Chapter 4

On my eighth birthday, I got beaten because I wouldn’t listen.

Sarah forced me to play hide-and-seek with her, or she would make Mom keep beating me.

I agreed.

She told me to hide in the back seat of the car and said Mom would come looking for me later.

I went along with it.

But then the car started, and I popped up from the back seat, meeting Dad’s shocked eyes.

Dad was a detective and had offended a lot of people.

The brake on that car had failed because someone who wanted to hurt Dad had tampered with it.

The car crashed into a tree and burst into flames.

Half of Dad’s body was swallowed by the fire, and he used the last of his strength to smash the window with something sharp and get me out.

I was grabbed by the police who rushed over, and I watched helplessly as the car exploded, my father’s body turning to ash with it.

When Mom arrived, she slapped me and called me a jinx.

At the funeral, Mom grabbed my head and smashed it against Dad’s tombstone. “If it weren’t for you, your dad wouldn’t have died!”

“Why wasn’t it you who died back then? If it weren’t for you, with his skills, he could’ve gotten out!”

“Why don’t you go die? Go die!”

Her shrill voice stabbed into my heart like countless blades, and in that instant, I really felt like I deserved to die.

I should have died when I was eight, not in that rainy night.

Sarah called me crying and told me to come save her. Through tears, she said she had found the person who had killed Dad back then.

I didn’t believe her, but then the person on the other end really produced evidence that the brakes had been tampered with.

I had no choice but to believe it.

Sarah begged me desperately, pleading for me to think of a way to get her out.

So I went to save her. Before leaving, I secretly took a knife with me.

I naively thought that if things really came to the worst, I would kill Sarah and then kill myself.

But I was wrong.

All of this had been a trap set for me.

From the moment I agreed, they never intended to let me leave alive.

My memories came rushing back, and I saw Sarah take out a phone in the room.

It looked unbelievably familiar.

Sure enough, she had taken it.

Back then, I didn’t understand why she could go that far just because of a little jealousy.

Why she was willing to team up with those criminals to take revenge on Dad and revenge on me.

Later, I understood that from the moment she was a child, her mind had already been twisted.

Her hands were covered in blood.

The day Dad died, Sarah overheard that they had switched the brakes, but she didn’t warn him. She even took me into the car too.

Through the back-seat window, I saw the twisted pleasure on her young face.

Because Dad favored me, because I was praised for being prettier than her.

She wanted to send us both to our deaths.

The detective’s daughter had put on a criminal’s blood from that night on.

She only needed a little persuasion, and didn’t even have to do it herself, to make someone who stood in her way disappear from this world.

What a temptation.

I told her to turn back.

What I got in return was this: before the exam, she had people block me in an alley.

Because she knew I wanted to apply to the police academy, and she was afraid that once I got in, I would expose all her crimes to the world.

She killed me herself.

One stab after another, I trembled in pain, but from her crazed laughter, I understood the meaning of the smile on her face at Dad’s funeral.

It meant I would never beat her in this lifetime.

I would have to live forever carrying the label of the man who killed my father.

They threw my body parts into the concrete pit at the school field construction site.

They buried me, along with my secret, at the bottom, sealed into the plastic track.

Mom walked into Sarah’s room carrying a bowl of borscht.

“Sarah, don’t stay up too late. Go to sleep soon. I’ve got something to do tonight and can’t stay with you.”

Sarah was still clutching my phone, and in her panic, she could only stuff it under her skirt.

Mom glanced at her with some suspicion, but didn’t ask further.

Sarah saw that the bedroom door was wide open and a group of police officers were sitting in the living room.

Her face went a little pale, and she couldn’t hide her guilt. “Mom, who are they? Why are they here at our house?”

She shifted a little, not realizing that the phone under her had already exposed a corner.

“They’re coworkers from the station. The owner of the spaghetti shop came to report something.”

“He said Jennifer hadn’t shown up for a long time. She messaged me saying she’d gone to her grandma’s house, but her grandma said she’d never been there.”

Mom’s hand shook several times around the bowl of borscht, and her voice trembled. “Sarah, do you think...”

Before she could finish, her gaze suddenly locked onto one spot.

She rushed forward in a few steps and pulled out the phone.

Only then did I see it. Three minutes ago, Mom had sent me a message.

One minute ago, Sarah replied with my phone.

Mom’s eyes widened, and she unconsciously raised her voice.

“Sarah, tell me. Why is Jennifer’s phone in your hands?”