"Are you alright?" her voice that wasn't coming out, leaved her mouth in a painful tone.
Surprised by those words, Leigh got petrified. In front was the real Leigh eldest sister but she was so shocked and overwhelmed by this foreign feeling that she forgot everything.
"Who… might you be?" she placed a lock of her hair behind her ear as her eyes wandered away from Lily who was making her feel awkward.
Lily was out of words. She was aware that Leigh has forgotten her memories but facing her right now gave a real vivid feeling of truth that she was ignoring till now.
Her lips remained parted slightly in shock, she was baffled at the same time since her mind didn't work.
As Leigh gathered her courage to look up at the woman, she was taken aback. The woman tears were trolling down, while her shocked expression remained the same.
She didn't know what to do because she never knew how to comfort someone while they were crying. Even when she was with real Leigh, she often just left her alone while she was crying.
And while she was running her head to think of a way out of this difficult situation, she remembered how foolish she was, "Oh! I am really sorry!" her eyes blinked more often while she was panicking and hands were outstretched but hesitant to reach the crying woman, "That, you are my sister, right? how forgetful I have been, Mr. Gordon did show me everyone's pictures before sending me back, but I actually forgot it for a while… I am really sorry!" She looked guilty while saying that.
With more words leaving Leigh mouth, Lily sadness just increased and it showed on her face. She wanted to say many things, it was written over her face and she also looked like in need of a sweet hug but the moment was ruined when the house keeper who was standing behind Lily came between them with a foul look on her face.
"Ahem! This isn't what you should be doing, lady Filin. Madam will be happier if you focus on your work". She was completely reprimanding Lily with an angry look.
Now this situation made Leigh more curious. She wanted to know the situation of this weird family where a housekeeper wielded more power than the eldest lady of the house, even to the point of reprimanding her.
But since she had no idea of the real situation, she could say nothing much.
…
"This is…" Leigh paused, staring at the traditional and old house where the driver brought her to.
"This is where your you live, miss. Your grandma would be waiting for you, miss, you should go inside," the driver said very politely with a calming smile.
The house was neither too big nor small. But the land over which it was build was quite large.
She looked at the driver before entering inside the house, her hand placed over the door painted red and a golden valiant dragon over it, "That, umm… why do grandma and I leave in a small village away from our family?" she tried to dig a little.
But the driver lips were sewn by his loyalty toward the head of the family, "I am sorry, miss. You have to ask this question yourself. I don't have the qualification to speak about this matter".
Awkwardly, Leigh nodded as a gesture of respecting him and the thin driver with a nod left with the car.
She was now alone at the door, gathering some more courage to go inside but before that, she looked around.
The valley was beautiful. Kids were playing at the streets and playground and while she was in the car, she also saw an old building which might've been a school for the kids.
'The weather is colder here than the city,' she pursed her lips and rubbed her arms with her hand crossed, staring at the sky.
'What was this village name?' her eyebrows creased as she pressurised her brain to remember and clicked her tongue, 'Ahh… I am really forgetting things nowadays.' Her tongue licked her lips as she continued to look around and remembered, 'Koyana town'. She nodded.
While she was leaning on the door looking around, she smiled, 'But it feels nice. It is far warmer than that place at least. And the trees here are so pretty'. She was smiling on her own but inside her heart, she could feel an empty feeling, bothering her, 'Do I deserve to live at such a nice place?'
A wry smile left her lips suddenly, her eyes down. While she was having a depressed thought, the door suddenly opened toward inside.
The girl who was completely depending on the door to stand lost her balance and fall back, "Gosh!" she held her head and sat back on the ground.
"Oh!!" a scream grabbed her attention from her aching butt and she looked up. An old man in her late fifties whose beard was all white looked quite happy but his tears couldn't stop falling while staring at Leigh.
'Huh? No one told me Leigh had a grandpa, too!" she was baffled when he squatted and started to help her up.
"Leigh, you are, okay?" he looked really worried as he helped her up.
The girl nodded and pressed her lips, "You are?" her eyes turned down slightly since the man appeared to have been quite familiar with the real Leigh.
He replied with silence while looking down in sadness. This was the second time that Leigh was getting this expression after meeting someone for the first time.
"I am sorry, but I don't remember anything. I was told that my grandma lives here, so…" she swallowed, feeling awkward because of the sudden silence which was broken by a really old lady who walked as fast as she could toward her with a wooden stick in her hand. Her hair turned white and thick glasses keeping her weak eyes company.
She was wearing a traditional comfortable one piece that hid her whole body inside.
But the old lady who was barely managing to walk, even in her late seventies, her eyes were more discerning than the world outside.
And after approaching Leigh, a frown appeared on her face, "Where is my granddaughter, you swindler?"