With You For the Rest of My Life

Rose took the paper and opened the cover. An old family photo came into her sight.

The family of three stood side by side behind a worn-out mud wall.

The middle-aged man stood in the middle, with a chubby woman around his age in his arms. The other girl, about fourteen or fifteen years old, stood at the outer side, dressed in a white school uniform, looking dull.

Rose realized that the woman was Amanda.

And the chubby woman who looked a bit like her must be her mother.

"Is this man Amanda Zhao's father?" Pointing at the photo, Rose asked.

"No," Xavier shot a glance along the direction of Rose's finger. He sat down and said, "That's her stepfather."

"No wonder they don't look like a family." Mumbled Rose.

"Amanda's father was missing ever since she was born, and her gambling mother eloped with another man. She lived with her aged aunt grandmother in a remote village. At the age of seven, her aunt grandmother died, and she became an orphan completely. When the police cracked a gambling case, they caught her mother, Janice Chen. After being released from the police station, Janice Chen was sent back to her original village. When she returned to that village, she couldn't bear the pressure of the public opinion and had to bring up Amanda again. " Xavier explained.

"So her mother brought her to Qinshan Town?" Seeing the words on the page, Rose's eyes twinkled slightly.

Qinshan Town was where she first met Burke in her childhood.

At that time, she often went there to escape the summer heat at the hold housekeeper's house. And Burke went there to rest.

During that family feast, Amanda claimed that she had known Burke for ten years. Given her family background, it was not easy for her to know him. They might have known each other in Qinshan Town.

"Yes, she was brought to Qinshan Town by her mother because her mother's lover Lucas Chen opened a repair shop there. At early times, Lucas Chen's repair shop could still earn some money to support their lives. So Janice Chen and Amanda was depending on that earnings at that time." Xavier took a glance at the documents in the hand of Rose, and his eyes fell on the only man in the family photo for a moment. He said in disgust, "I disdain to speak of this man."

"What's wrong with him?" Asked Rose, raising her head.

"Rose, do you know why I have this material?"

worked in a government department and didn't have much contact with Amanda. The only connection between the two was Burke. Xavier didn't pay much attention to Amanda before her miscarriage. And the date that this document mentioned

You knew her long before?

seven years ago," said Xavier hesitantly for a few seconds before he continued,

Rose got quite surprised.

Amanda...

and then his expression became serious. "At that time, this case created a lot of sensation, but the news about the exposure of the victim was suppressed, because Amanda was only 17 years old at that time and she was still under age. In order to protect her, few people knew that she was the

"What happened then?"

time, and all the evidences were kept by the mother of Amanda Chen. However, in the beginning, she tried to protect her husband, but then she couldn't resist the court trial and submitted the evidence. Lucas Chen was sentenced to ten

had got too stunned to

don't think of a gambler's mind from a normal person's perspective." Xavier

through the material, her eyes suddenly fixed on the section of Lucas Chen's family relationship. She found

the son

he is

on the phone just now, she guessed that he must be the

Rose's phone buzzed inside her bag. She stopped thinking and looked

phone was still

are going to do." Xavier

answered the

the other side of the phone

was a cold voice that Rose was very

you to No. 285 of the reservoir.

a short sentence at

was hung up before Rose

they say?" Looking at the pale look on

phone, which had not been turned off yet, showed that the call was from Burke Gu,

notice the caller's name.

Xavier was more confused. "Rose, what did he say?