Chapter 1

At work, my brother messaged me.

"Sis, something came up and I have to go out. Come home and take care of Mom."

I was about to ask for time off when a line of text appeared in front of my eyes.

【Don't go home. Your mom's condition has gotten worse and she wants to be freed. She schemed with your brother to frame you!】

【He'll inject your mom with a drug before you get there, then leave just you and her alone in the house.】

【He rubbed your fingerprints onto that syringe while you were asleep. You'll get the death penalty, and he'll inherit everything himself!】

I was a little confused. If that was the plan, why couldn't my mom just write a will and leave everything to Tony Dickerson directly?

Why go to all this trouble?

The danmaku popped up again.

【Because your mom doesn't just want Tony to inherit her estate. She wants him to inherit yours too. Your apartment, your car, your savings. She wants to give all of it to Tony!】

A chill ran down my spine.

Tony was still pushing me.

"Hurry up, Sis. Don't hold me up!"

I took a deep breath and replied: "I've got work I can't leave. Have the home-care agency send over an hourly worker."

……

Tony messaged again.

"Sis, how can you be like this? Is work more important than Mom?"

"You always say Mom would 'be better off dead.' Fine. But you can't actually abandon her!"

I had never said that.

【He's doing it on purpose. Once your mom is dead, that line becomes your motive.】

My finger paused. I searched our chat history for the word "dead."

Tony had complained about it countless times.

"Taking care of her every day, I can't do anything. She'd be better off dead!"

"Lily says she won't marry me as long as Mom's alive. What am I supposed to do, Sis?"

Two days ago, when I went home, Tony wiped my chat history. Said it was an accident.

But I have a habit of backing up my chats. That night, after I got home, I downloaded them from the cloud.

He didn't know.

I replied to Tony.

"I pay you six thousand a month to take care of Mom. That's your job. Push whatever came up to later."

After a pause, Tony replied: "Mom's out of her medication. I have to go pick it up, or she'll run dry!"

Last week when I went back, I'd checked on purpose. What was left was enough for half a month.

I pulled up the date the hospital had last filled the prescription, the medication details, and saved it.

I didn't call him out. "I'll get a delivery runner to help pick up the meds. You wait."

Tony went quiet for a while, then softened his tone.

"Honestly, I'm not feeling well either. I wanted to get myself checked while I'm out."

"A runner can't get checked for me."

"Sis, just take one hour off. I'll come right back the second I'm done!"

【Don't believe him. That drug takes effect half an hour after injection.】

【He'll time it and come bursting through the door, saying you killed your mom!】

I took a deep breath.

"I'll send a care worker to the house to cover for you. I can't step away from my work for a minute."

Tony refused in a hurry: "No need. I'll just tough it out."

I let out a small breath. The crisis was off for now.

But since my mom and Tony had already planned this, they were bound to make a next move.

My head was still a tangled mess when the danmaku exploded across my vision again.

【Tony's put on gloves and picked up the syringe. He's injecting your mom now!】

I sat bolt upright.

【That drug has a very short shelf life. If he doesn't inject it soon, it'll go bad.】

【He'd planned to do it right before you arrived. Now he can't wait.】

But I hadn't agreed to go home. So what if he injected her?

Had he already thought of another way to pin it on me?

Manager Walker walked over to my desk with a dark face, his phone screen shoved almost into mine.

"Scarlett Dickerson, you never even asked me for time off. Why is your brother out there running his mouth online?"

"Do you have any idea how bad this looks for the company? Go home right now and make him stop spreading lies!"

On the screen, Tony's eyes were red.

"I don't understand why Sunda is so heartless."

"My mom's been bedridden for years. I'm not feeling well today, and I just wanted my sister to cover for me for one hour. But Sunda won't even approve one hour off."

"If I die, my death is on Sunda!"

Our company was about to go public. Its reputation mattered more than anything.

Tony was deliberately shifting the conflict onto the company, using them to force me home.