Chapter 140

 140:
“Honestly, you…” The woman’s verbal onslaught screeched to a halt as she raised her eyes to meet Linsey’s gaze. “You?!” she gasped in disbelief.
Linsey was momentarily taken aback, registering the flicker of fear that danced in the woman’s eyes.
Linsey was puzzled by the middle-aged woman’s reaction. Did she recognize her?
Before Linsey could ask, the woman turned abruptly and fled, disappearing into the crowd.
“Ma’am, are you alright?” A nurse approached Linsey with concern. “Did you get hurt?”
Linsey shook her head, her gaze fixed on the path the woman had taken, a frown creasing her forehead. “Who was that woman? It was as though she’d seen a ghost when she looked at me.” The feeling was unmistakable.
The more Linsey thought about the encounter, the more baffling it seemed. She had no connection to this woman. Could it be that she was mistaken for someone the woman feared?
The nurse paused for a moment before offering, “Maybe it’s because she has cancer. That can sometimes make people act strangely. It’s alright, though. Try not to dwell on it.”
Linsey nodded, understanding dawning on her. The woman’s pale complexion could be explained by her illness. Compassion stirred in her chest.
Meanwhile, Alexa Sanderson—the middle-aged woman who had collided with Linsey—was running as if her life depended on it, terrified that Linsey might be following her. She eventually stopped, gasping for breath, only then realizing that no one was chasing her.
Clutching her chest, her complexion now ghostly pale, Alexa took refuge in a secluded corner. She replayed the encounter in her mind, anxiety gnawing at her.
“How can they look so similar?” she murmured, her lips dry and her eyes shadowed by a deep, consuming fear.
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Seeing Linsey’s face had sent her thoughts hurtling back more than two decades.
“You’re Alexa Sanderson, right? I heard you’ve just had a baby, so you must know what you’re doing. I’m entrusting my daughter to your care. Remember, be very careful. If anything happens to her, it will be on you.”
Alexa had nodded meekly, her eyes falling on the infant in the crib. The baby was lovely, with the promise of a privileged life etched into her very being.
Perhaps it was greed, or perhaps a lapse in judgment, but one day Alexa had made a fateful decision. She swapped her own daughter with her employer’s child.
The babies, mere newborns, were indistinguishable to most. Alexa dressed her biological daughter in the employer’s child’s opulent garments.
As for the employer’s child, Alexa hesitated briefly before leaving her in a dumpster on the city’s outskirts.
Jolted back to the present, Alexa pressed a hand to her throbbing head. She had briefly thought Linsey was her former employer, back to exact revenge. But reflecting on it, over twenty years had passed. Her own daughter had been living a life of affluence with the employer’s family, unsuspected all this while.
Moreover, the employer’s child had perished shortly after being discarded—Alexa had seen it herself.
It seemed impossible for any of this to come back to haunt her. Alexa allowed herself a moment of relief, a faint smile breaking through her worry.
She then glanced at the medical record she was holding. Previously, fear of implicating her daughter had kept her at bay. Now, facing her own mortality, she was driven by a desire to see her biological daughter before passing.
With renewed purpose, Alexa set off once more.
Meanwhile, Linsey was visiting Dominic in his office.
“Dr. Larson, am I interrupting?” Linsey inquired as she entered.
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