Let Me Go, Mr. Harvey

James caught the cup and shielded Angela behind his back.

“Out! You get out!”

The terrific shriek from Elva resounded in the room.

Angela’s heart was pounding. She wanted to go up to see what was happening, but with just one step, she was stopped by James, “Stand here. I’ll go and see.”

“H’m,” Angela answered with a nod.

He had no sooner walked to the door than Mrs. Brown was pushed outside the room by Elva.

“Get out of my face! From now on, we are not friends anymore! Don’t come to me again!” With her eyes turning crimson, she slammed the door.

Mrs. Brown got scratched a few times on her face by Elva’s fingernails. She jerked a kick at the door and shouted with her eyes getting red, “Elva, don’t you think you are too partial? I treated you better than her, but why were you always on her side whatever happened regardless of my feelings?”

No response.

Mrs. Brown raised her voice, “Elva, don’t pretend to be deaf! You can cut to the chase. We have been friends for decades, and do you want to dump an old friend of me just for that dead person?”Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Get away!” Elva cried, followed by a loud thump that sounded like something hitting the door.

With that, Mrs. Brown turned from purple to pale. She wiped the tears off the corners of her eyes and stamped her foot before walking towards Angela. Angela had never thought things would turn out this way, and now she felt more uneasy.

“I wonder what your mother is thinking! Tell her since she doesn’t regard me as a friend anymore, I don’t want her either!” Mrs. Brown said with a choked voice and stormed out with her handbag.

Angela stunned for a moment before walking to the entrance, and she knocked at the door, “Mom?”

There’s no reply.

“Mom?” Angela knocked again.

Still, nobody answered.

James held her hand and tried to comfort her, “Don’t think too much.”

“Her depression worsened recently, and she had drugs secretly.” Angela felt a flurry of disturbance, “I invited Mrs. Brown to make her relieved, but …”

She didn’t go on, but went downstairs, walking by James. She asked a few servants to watch out for anything unusual downstairs and report it to her.

After that, she got the key to her mother’s room from a servant and went back to the second floor.

“What’s up? Who was arguing with mother just now?” Luna came out after coaxing the two children.

Angela told her what had happened briefly, and with a frown, she said, “I just knocked at the door several times, but mom didn’t answer.”

“Don’t be too sensitive,” Luna said. “To be frank, our mother had always easily got stranded in upset when something happened before she had depression. Now her condition becomes more severe than before but not that severe as you think.”

Angela replied with a “h’m”, yet her frown didn’t disappear.

She kept feeling flustered as if something would happen.

Luna shot a glance at James.

“If you still worry about it, I can find a doctor to see Mrs. Chante.” James stroked Angela’s nose, “You became so thoughtful after you got pregnant.”

Luna agreed, “I was also suspicious when I was pregnant. Once your brother came home late, I would doubt if he cheated on me or had an accident on his way home.”

Hearing their words, Angela turned puzzled: Did she really think too much?

Yet, “I’d better talk with mom, in that case, I would be at ease.”

Luna nodded and knocked at the door, “Mother, could you please open the door? Taotao is bawling and looking for you!”

James took out his cellphone, sent a few messages through WeChat, and put it back.

At first, there was no response, and then light footsteps sounded inside the room.

Snap.

The door opened.

Elva stood inside the door with her red eyes, her face with exhaustion. “Where’s Taotao?”

“In the playing room,” Luna replied.

They went to the playing room. Two kids were playing with toys, but obviously, they had cried earlier.

“Grandma-hug me-” Clop-clop, the little girl ran to Elva with her short legs, acting like a spoiled child.

At the sight of it, Angela put her hand on the belly unconsciously.

Would her child act up with such a sweet voice around her in the future?

“Look, I said you thought too much.” The grandma and grandchild were playing cheerfully, so Luna turned to Angela, “Mother is always maudlin, but not to the extent of desperation as you thought.”

Angela cast a few looks at her mother. She considered maybe she’s too sensitive.

After staying in the playing room for a while, she left along with James. Since it’s December now, the weather was cold. She called the servants back and urged them not to tell others about what happened just now.

“Can we go shopping now?” James asked.

Angela glanced at the second floor and nodded after some hesitation.

Pregnancy and postpartum sensitivity were common for women, so probably she thought too much.

On their way, Angela said after a long-time consideration, “There’s something unusual between Mrs. Brown and my mother, so I intend to ask a detective to investigate it.”

Given her mother’s character, she would never tell her the truth even if Angela asked.

“So you were pondering about whether to tell me that just now?” James asked.

Angela puckered her lips and nodded.

For the past two years, she used to keep everything to herself and not tell any others. But now, she attempted to change.

A shallow curve flickered at the corner of James’s mouth but dispersed instantly. He said, “You don’t need to do that.”

Angela, “…”

“I have asked someone to do it,” James said. “Your mother had two close friends, one was Sean’s mother Alisa, and the other was Mrs. Brown.

“Less than half a year after Arthur married Alisa, he cheated on her with Mrs. Brown. The two then got pregnant one behind the other, and Sean and Salim were born.

“At first, Alisa didn’t know who Salim’s biological father was and treated him well. Later, your mother discovered the affair between Mrs. Brown and Arthur by accident, while she didn’t tell Alisa about it.

“Afterwards, Alisa was told about it by someone else, and she was crushed on the spot. Salim happened to be together with the Brown family then when she wanted to kill him, but was stopped by your mom.”

“In Alisa’s opinion, she was betrayed by both her friend and her love, and she jumped to her death that day.”

With two best friends became hostile towards each other, Elva felt miserable and faced a dilemma every day, hesitating about whether to tell her close friend the truth.

She chose to pretend to be unaware, but anyhow, Alisa discovered the truth.

And her protecting Mrs. Brown’s love child became the last straw to crush Alisa. Alisa killed herself.

Out of guilt, Elva cut the contact with Mrs. Brown without notice in order not to be scourged by her conscience.

But Angela and James invited Mrs. Brown to the Chante family, which utterly destroyed the self-deceiving peace!

Angela clutched the corner of her clothes tightly with her extremely pale face, speechless for a while.