I'm an antique shop owner, so it's reasonable for me to know some magic

Chapter 143 Prelude
In a villa in the community, a woman is busy with her work.

The woman had noticeable bags under her eyes.

His hair was limp and messy, and it was obvious that he hadn't taken care of himself for some time.

But even so, she continued to use the knife in her hand to repair the details of the model.

A rustling sound, accompanied by some disordered breathing, echoed in the room.

Her name is Linda Wolfe, and she is a handmade artist who makes miniature models.

Her personal art exhibition is about to begin.

But due to a series of trivial matters recently and poor personal condition.

She did not follow her plan to complete the works to be exhibited in the exhibition step by step.

The ample time that was originally available was completely wasted, and as the date approached, Linda became more and more anxious.

Her vision gradually blurred, and her mind couldn't help but recall what happened at the funeral.

Her mother, Ellen, passed away, but to be honest, she wasn't sad about it.

Although that woman was nominally Linda's mother, she brought her all kinds of misfortunes.

All this was because of a certain religious sect that my mother, Ellen, believed in.

From then on, she began to live away from her mother and did not have much contact with her until her death.

However, the shadow did not disappear with Allen's death, but continued to linger in Linda's heart.

In the room, the breathing became more and more disordered, and the frequency of the knife became higher and higher, and finally stopped abruptly.

The blood oozing from her fingers and the vague pain made Linda regain a little sanity.

She put down the model in her hand, took a piece of paper from the side to wipe her hands, and then walked towards her daughter's room.

"Feeling a little better, dear baby?"

After Allen's death, the person who was most saddened in the family was Linda's daughter, Charles.

My daughter is quiet but has great artistic talent.

She wasn't close to anyone except her grandmother who raised her.

Charles has had trouble sleeping since his grandmother Ellen died.

This forced Linda to take time out of her busy schedule to coax her to sleep.

"Is she really not coming back?"

Just as Linda was thinking about how to answer her daughter's question, she heard Charles speak again.

"Now that my grandma is gone, who will take care of me?"

"Mom will take care of you, and so will Dad and your brother. Sleep peacefully, baby."

Linda kissed her daughter gently on the forehead, but noticed a strange word carved on the headboard of Charles' bed.

Her heart sank. After she stood up, she did not continue to work or rest. Instead, she went to the room where her mother had lived.

From the box containing his mother's belongings, he took out a book called "Soul-Calling Notes".

She opened the book and a card caught her eye.

"My dear Linda, please forgive me for not being able to tell you everything, please don't resent me or despair about what you have lost.

You will see in the end that they are worth it and that the sacrifices we make are nothing compared to the rewards we receive.”

The signature is "Love your mother"

Linda couldn't understand the incomprehensible words, but the mysterious speaking style aroused her painful memories.

She quickly closed the book and stuffed it back into the box, as if she was burying something ominous, pressed the box down heavily, and then hurriedly turned off the lights and prepared to leave.

But just as Linda stepped out of the door, out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a figure standing in the corner of the dark room.

The familiar old man appeared in the darkness at some point and gave Linda a creepy smile.

The latter turned on the light again, but found nothing in the corner.

What had just happened made her look frightened and she kept looking around the room.

It was at this glance that she caught sight of the model on the table.

It was a scene in which Ellen competed to breastfeed her granddaughter shortly after Charles was born, which she later reproduced through a model.

The more Linda watched, the more frightened she became.

She walked quickly forward, turned the model around so that its back was facing her, then turned off the light and walked out of the room.

Back in the room, husband Steve was reading on the bed and didn't notice the band-aid on his wife's finger.

"Charlie still can't sleep?"

Steve is a psychiatric medical expert with a gentle personality and a typical intellectual.

“The situation is much better than a month ago, but she still misses her grandmother very much.”

"It's clear that her grandmother favors boys over girls..."

Linda said this as she lifted the quilt and got into bed.

"We don't understand Alan as well as Charlie does, and we can't appreciate the relationship between them."

Steve picked up the book again.

"There have been a lot of new faces in the community recently. This morning when I went out to collect the garbage bags, the old man across the street also returned to visit his relatives."

"People from the Los Angeles Police Department seemed to have come over to inquire in the evening."

This is not a big deal.

The community is close to Hollywood, so there is a high turnover of people, which is normal.

"What happens to the people in the community has nothing to do with our family. I just want to lock up the house now."

Linda looked uneasy, but she didn't tell her husband.

Due to her childhood experiences, she suffers from severe mental illness.

Steve is always needed to help relieve the pressure.

I don't know whether he was worried that Steve was under too much pressure or he was afraid of the latter's strange look.

Linda did not tell anyone about the apparition of her mother she had seen before.

"Relax, dear, the relics have been sorted out and you can lock them up any time you want."

Steve spoke gently, but it was clear that he couldn't understand Linda.

He believed that it was the contact with things related to his mother that touched his wife's sensitive nerves.

As long as some time passes, everything will return to normal.

Just then, he received a call.

After listening to this, Steve subconsciously looked at his wife who was worried about something, but didn't say much.

It was the cemetery management on the other end of the phone, and they called to say that Alan's body had disappeared.

At this juncture, he naturally would not provoke Linda anymore and would just keep the matter secret.

After turning off the lights, the two of them slept on their sides facing completely different directions.

There were no quarrels and no emotional disputes.

But a gap has already arisen between them.

Linda had no one to vent her frustration, so she went out during the day when she was alone at home and took the initiative to find a mutual aid group.

The people here are all suffering from the loss of their loved ones, and talking to each other can help them get out of the shadows.

Here, facing strangers who have no relationship with her but are in similar situations, she can finally speak out the secrets that have been buried in her heart for many years and express her true thoughts.

"My brother hanged himself due to severe mental problems."

"Before he died, he wrote a suicide note directly stating that everything was due to our mother."

"That she tried to put another soul into his body."

"Soon after that, I severed ties with my mother, and with the help of my husband, I came out of the psychological trauma."

“In order to avoid repeating the same mistake, after confirming that the first child was a boy.

My husband forbade my mother to have any contact or communication with me and the children."

"The situation did not improve until the second child was born..."

The people below listened quietly to Linda's story.

The language, which was originally a bit sluggish, became more fluent as emotions were expressed.

Immersed in the sense of relaxation brought by talking, Linda did not notice that most of the people in front of her looked familiar.

After she finished her speech, everyone smiled encouragingly and applauded...

Looking at the people below, Linda also showed a look of relief...

(End of this chapter)