“Yes.” Carrie nodded firmly.
At this moment, Ralph, always composed and steady, stared at the portrait as he stood quietly and stiffly, his eyes turning red.
“Ralph, are you alright?” Carrie keenly sensed Ralph’s unusual behavior and asked softly.
Ralph spoke, his voice hoarse. “Sorry. Where’s the washroom? I need to use it.”
Justin pointed in the direction, and Ralph immediately strode away.
“Bella, do you guys know this man?” Justin put his arms around her waist and asked nervously.
Bella took a deep breath, trying to calm her surging emotions. “This man looks like my fifth brother, Hugh, who died in a plane crash.”
Justin and Carrie’s eyes widened in disbelief!
Thinking of her fifth brother, who passed away many years ago and became a wound that would never heal on the Thompson family members’ hearts, Bella immediately teared up and muttered in a low voice, “During the years Hugh left us, we never dared to mention his name or grieve him, especially in front of Aunt Mila and Ralph. It’s not because we have forgotten him, but precisely because we can’t, so we always avoided the subject.”
Bella slowly closed her eyes as her memories were recalled, the pain spreading from the deepest corner of her heart and almost overwhelming her. “Until now, I could still remember the morning of Hugh’s accident. He wore his pilot’s uniform and carried a suitcase, standing in the courtyard bathed in warm sunlight, waving goodbye to us. We never thought it would be the last time we saw him.”
The short goodbye became an eternal farewell.
Justin’s hand on Bella’s waist tightened, the sadness pressing down on his chest like a huge rock, so heavy that it suffocated him.
He wanted to comfort her, but any words seemed pale and useless in the face of a sibling’s death.
Carrie finally understood and could not help looking back worriedly at the direction Ralph had left.
“The man in this portrait doesn’t just look similar to Hugh. They look identical!”
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