Chapter 264: That night... it was you...?
In the morning...
Lola snapped her eyes open and sat up unceremoniously. She blinked several times, her mouth falling open in shock. Unlike usual, she didn’t even check the empty side of the bed. Instead, she reached for her laptop and hurriedly switched it on.
"Come on..." she muttered impatiently. "Damn it!"
The moment the laptop finished booting, she immediately opened the files related to her investigation of her pregnancy. She checked one particular folder — the motel — and within it, a photo of the hallway caught her eye.
"310, 309... 308..." she read the room numbers aloud, studying their arrangement along the corridor. "306."
Lola zoomed in on the photo and examined the room numbers again. Her breath hitched when she stopped at the room directly across from 306.
"This... wasn’t the room number I saw when I left that morning," she muttered, moving the zoomed-in photo until it aligned with the room number she remembered as she walked out.
This was it, she thought, her hand trembling as she zoomed the photo out slightly — only to see the room across from it.
Room 309.
Lola gulped, her entire body freezing as realization dawned on her. Her throat dried up, and her breathing grew heavy with tension. After a moment, she snapped out of it, closed her laptop, and jumped out of bed.
*****
"Hihi. Our little cousins are so cute~" Chacha giggled. "Thirdy, do you want to see Mommy? She looks funny every morning..."
Chacha trailed off, spotting Lola from the corner of her eye. "Mommy—!"
"Babies!" Lola skidded to where the children were idling. She leaned in for a kiss, pinching Mauce’s and Tian’s cheeks. "I just have to run, okay? Very important!"
With that, Lola jumped away and ran off in haste.
The children, even the younger ones, just stared blankly before Chacha turned to her cousins and grinned.
"See? I told you!" she mused. "Mommy looks funny in the morning."
Their giggles were still echoing when Atlas emerged from the dining room.
"Ah, Father Sir, Mommy said she needs to go!" Second announced. "She was running. Probably very important."
"Uncle Silly probably forgot something again," Chacha shook her head, making Silo, who was enjoying a quiet cup of coffee in the comforts of his home, nearly choke.
Atlas frowned slightly, glancing toward the entryway. "I told her we would talk today."
"First Brother, where’s sis?" Slater appeared beside him.
"Left."
"So early?" Slater checked his watch and then looked at his brother. "Did something happen?"
Atlas shook his head. "Who knows?"
*****
"So, you’re saying... what Hudson said checked out?" Amala stared at Lola, whose energy was unusually high for early morning. "That you didn’t come to the designated room?"
"Yes! Look at this!" Lola flipped the laptop open on the coffee table, showing it to Amala, who sat on the one-seater couch. "See? I remember when I woke up and checked out — I saw this room number the moment I stepped out."
She stared at Amala in disbelief. "Amala, I got into the wrong room."
Lola instantly paled at the thought. It hadn’t crossed her mind all these years, but somehow, upon waking, the idea struck her.
Amala watched as Lola sank into the couch, her face blank.
"The CCTV from that night was basically useless, Lola," Amala sighed. "Even if you got into the wrong room, the problem remains. We don’t have any concrete evidence that could lead us to anyone. I’ve exhausted my resources, and I even got Hudson."
It wasn’t that Amala wanted to discourage Lola, but they both knew they had done everything possible to find out who had been with her that night.
Amala moved closer, taking Lola’s hand. "Lola, you know I support whatever you want to do, right?" She paused, watching Lola lift her eyes. "But you also promised me that once we exhausted all leads, you would move on."
"It’s been five years now, Lola." Worry shone in Amala’s eyes as she pressed her lips into a tight line. "Even if you find him, we now know it’s not Hudson. You avoided what could have been a catastrophic night. Besides, there’s also the chance it didn’t happen that night."
"There’s no other time that could have happened to me, Amala," she argued. "It has to be that night. Besides... I keep having these dreams..."
Lola paused, noticing the look on Amala’s face.
"This is the first time I’m finally remembering something from that night," she whispered, biting her lips. "I feel like I’m close."
"I know," Amala nodded, squeezing her hand. "I know. And I also know your mom and that boy would want you to move on. They want you to live, not keep sliding back to where you started."
A moment of silence passed. Lola felt a lump form in her throat as Amala sighed heavily, pulling her into an embrace.
"Lola," Amala said softly, "you managed to build yourself up when you were already broken. I promised you I would make your wishes come true as long as you kept moving forward."
She let her go, holding Lola by the shoulders, eyes locked on hers. "Teach Melissa Young a lesson, cut all ties with the Young Family, and live for yourself. Isn’t that why you’ve avoided using your name? Because one day, you wanted Lola Young to disappear from this world."
"I promised to help you achieve that, but... you have to let this go," Amala emphasized. "Let it go. Stop clinging to this night just because of the memory of your child. The only one hurting is... you."
"I want to," Lola whispered, lowering her gaze, tears welling. "But... it’s just so hard, Amala. I missed my child, and I want to know who his father was."
Amala smiled wearily, hugging Lola to comfort her.
*
*
*
The day passed, and Lola didn’t even know how she had spent it. She remembered being with Amala all day, fixing the last touches on the building before it became operational. Yet, she felt like she was floating without direction.
Before she knew it, she was lying flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling in the dim light.
"Amala was right," she murmured, closing her eyes. "I should... move on."
But the moment she closed her eyes, the memory of a man hovering over her — his figure, the outline of his body, that cold look in his eyes — flashed through her mind. Lola snapped her eyes open, only for her breath to hitch as a figure stood beside the bed, looking down at her.
"Too dark," came Atlas’s voice. "Trying to sleep now?"
She didn’t answer, her mouth falling open as she stared at him in the dim light. It was exactly the same silhouette as that man.
Before she knew it, a whisper slipped from her lips. "It... was you. That night... it was you...?"
"..." Atlas paused, his brows rising as he studied her face. "Do you remember now?"