Chapter 343



Finding a seat by the window, the man sat down and left the camera with his bag on the desk of the inn. He looked around and had a mixed feeling as he appreciated the decor of the place.

“Drink some hot tea to warm your body, sir. Please wait ten minutes.”

Lily placed a glass of water on the desk and asked, “May I have your name, sir?”

“Bay.”

“Okay, Mr. Bay, wait here please.”

gαℓησν𝒆𝓁s․com, your source for inspiration Then Lily went upstairs to clean the room.

The man took the mug and then pulled the camera out of his bag. He pointed it at the public area of the inn, then stretched the lens and pointed it up to the second floor following the stairs.

The camera pointed at the end of the second floor hallway. There was a board decorated with dried flowers. Through the lens, the man could see the words on the board: “[Landlady’s room. Knock before entering].”

The man couldn’t help but smile.

In the room, in the dim light, Rebekah was sitting by the window reading a book. She was wearing a brown vest, over which her long hair stood out. She was in her fifties, but still looked young.

Benjamin was standing next to her with a plate in his hand. He had been there for ten minutes.

“Mom, please, you should eat. You can scold me or punish me, but please take care of your health.”

“Put it there.” Rebekah replied, but she didn’t even take her eyes off the book.

Benjamin was worried, “You’ve eaten very little since you came back from N-Town. Even Lily has noticed your behavior. Even I don’t know what I should do.”

Rebekah frowned and closed the book. She looked at Benjamin and said, “What did you think I should do when you kept your research on the Beckham Family from me?”

Benjamin was speechless.

Rebekah stared at Benjamin. This young man looked quite like that man, they both seemed fragile and carefree.

She had made a mistake, she should not have allowed Benjamin to study at the University of Public Safety. She had her mind elsewhere, she shouldn’t have thought the city was big enough to allow Benjamin to see members of the Beckham Family.

Things would still be acceptable if only Joseph knew Benjamin, but what if the old man saw him? If so, she would no longer be able to hide the truth.

Rebekah looked at Benjamin for a while, then sighed and opened the book again.

“Leave it there, I’ll eat it later.”

Benjamin watched his mother’s face. Although Rebekah seemed kind, he knew his mother was stubborn. Benjamin knew it was useless to insist, so he had to leave the plate on the desk.

“Please eat it. Call me if it gets cold.”

“I know.” Rebekah nodded, then focused on the book.

In truth, Benjamin wasn’t intentionally hiding his research from his mother. He also asked Rebekah many times if she wanted to meet Joseph. But perhaps she thought he was joking.

With mixed feelings, Benjamin did not stay in the room, but turned around and left.

As soon as he left the room, the flash of a camera jolted his eyes. He unconsciously covered his eyes and said angrily.

“What is this?”

Then he pulled his hand away and walked over to the second floor railing.

He saw a man sitting there, in the public area of the second floor.

“Who are you?” Benjamin was not in a good mood now. He knew he must be a customer, but still he couldn’t help but scold him, “You don’t take pictures here without permission!”.

The man was in his fifties. He was tall, standing over six feet tall. He was wearing a black sweater and holding a camera in his hand. The man raised his head to look at Benjamin, a confused look in his eyes.

“No photos allowed? No one had told me that.”

When scolded by Benjamin, the man showed no anger. Still, he asked politely, “I’m going to delete them if I can’t take pictures here.”

At that moment, Lily came out of a room after cleaning it. She found Benjamin there, and then looked at the door behind Benjamin. “She didn’t eat did she?”.

Benjamin frowned, “No.”

Lily asked no more. She found the man in the public area, so she hurried to introduce him to Benjamin.

“Benjamin, this is Mr. Bay, a new client. Mr. Bay, this is our little boss.”

The man nodded, then asked, looking at Benjamin, “Why do you call him little boss?”

“Well, the boss is his mother, so I can’t call him boss. Then he’s the little boss.”

Lily was talkative, and the rules at this inn were not strict, so she could always talk about anything.

“You do your job. I’m going back to my room, there’s still something I need to do.” Benjamin told him and then went back to his room with a grim expression.

The man stared at Benjamin’s back for quite a while.

“Mr. Bay, please let me help you check in, could I have your ID card?”.

“Okay, here you go.”

As Lily typed the information into the computer, she mumbled to repeat the new client’s name: “Ted Bay.”

“Mr. Bay, your room is on the second floor. Go up the stairs and turn left, it’s the second one on that side. You can call the front desk if you need anything, there will always be someone at the front desk.”

“Okay.”

At night, the city sky was dim. Guests who went to see the festive lanterns were slowly returning, these were talking and playing in the public area, then returning to their rooms.

In the landlady’s room, the old record player played a ditty. The soft voice made the song melancholy.

In the semi-darkness, Rebekah pulled some aged photos out of the safe.

Even Benjamin had never seen those photos. To say goodbye to the past and cut the Beckham Family loose, Rebekah had destroyed everything twenty years ago. However, she wasn’t about to ruin those photos.

She had kept them in the safe for twenty years.

The first photo in the album was in black and white. In it was a short boy standing next to a young man, a woman holding a baby in her arms. The woman was smiling softly, while the young boy was expressionless.

When the Beckham Family’s only son was only a year old, his parents brought in an abandoned newborn baby girl. The child was Rebekah, who would have died had the couple not found her.

The Beckham Family raised her and treated her as their own daughter.

The family even gave her a husband who loved her until he died. Her husband was Henry Beckham.

Rebekah couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in her eyes. She casually flipped through the photos and stopped when she saw a picture. In it, the young man and the eighteen-year-old girl were together. Both were smiling sweetly.

At the bottom of the photo was a line of words, “[Rebekah’s eighteenth birthday].”

The words were characterized by firm strokes. It was Henry’s handwriting.

The photo awakened Rebekah’s memory of the story. So she dipped into her memory.

Knock, knock, knock Suddenly, someone was knocking at the door.

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