Chapter 5
Victoria stood far away, as if afraid of catching some bad luck.
The cold morgue filled with the heart-wrenching cries of my parents. They finally felt regret, shedding tears for me that came far too late.
For once, they didn’t defend her.
“Detective, I did,” my mother confessed.
He stood between them, his bloodshot eyes boring into hers, as if trying to see straight
into her soul.
But none of it could change the cold, hard fact of my death.
But all he got in return was more of Victoria’s outrageous tantrum.
Overwhelmed with grief, Daniel finally snapped. He roared at Victoria, his eyes red with
fury.
She watched the three sobbing figures, pouting impatiently and tapping her foot. Tears of
frustration welled in her eyes.
Before Victoria set her sights on Daniel, she had a boyfriend named Jake, a former IT tech
at our company.
Finally, in a fit of rage, she raised her hand to strike Sarah.
Forgetting everything else, the family scrambled into the car, praying it was all a terrible mistake as they sped to the police station.
Under the white sheet, a lock of my light brown hair was visible.
This was something I had asked Sarah to look into.
Panicked, Victoria desperately defended Jake, but her denials only made things worse.
Victoria froze, speechless. This time, even pretending to be sick didn’t earn her a single glance.
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“Former IT technician Jake stole company client data-and you were his accomplice!”
Sarah announced.
In the interrogation room, my mom admitted how, on the day of the engagement party, she had locked me in the basement to make way for Victoria.
“Daniel, what’s wrong? Get up!” my mom cried, rushing to help him. But when she heard him say I was dead, she completely snapped.
“No! I want you with me!” she insisted.
“Detective, I locked my daughter up. I was a terrible, biased mother. I illegally confined her, and because of me, she died all alone in that cabin. It’s all my fault! I’m a monster!”
Her confession was so bizarre that the detective taking her statement paused his writing.
“If you’re scared, go wait outside.”
Daniel, holding on to his last thread of sanity, tried to calm her down gently.
“Get out! She was your sister! Don’t you have a single shred of compassion?”
“Enough! Victoria, if you have a boyfriend, why did you ruin my engagement with Emily?”
Daniel demanded.
“The victim was held captive before her death. The cause of death was blood loss from severed wrists. Do you know who locked her up?” a detective asked.
“You’re lying! Jake had nothing to do with it!” Victoria screamed.
My parents ignored her, sitting beside my body, numbly watching their thoughtless daughter as they cried.
Daniel’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor, muttering over and over, “This
can’t be happening, this can’t be real…”
Daniel’s legs gave out, and he knelt stiffly beside me, motionless.
I’d discovered he was selling client data to our competitors and asked Sarah to investigate, but I died before I could see the results.
She shook him frantically, screaming, “What are you talking about? What happened to
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Emily?”
He reached out to touch my face but couldn’t find a single patch of intact skin. In the end, all he could do was kneel there, slapping himself across the face, again and again.
She stormed up to Victoria and slammed a stack of documents against her face, the papers scattering like snowflakes.
“Daniel, I’m scared, let’s go… This isn’t good for the baby,” she complained.
My mother broke down completely at the station, crying until she nearly passed out. She hysterically slapped her own face, wailing that she wished she were the one who had
died.
“Victoria! You murderer! You’re going to pay for what you did to Emily!” Sarah’s voice rang out from the doorway. The police had called her, too.
“Emily, don’t scare me, it’s all my fault, please wake up!”
Daniel’s eyes were bloodshot. With trembling hands, he lifted the sheet. My body, now decayed and unrecognizable, was revealed to them.
His phone slipped from his hand, the screen shattering on the floor.
“Emily… she’s dead.”
She wouldn’t stop blaming and insulting me, complaining that I was causing them trouble
even in death.
