Chapter 5

Cecil was only half asleep and was quickly awakened by the sudden movement.

She immediately caught a hint of the familiar scent of cologne, which helped her identify the person.

Uncle Cleo?

Why had he suddenly charged into the room to kiss her?

She was thrown off, and before she could even react, she heard Cleo’s raspy voice followed by the heat of his breath beating on her skin.

“Amelia…”

She felt herself tense up at the name.

The accompanying smell of alcohol helped her decipher the situation swiftly.

Cleo was drunk and mistakenly thought she was Amelia.

While she was still processing it, she felt Cleo’s hand creeping downward.

She started to panic upon realizing what was happening. She reached for his hands to stop him while attempting to push him away.

“Uncle Cleo, you’ve got the wrong person! It’s Cecil!” she cried out frantically.

Cleo must have been too drunk to understand what she was saying. If anything, he seemed to have become more excited by her actions.

He kissed Cecil with increased intensity and started sucking on her lips.

Cecil felt like she was going to be suffocated.

She felt so frustrated that she started to cry. Her tears wet her bandages and sent a prickly feeling running through her body.

“Uncle Cleo, you’re hurting me, my cuts are…”

She was not sure if it was the alcohol or her cries that finally reached him.

Cleo suddenly stiffened, and then he let go of her arms shortly after that.

Cecil quickly turned to the side and scrambled out of the room, not even bothering to put on her shoes in the process.

She ran downstairs to the living room and wrapped herself in a blanket until the morning when she finally fell asleep.

The next afternoon, when she opened her eyes, she saw Cleo sitting in front of her with an expression she had never seen on him before.

She suddenly recalled the scenes from last night.

She was so scared that she shrank into the corner of the couch.

A cold look flashed across Cleo’s eyes when he observed the way she reacted.

“Was it you who tried to get me into your room last night?”

Cecil was thrown off by the question. Just as she was about to explain, Cleo cut her off with a sharp frown.

“Don’t you ever hatch that kind of idea about me again. I’ll kick you out.”

Cecil studied the determined look on his face.

She was about to tell him that he was drunk but decided against it.

Seeing as she had tried to sneak a kiss on him in the past, she realized that Cleo was not going to believe her no matter what she said.

With that, she gave up on explaining entirely and opted to stay quiet.

She looked down and stared at their shadows cast on the floor.

When she noticed the figure of the shadow in front of her reaching a hand across, she instinctively looked up.

Cleo's hand hovered on top of her head, and it looked as if he was going to pat her head.

Cecil froze. Her eyes were filled with disbelief.

When she was a child, there were times when she would miss her parents so much that she would cry to the point of hysteria and then lose her breath.

During those desolate moments, it was always Cleo gently patting her head and comforting her that saved her.

It was a symbolic gesture between both of them for a long time.

When she turned seventeen, there was no longer any physical interaction between the two.

The thought of Cleo doing it made her so nervous that her heart could stop.

A second later, Cleo angled his hand further upward and grabbed a bottle of red wine from the cabinet behind her.

She had been reading too much into it.

All she could do was laugh at her naivety.

Because she was in a hurry for cash, she had listed all of her belongings as well as the family house at a price lower than the market average.

It did not take long for everything to be sold.

She managed to put together roughly nine million dollars, but it was still several hundred thousand dollars short of the amount she planned to return to Cleo.

Since she was going to Vinland very soon, she did not have much time left to put together the money to make up the difference.

She was a painter and was relatively new to the scene, but despite that, she managed to win many awards over the last few years and was relatively well-known in the industry.

With that in mind, she decided to hold an exhibition to sell her paintings.

It was going to be too hard to coordinate all of that by herself, so she decided to go to Cleo for help.

Amelia happened to be nearby when she approached Cleo.

She seemed surprised at the mention of an exhibition and approached them with a radiant smile.

“What a coincidence! I'm also preparing for an exhibition! Why don't we host a joint exhibit?”

Cecil turned to Cleo, and seeing that he did not object to it, she agreed as well.

Five days later, the joint exhibitions of Cecil and Amelia were held at the art museum.

Amelia had been painting for more than a decade, but it was her first large-scale exhibition.

Because of that, Cleo was particularly invested in the exhibition.

He designated that Amelia’s work be displayed in the main gallery and even ordered the gallery to be renovated.

Significant effort was put into advertising as well.

On the opening day of the exhibition, many celebrities and intellectuals showed up, so much so that the museum recorded a new high in the number of daily visitors.

Meanwhile, things were not as ideal in the other wing of the gallery.

There were nearly a hundred paintings, all cramped into a room barely ten square meters large.

It was so confined that the visitors barely had any space to walk. Auctioning any art on display was completely out of the question.

Cecil stood by the entrance and stared at the commotion in the main gallery with a dejected look in her eyes.

A few of her friends who showed up were just about to console her when they heard a sharp shriek in the room.

“Cecil, there’s a situation!”