It was during the late hours when Elizabeth descended from the stairs with her luggage. After the arrival of their master and his wife, the maids left to their rooms.
"Elizabeth!!" Aaron called out her name after coming out of his bedroom. Elizabeth turned to him, before he could tell her something, Elizabeth said, "Let me tell you one thing Aaron, you or the entire world might put on my mother but I am her daughter and I know her better than anyone else."
"Weren't you the one who gave a testimony that it was your mother who killed__ her friend?!" asked Aaron.
"Yes. I did, but I realised that I was wrong," she replied.
"You realised that she was not the murderer even though you witnessed your mother killing her. Don't you think there is a limit for everything, how long will you lie, Elizabeth?" Aaron snorted.
"I can never ever accept that she killed her own friend because of her grudge. There must be someone behind that incident and I will prove that my instincts are not wrong and I don't want to stay here even for a second," said Elizabeth in fury.
"Don't forget that I tried to stop you from leaving my house, if you insist to leave, then do as it pleases you," he said and didn't stop Elizabeth while she left the house.
As soon as Elizabeth came out of the house she received a call, it was from Liam. "Liam, could you please come and pick me up?!" Elizabeth could barely talk to him and felt a lump in her throat, when tears formed in her eyes. Liam, who heard her request, didn't question her further and came to pick her up within twenty minutes.
On the other hand, Roseline covered herself with the blanket out of embarrassment. She couldn't believe that she confessed her feelings to Ryan. A smile was plastered on her face, since the time she reached her home. She kept looking at her phone from time to time, expecting a call from Ryan. Even though she knew that he would call her, the moment his name appeared on her phone's screen, she felt her heart drop a beat.
"Didn't sleep yet?" his voice was enough to make her heart race. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I am about to sleep."
"Okay, good night. I'll see you tomorrow then," he said.
"Good night," she replied. For a second, Roseline didn't understand what had just happened. She wanted to talk to him more and expected him to continue the conversation, which didn't happen. She was a bit upset by the way Ryan ended the call. Roseline went to bed as soon as she ended the call thinking that it would be better to not think too much but what she didn't know was, Ryan had to end the call because of his cousin who called him to open the door.
Ryan was shocked to see Elizabeth. He took a quick glance at her luggage and made way for her to enter into the house. He had no idea about the things that were happening between Elizabeth and his cousin, Aaron. Ryan could see that Elizabeth's face was swollen. He wanted to console her but he chose to remain silent.
Liam brought a glass of water when Elizabeth continued to wipe her tears in silent. "He knows about my mother, Liam. He knows everything that I've gone through and yet_ he _ chose to leave me without a word," she broke down and sobbed like a little girl in front of him.
"Calm down, Elizabeth," Liam tried to console her. Liam and Ryan looked at each other blankly as they didn't understand how to calm her down. Half an hour later, Liam decided to talk to her.
"I don't know if it is the right time to talk about this but I have something important to tell you," Liam looked at Elizabeth solemnly. "But let her take time to get back to normal," Ryan interrupted but stepped back by Liam's glaring eyes at him.
"Thank you, Ryan. I am fine," Elizabeth gave a faint smile and looked at Liam. "What is it?" she asked.
" The person who dealt your mother's case is my maternal uncle," said Liam.
"I know," Elizabeth nodded. "I met him today."
"Did you talk anything about the case?" he asked her.
"Yes, I did ask him if he could help us, thankfully, he agreed but I don't know to what extent he might help us to solve the case," she said.
"Even if he was against helping you, we would have gathered the clues."
"He is the only person who can help us," she replied.
"We can solve the case without his help too," Liam answered.
"And how is that?" she asked and looked at the two brothers.
"Wait a minute. Why didn't you come to the party and why are you both looking at each other?" Elizabeth looked at them quizzically. Ryan understood what he had to do when he saw Liam looking at him.
"I somehow managed to take this file from my uncle's room. I'm glad that my parents are out of the country or else I wouldn't have done my job successfully," Ryan winked and handed over a file to Liam.
"Is this the file...."
"Yes. It belongs to your mother's case. We might find clues in it." said Liam.
