1989

Location: 18, Toh Yuen Road, Singapore.

Time: 2.36 pm (GMT +08:00)

"She was very unusual and quiet. During my visit to the orphanage, she gave me a mirror," Liew said, looking lovingly at his adopted child.

Reese laughed. "A mirror? You should know you are ugly, Liew," he joked. It's been forever since the last time he had joked around with his former platoon mate. Both of them knew each other from joining the navy during the World War Two era. Liew's family was migrated Chinese to America. It was a hard time living in the New World during the forties. The Liews struggled hard to be fed everyday. The boys slaved themselves by working as the girls worked hard to keep the children in one piece. One day, the news about Japanese landed a bomb in Pearl Harbor had hit America and young boys with energy were immediately wanted to fight for their country. As a young boy, Liew took this news as an opportunity to prove his manhood and to gain some money for his family.

Four decades later, he found himself in a garden of a huge white-brick mansion in Singapore. His dear wife has passed away a couple of years ago because of cervix cancer, leaving them childless. Liew has always loved children, he grew up with seven of them.

Because of his fondness to kids, he always found himself driving to the orphanage. It somehow calms him down from everyday-hazardous world in the city. He needs something, or someone, to cool him off every time he returned home from the ambassador office. Holding a post as a Chinese diplomat in Singapore is a tough work, especially for an almost-veteran man like him. That was how Adrienne was brought to his life.

Adrienne Juliet Liew Lee Anne was definitely an eye catcher. She was not like most of the other kids in that house. When most of the residents there were Chinese, she was the only Eurasian. She was a real beauty, with wavy chestnut mane and a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. Liew was told that Lee Anne's parents both died in a car accident. Her father was an Australian while her mother was local Chinese.

Liew chuckled. "As if you're more handsome than I do, Reese."

Reese laughed.

"She told me that her mother used to tell her to look into herself to find the answer to her life," Liew continued while Reese was listening intently. "Lee Anne told me, the moment she saw my face appeared at the front door of the orphanage, she could sense that I was having a problem in my life. That was why she gave me a mirror. So that I could look into myself and find the answer for it."