Chapter 378: Chapter 377: You Look a Lot Like My Daughter

“I do apologize. I lost my composure.”

Taking the medicine handed to him by someone at his side, Anson Colt tilted his head back and swallowed it down. He reached out and pushed the tea in front of him a little farther away.

“It’s all right,” Naomi Kenway said. “Elder Colt, if you’re not feeling well, perhaps you should rest for a bit.”

Hearing Naomi Kenway’s concerned words, Anson Colt’s eyes welled up again. He looked up, sighed, and met her gaze. His eyes, weathered by time, were not cloudy but still bright, yet they seemed to conceal countless sorrows.

“Thank you for your concern, but this is just an old ailment of mine. It’s nothing serious. Let’s discuss the collaboration.”

With a slight wave of his hand, a nearby servant laid the prepared documents flat on the table. “I heard about what happened today. My apprentice’s actions were indeed inappropriate. Allow me to apologize to you both. As for that boy, Paul Grant, I’ve already called and chewed him out. To show my sincerity, we can sign the contract whenever you’re ready.”

Laura Grant asked, a little tentatively, “So, your invitation was actually an apology on Paul Grant’s behalf…?”

Anson Colt shook his head. “I’m too old to manage the affairs of the younger generation. This invitation was my own idea and has nothing to do with Paul Grant.”

Hearing this, Laura Grant breathed a sigh of relief.

Naomi Kenway said, “It’s truly an honor to have the chance to be in one of Elder Colt’s films. To be honest, I’m a fan of yours as well. I’ve hoped countless times that you would come out of retirement with a new work. I’m so glad that day has finally come, and I’m even luckier to be a part of it.”

Anson Colt stroked his beard and chuckled. “Have a look at the script. I want to invite you to star as the female lead in my new film—which will also be my last.”

Naomi Kenway, who had just started looking at the script, snapped her head up, her eyes wide with disbelief. “The female lead?”

Being in an Anson Colt film was a massive opportunity. On the way here, Naomi Kenway had thought he might offer her a significant role—like the second or third female lead, or even the fourth. But she had never once imagined it would be the main role.

Laura Grant’s eyes also filled with shock as she silently took a sip of her tea. She knew Elder Colt had a decades-long habit of casting familiar, skilled actors in his films. She never expected him to invite her client to be the female lead.

Anson Colt just smiled without saying a word. “Read the script first.”

Naomi Kenway carefully leafed through the script. To her surprise, the screenwriters were listed as Mark Lester and Anson Colt.

’Mark Lester is one of the country’s most famous screenwriters. And Anson Colt, the director, helped write it too?’

After carefully reading the synopsis, Naomi Kenway had a general understanding of the script. She looked up. “This is a film about anti-child trafficking?”

Hearing those words, Anson Colt nodded, tears streaming down his face as if a dam had broken. He covered his face and forced a smile. “To be honest, I’ve been writing this script for ten years, polishing and revising it countless times. I’m making this film for my daughter, Erin.”

He took out a handkerchief to wipe his tears, seemingly trying to compose himself. “I imagine you might have seen the news reports from twenty years ago. My daughter, Erin, committed suicide.”

As he brought up this heavy topic, both Naomi Kenway and Laura Grant lowered their heads slightly.

“About forty-some years ago, my daughter, Erin, got married. A year later, she gave birth to a baby girl named Yvie. Their relationship fell apart, so my daughter divorced, and she got custody of Yvie. Yvie was a bright and clever child, and she was so sweet and charming that everyone adored her. Many of my old friends were very fond of my little granddaughter back then.”

Recalling these happy memories, a faint smile appeared on Anson Colt’s face, making him seem much more spirited. But a moment later, the smile vanished, and sorrow once again clouded his features.

“A tragedy struck when Yvie was five years old, an event that nearly destroyed my daughter. Yvie went missing. It was due to the nanny’s negligence—she disappeared on the way home from school… My daughter was devastated. Yvie was her pillar of support. The two of them had always relied on each other…”

As he spoke, Anson Colt’s voice began to choke with sobs.

“Back then, the internet wasn’t as developed as it is now. Erin printed missing person notices in the newspapers, offered a reward, and even hired a private investigator to look into it.” He slowly shook his head. “But nothing came of it. We never found a single clue about Yvie. Erin quit her job and dedicated all her energy to the search, traveling all over the country. Her mental health deteriorated, and at one point, she needed antidepressants just to cope.”

Recalling the news from twenty years ago, Naomi Kenway had a growing suspicion that the story did not have a happy ending.

“Perhaps heaven took pity on us, because in the fifteenth year after Yvie went missing, we received news of her.”

From the sorrow in Anson Colt’s eyes, Naomi Kenway knew things hadn’t turned out well.

“It was a very remote mountain village, cut off from the outside world by the mountains. The people there rarely had contact with outsiders and lived a self-sufficient life. That’s why we could never find any trace of Yvie. When we found her…”

Anson Colt closed his eyes briefly. “She was filthy and disheveled, showing no trace of the lively little girl she once was. Her wrinkled skin made her look not like a woman in her twenties, but like an old woman on the verge of death… If it weren’t for the DNA match, we wouldn’t have believed that this ravaged person was our Yvie.”

“We found her in the winter. It was very cold. We pushed open a creaking wooden door and saw a table covered in moldy steamed buns. And Yvie… she was chained to the bed like an animal. Her mind was gone, and she would only cower from human contact. Erin held Yvie and just wept. I stood to the side, wanting to go and touch her, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to face it…”

“We learned from the villagers that this was the third family Yvie had been sold to. Each time she gave birth, she was driven away. She had lost her mind five years earlier because of a high fever.”

“We brought Yvie back to Veridia. Erin stayed with Yvie every day, holding her and telling her the stories she never got to finish as a child. When Yvie first came home, she was extremely wary and would scream at the sight of strangers. Later, as she grew more familiar with us, she slowly began to relax, letting Erin hold her and sing her lullabies.”

“But those peaceful days didn’t last long. During a check-up, Yvie was diagnosed with late-stage intestinal cancer. Her brief period of happiness was once again stolen by illness.”

“After Yvie passed away, Erin was a complete wreck, just holding Yvie’s old clothes and sobbing. I don’t remember how long it was after that… Erin jumped from a building and killed herself.”

“I like to think she felt a sense of relief, of peace, when she left. That my precious daughter and my precious granddaughter would meet again in another world.”

Even as he said this, Anson Colt’s eyes gradually filled with tears.

“To be perfectly honest, the reason I’m asking you to play the female lead is because you look so much like my daughter.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep