Irresistible Boss Succumbing to Your Touch (Maria Anita) novel Chapter 484

Manu's brother seemed unable to stomach his stepmother, and his comment was what anyone who knew both women would say. What surprised me, however, was their father's reaction, who appeared bothered by his son's words for some reason and reprimanded him.

"Don't talk nonsense, Cam! You've been overly impressed since Manu visited your house," his father scolded him, but this caught my interest.

"Impressed?" I asked, wanting them to elaborate. My instinct told me there was more to this.

"Cam hadn't seen Manu for a year since she came here. He only saw her again when she went to the city to tell him she was moving. But since then, he's been fixated on how much his sister has changed."

"When I met Manu, she was already like this. That change had already happened," I explained.

"Dad, you can't deny they look alike," Cam complained to his father.

"Keep your voice down, boy! I don't want your sister hearing this nonsense! I've told you before, you're just projecting her image onto Manu," his father admonished.

"And what about you? Are you going to keep denying that you were shocked too?" Cam challenged his father, who looked at him speechlessly.

"Now I'm curious. Who does she look like? I assumed she took after her mother since she doesn't resemble you, sir, though she looks a lot like her brother," I explained my impression to their father.

"Yes, but you know that Cam and Manu don't share the same mother, right?" Her father asked me, and I nodded.

"I'll show you, and you can judge for yourself." Cam took out his phone and showed me a photo of a beautiful woman who looked remarkably like Manu.

"Who is she?" I asked, finding this all rather strange, thinking she might be an aunt.

"Does she look like her or not?" Cam insisted.

"It's as if the woman in the photo were a slightly older version of Manu," I answered honestly.

"I told you, Dad! Are you going to say he's projecting too?" Cam said triumphantly.

"Cam, that's impossible! It's just a coincidence. You've been watching too many soap operas with your wife and coming up with impossible theories," the father looked at his son as if explaining the same thing for the thousandth time.

"The woman in the photo is my mother. She died when I was seven years old. She was pregnant with a girl and died during childbirth," Cam explained, and something clicked inside me.

"But my daughter also died during childbirth," the father explained, and I saw pain in his eyes. "I wasn't there. I had gone to a neighboring town on business and left my pregnant wife at the farm. Cam went with me because I had promised him a toy, and we were going to buy it that day."

"I see. Orlando, how did you meet your second wife?" I asked, still looking at the photo of the girl with braids.

"Rita worked at the dairy plant. My marriage was going through a rough patch, I even left home for a few days and made the mistake of getting involved with Rita, then my wife discovered she was pregnant and we got back together. I was weak, to put it mildly. I deeply regret it. Rita got pregnant too. That was when the problems started. But Manu doesn't know about this," Orlando confided in me just as Manu and Olivia returned to the living room, and the conversation ended, but my investigative instinct had already been triggered, and I had millions of questions spinning in my head. Something there was out of place, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Well, guys, sorry to interrupt, but we need to go, or we'll arrive very late," Olivia, the sister-in-law, was ending the visit.

"Oh, but it's still early," I complained, as their presence was pleasant and made my little one very happy.

"No, Flavian, Olivia is right, it's time for us to go," Orlando stood up. "Next time I'll come stay with you for a few days."

We walked Manu's family to the building entrance, and when she said goodbye to them on the sidewalk, her eyes were teary. She missed her family, of course; they were welcoming and kind and treated her like a precious jewel, just as I thought she was.

But my mind was trying to piece together a puzzle, trying to understand that story that, for now, was full of gaps. Before they left, I gave them my phone number and wrote down theirs, and, without Manu noticing, I arranged to call Cam; I would definitely want to know more about this story.

I knew strangers could share some resemblance - they said each of us had a lookalike somewhere in the world - but this was too much of a coincidence. I was definitely going to investigate this story.