"I have school tomorrow, I'll leave. And by the way, don't forget our deal. Good night!!" he said and left. "What deal?" Elizabeth asked Liam. "It's something related to me giving my bike to him. It's nothing, you need not worry about that," said Liam. Ryan was not aware about the case Liam and Elizabeth were about to discuss. He may not know the reason for his cousin to take his help in finding the file but he surely knew it was something important to his cousin to solve a case. Ryan being a smart one had his own way to get the file from his uncle's study room, it is true that he took help but he managed to not get caught by anyone.
After Ryan left to his room, Liam and Elizabeth had a look at the file. There was not much information in the file which made Liam's suspicion grew as he turned the remaining pages of the file. "The complete details are not in this file. Looks like someone removed them before Ryan could reach the clues or they must've removed them years ago," said Liam in his mind and looked at Elizabeth who seemed to be curious, "I will go through the file tonight and let you know in the morning. Take rest for now," he said and told her to sleep in the guest room. Elizabeth's luggage was shifted to the guest room by Liam and after she went to the bed, Liam turned off the lights and closed the door. Elizabeth fell asleep a few minutes after she went to the bed because of the tiredness. It was a really long night for her.
The night was dark but the room was a little bright because of the study lamp. "Did you find anything useful from the clues I gave you?" Aaron's voice was cold as always.
"How can you not find a single clue when the information is right in front of you," said Aaron when a man on the phone replied, no.
"Call me when you find anything," he said and ended the call.
Aaron saw Ryan sneaking into his uncle's room by unlocking the door with a spare keys of his uncle's study room which he stole it from his aunt, Sylvia. He followed his cousin and ended up into the room where he caught the sight of his cousin, searching for something in a hurry. "What are you doing here?" Ryan was startled to hear Aaron's voice. "Please, close the door and listen to me," he said. "Did you steal the key?" Aaron saw Ryan's nod.
"I am searching a file," added Ryan.
"What file?" asked Aaron.
"A file of an incomplete case," said Ryan.
There was no need for Aaron to question Ryan further because he knew who might have asked Ryan to search the file. "Don't you know that it'll be a problem if you get caught by uncle?" asked Aaron.
"I hope I get it soon. Could you please not tell anyone?" he pleaded Aaron.
"Neither will I tell anyone nor rescue you if you get caught," said Aaron to his cousin. Ryan thanked him and continued to search the files in the room. Aaron looked around room, the room was not brighter because Ryan switched on a study lamp instead of lights. Aaron had his eyes fixed at a corner. He walked to the shelf and bent down to open the glass door. He took out a blue file and turned the pages of it while Ryan was busy searching other files. It was the file through which Aaron came to know about Elizabeth's mother. At that time when he saw the file, he didn't go through the details but he knew which file contained about Hailey Carter's murder because he had a close look at that file. He took his phone out and clicked the pictures of the clues which were in the file under the dim light with enough clarity. After he was done taking the pictures, he tried to remove the pictures that were in the file. Before he could take the pictures from the file, Ryan called him out in whisper, "Aaron, what are you doing there?" he asked.
"Is this the one you are searching?" asked Aaron. "Margaret Winds. Yesss!! This is the name," said Ryan as if he achieved something. "How did you find it so easily?" asked Ryan. "I checked the date and year. It was easy to find," Aaron blurted out, he remember the year and the date of the incident. Ryan didn't ask Aaron, how he was able to find the file with the dates and the year when he didn't even mention. The question didn't even struck Ryan's mind as he was in a hurry to leave which helped Aaron to not answer to any of his cousin's questions. Aaron sighed in relief that his cousin didn't suspect him.
"We'll leave now," he said. "I'll come in a while. You leave first," said Aaron. As soon as Ryan left, Aaron phoned a well known prosecutor who was close to Aaron and asked him if he could find more information from the details Aaron sent to his friend but after hearing that the man could not find any details regarding the case, Aaron lost his temper.
Aaron walked to his study table and picked up something he found on the floor after Elizabeth left. It was an envelope. After opening it, he understood that the envelope was from Elizabeth's mother who passed it down, to her daughter before her death. Elizabeth's words echoed on the back of his head. "Was I wrong all these years?" he asked himself.