Chapter 3

The comments in the live stream boiled over with rage.

"She doesn't want to take care of her own mother, and now she's cursing her to die? How can a woman be this vicious?"

"Your mom raised you from diapers, wiping you clean every day, and you can't even go home to look after her for one hour? Did the dogs eat your conscience?"

The people in the office were staring at me too, contempt plain on every face.

"Scarlett, aren't you cold-blooded? You'd rather sit around doing nothing at the office than go home and take care of your own mother?"

"Mark my words, if that mom of hers ever ends up dead, nine times out of ten it'll be because she killed her!"

"Get out already. You're not our employee anymore, so what right do you have to hang around here?"

I sat at my desk, every eye on me like a blade at my back.

But I had to hold out here.

Hold out until this blame couldn't land on my head.

The comments came again.

【Your mom's scared you really won't come back and Tony will get caught, so before the drug kicks in she's started writing a suicide note. It says you couldn't stand her being an old woman who wouldn't die, and that you drove her to kill herself!】

【She's telling Tony to use that note to squeeze money out of you. Pay up, or he goes public with it and lets everyone spit on your name!】

Reading that, my body started to shake without my say-so.

There was no dodging this act now.

Better to walk into their trap on my own terms than sit here and let them scheme against me.

I pulled in a deep breath, grabbed my bag, and left.

I stood right under the building's security camera, called Tony, and started recording at the same time.

"You're not feeling well?"

"Obviously. Why else would I be telling you to come home?"

"And Mom? How is she right now?"

"Mom's perfectly fine!"

"Good."

I hung up and ordered an Uber, asking for a car with dash cams inside and out.

Then I dialed 911.

"There's a patient at the Sunnyside apartment complex who needs emergency help."

The Uber pulled up at the office entrance, and under the camera's watch, I opened the door and got in.

"Wait two minutes before we go."

The ambulance would pass the office on its way from the hospital to my mom's place.

Soon enough, the wail of the siren rose up.

"Follow that ambulance, please."

I called Tony.

"I've left. I'm heading home now."

Tony couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. "Hurry up, I feel like I'm about to die here!"

【Tony's saying there's a real shot at getting your inheritance now. He tore up the suicide note your mom wrote!】

【The second you walk in, he'll leave right away, then come back pretending he forgot something.】

【Then he'll claim you killed your mom while he was out the door!】

【Everything that's happened today will become ironclad proof that you resented your mom as a burden and killed her!】

I watched the comments in silence, my nails nearly breaking the skin of my palm.

I wasn't going to let him have his way.

Never.