Twisted Ties of Love

Chapter 338

Brett clicked on the link, and the first thing that popped up was a live stream of "Here Comes the Superstars".

Brett's mind went blank. Just as he was about to close the stream, a familiar voice came from inside.

The sound of thunder in the background music perfectly blended with the gloomy weather outside. Brett's eyes were already red, and he clenched his phone, gasping for breath. A familiar face appeared on the screen.

Izabella was on her knees, struggling to look up at the man in front of her. She wanted to grab him, but the man stepped back.

Izabella's face was covered in tears. She could no longer support herself, and with the sound of thunder, she fell back, losing all her breath.

Tears flowed into his mouth, and Brett tasted a bitterness that was worse than any medicine he had ever taken. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

His phone slipped from his hand and fell onto the wooden floor. Brett bent down to pick it up, but his brain felt like it had been hit with a heavy hammer. He stumbled and knelt on the ground, hands on the floor, tears dropping one by one.

In his ears echoed the sound from the phone, but in his mind, he recalled six years ago. The Salotti family went bankrupt, and he took a starving Izabella to court to watch her father get sentenced.

To humiliate her, he made Izabella kneel in the pouring rain for half an hour in front of journalists.

Back then, Izabella looked at him like she did in the video, trying to reach for him but being avoided with disgust.

He never thought he would see that look and expression again; the woman in the video and Izabella back then were exactly the same.

Liam went downstairs and came back up, only to find Brett kneeling on the floor, shaking with his face covered.

Thinking he was having another stomachache, Liam rushed over to help Brett. "President Windham, is your stomach hurting again? Where's your medicine?"

Brett came back to his senses for a moment, sitting on the ground and saying, "I saw Izabella..."

His tone was certain, his eyes red but clear, not like someone hallucinating.

"She's been dead for three years."

Brett's voice was already hoarse, and now after crying, it was even more muffled, as if he had a bad cold. He said, "I know, but I really saw her. Or at least, I saw her shadow in someone else."

Liam sighed, squatting in front of Brett and looking him in the eye, asking, "Where?"

Brett still held his phone, raising it for Liam to see. At that moment, only Harper appeared on the live stream.

"President Windham, are you saying it's him? He's a guy."

"It's not him." Brett frowned, his face gloomy. "It's the woman lying on the ground."

Liam took the phone and went back to the main page, glancing at the title: "Here Comes the Superstars Live Stream Round 4, Harper, Ariana, Izabella."

The last name was jarring. It wasn't unusual for people to have the same name, but what was strange was that this "Izabella" looked like the Izabella who had been dead for three years.

The name was one thing, but the fact that they looked alike was another. Liam looked at the pictures that popped up from the search.

"Here Come the Superstars" had many fans recording the live event, and the most widely circulated clip was the one Izabella performed in, which made it to the trending list.

"This person looks familiar." Liam had a good memory and felt he had seen her somewhere before, not just because she looked like Izabella.

He thought carefully, his head aching a little before finally remembering where he had seen her.

"President Windham, do you remember a year ago, there was a woman who looked like your wife around Nathaniel? It's her. I remember she was even sent to your hotel by Nathaniel once. Her stage name is Izabella, but her real name is Bell Salotti."

That's right, Bell Salotti!

After Liam's reminder, Brett remembered too.

Over the years, Nathaniel had tried many underhanded tricks, and the one that left the deepest impression on Brett was finding a lookalike for Izabella and even changing the stand-in's name to Izabella.

Nathaniel's intention was simple back then: if he couldn't beat Brett, he would try to break him mentally.

But Brett had already gone mad from grief after Izabella's death, and Nathaniel's little tricks had no effect on him. For Brett, the pain had become numb and routine.

Brett finally understood. His eyes followed Liam's hand holding the phone, his heart pounding like never before. An unprecedented obsession took over his mind.

"She's not Bell Salotti. She's Izabella."

"President Windham, have you not rested for too long, and your mental state is acting up again? I should call Mr. Bagot to check on you."

Liam was about to dial the number, but Brett grabbed his wrist tightly.

Liam looked at Brett's trembling hand, the grip like holding onto a lifeline. But he didn't want to comfort him with deception.

Liam said, "President Windham, can you wake up? This Izabella is just a fake. Look at her face; it's just similar. She's not her. Even if you don't look at her face, can you look at her hands and legs and still deceive yourself that she's the disabled Izabella?"

Brett looked up, his heart aching, and his dry eyes instantly filled with tears again. His red eyes seemed to bleed.

He gasped in pain, his heart feeling like it was being tightly grabbed and pulled, hurting to the point of suffocation.

Liam turned his face away, feeling uncomfortable saying this, but it was better than letting Brett deceive himself. Ever since Izabella died, he had secretly sworn not to lie to Brett anymore, even if it was a white lie.

"Maybe this is Nathaniel's scheme. He deliberately let this woman catch your attention. Hasn't he used this trick before? You can avoid being fooled once, President Windham, but you can't avoid it forever."

"I can feel she's different from before."

"People always change."

Brett was a bit paranoid, and once he was convinced of something, it was hard for him to change his mind.

Brett still held Liam's hand. His hands were nice, slender, and clean, and his knuckles curled when he grabbed someone.

"Liam, do you know how much I miss her? I want to die but can't, and living is unbearable. The person I saw in the elevator that day was her. You're right that people always change, but their eyes don't. I trust my intuition, it really was Izabella. She came back after three years of being dead; she really did."

These days, Brett had lost weight and looked pale. Sometimes Liam felt like he wasn't facing a living person but a soulless corpse. Brett had been living like a walking dead for three years.

Brett muttered, "I have to find her; I must see her."

Izabella really came back and wanted to tell many people, but even Liam, who had been with him the longest, didn't believe it.

Brett staggered to his feet, fumbling for his phone, looking lost and helpless like a child. He finally found it in the sofa crevice. His phone had no entertainment apps, so he had to download one to search for Izabella. He opened the app and clicked on the trending section.

It was as if he saw that scene, her kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down her face. The phone's volume was at maximum when he clicked on it.

The cat that followed Liam up the stairs barged in from the hallway. Usually silent Niki stared intently at Brett's phone, circling around him.

"Meow..."

Niki's hoarse meow only made Brett more certain of his suspicion. He turned to look at Liam, who seemed at a loss, his eyes shining with a faint light. He pointed to Niki, his voice trembling, "Look, even she recognizes her."

Liam didn't know what to say for a moment. How could someone come back to life after they died?

"President Windham, if you want to confirm your guess, you need to take care of yourself first. She's in the show; she won't run away. You rest for a day, and I'll go with you to see her tomorrow."