hospital in the first place. So, does this mean that not only is Ellen the Big Eyes from back then, but she's also... The cornea donor? If so, then everything about the case of corneal donation involving a living

donor would make sense!

ill at that time? What kind of thought did she have in mind when she accompanied me every day without saying a word about her illness?

After a while, he dialed Victor's number. "Try to replace Ellen, regardless of the price." According to Michael, only Ellen's clothes were buried in the tomb, and they didn't actually see her corpse either. Is there a chance that she might still be alive?

The next day, Elyse sat in Leo's car with Michael beside her.

A very special smile rose from the corner of Elyse's mouth as she gazed at Leo's back silhouette. with a pair of crystal-clear eyes.

Michael, on the other hand, rubbed his hands with an excited look on his face.

That was because Leo had bought them a huge villa last night and allowed them to move in today.

Since Michael had never lived in a villa in his life, he felt excited just thinking about it. From now on, I, too, will be living the life of an upperclassman.

In his mind, Michael began to imagine the dejected expressions those who once looked down on him would have when they learned about it. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Soon, they arrived at the place.

The villa was even more beautiful and huge than what they saw in the rendering. Michael's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets as he stared at the glorious-looking villa. Finally, he couldn't help himself as he practically ran into the building.

Elyse was a lot more restrained than Michael. She stood in front of Leo and said, "Leo, there's absolutely no need for you to do this."

"Big Eyes wished for me to take good care of you guys. Hence, I will fulfill her wish," Leo responded flatly.

Elyse's eyes flickered several times before she asked, "Ellen hoped that I could live on her behalf. Leo, what will you do?"

Leo suddenly turned his head and looked at her coldly.

His sharp gaze made Elyse realize that she was being too hasty. Therefore, she hurriedly hid her ambition and went on to say, "Sorry. I just came across some bad news, so I wasn't myself for a

moment."

After that, she quietly held out her phone. "It's about Amelie."

Elyse's phone.