Chapter 1

The day before our holiday weekend family dinner, I went to the mall to buy gifts for the family, and suddenly a stream of comments appeared in front of my eyes.

Watch out! You're already being targeted, and they're going to frame you as a child trafficker!

Keep an eye on the mother and child near you. They've been following you for twenty minutes!

Your best friend is the mall's property manager, and she'll team up with that woman to slander you!

Your husband will use your miscarriage against you to make the trafficking accusation stick!

I was totally confused. How could my husband and my best friend want to hurt me?

But the moment I turned my head, I saw a woman leading a child by the hand coming toward me.

I quickly dodged aside, then suddenly remembered the last few lines of the comments.

Whatever you do, don't let them take you away! They'll kill you and dress it up as infighting in a trafficking ring!

And your husband will inherit your house and savings, then run off with your best friend!

Don't run off alone! Set up an alibi right now! Hurry!

Seeing that mother and son bearing down on me, I was so scared I jumped straight onto the elevator and ducked into the movie theater on the top floor.

1.

A little over an hour later, the movie let out.

As I followed the crowd out of the theater and the elevator reached the first floor, a shrill scream came from around the corner.

"That's her! She kidnapped my son!"

A woman rushed out of the crowd and seized my arm.

"Give me back my son! You child trafficker! Where did you take my son?"

She yanked me so hard I stumbled a step.

"Let go!"

I pulled at her grip, but she didn't let go.

"Yolanda Joyce!"

A familiar voice came from the side.

My best friend, Nanette Fox, was in a property management uniform with a name tag pinned to her chest, her expression stern.

"Ms. Lawrence's child has gone missing in the mall. The surveillance footage shows you had contact with her child earlier. Please cooperate with the investigation and come with us."

I looked at her.

This was my best friend of six years, my college roommate, my bridesmaid at my wedding.

Now she stood in front of me all business, as if I really had done something wrong.

"You're the property manager. You have no law enforcement authority."

I shook off Lola's hand.

Nanette froze for a second, clearly not expecting me to fire back at her directly.

"The child got lost in the mall, and we have a responsibility to help Ms. Lawrence find him."

"Based on the surveillance, you're the prime suspect."

She took out her phone and opened a piece of surveillance video.

In the frame, I had just come out from shopping, and Lola approached me with her child, no more than a meter away.

At the time I was walking forward, and I glanced down at the child.

The video paused right there.

"See, she had her eye on my son all along!"

Lola cried and shouted, her voice loud.

"What does that prove?"

My voice wasn't quiet either.

"I glanced once, and that makes me a trafficker? Then the mall is crawling with traffickers!"

Nanette put her phone away.

"The complete footage involves the mall's internal procedures. You can come to the monitoring room and watch it with us."

At that moment, the comments drifted across again.

You can't go with her! The property office is on the second basement level, where there are blind spots in the cameras.

Once they get you inside, they'll fabricate a recording of you "confessing to trafficking."

Then they'll drag you out through the fire escape to the back door and shove you into that white van in the alley!

I was so scared my hand trembled, and I quickly steadied myself.

"We'll watch it right here!"

"Without solid proof, I'm not going anywhere with you!"

Nanette frowned and lowered her voice slightly.

"Yolanda, I'm doing this for your own good. There are too many people around here, and once the accusation sticks, your reputation will be destroyed."

I gave a cold laugh.

"You pin a crime on me and shout the loudest. When I ask you for evidence, you tell me to keep it low-key. That's for my own good?"

Nanette was left speechless, unable to say anything for a moment.

Lola suddenly lunged at me and snatched the shopping bag out of my hand.

The bag fell, spilling out the gifts I'd just bought.

One was a silk scarf for my mother-in-law.

One was clothing for my four-year-old nephew.

Lola snatched up the child's clothes and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Look, everyone! She's got kids' clothes in her bag! She had it all ready to change my son's clothes and carry him off! That's exactly what traffickers do!"

The crowd erupted in an uproar.

Some people held up their phones and pressed in closer, others cursed under their breath.

"Looks so respectable, and she's actually a trafficker!"

"You can know a person's face but never their heart!"

I frowned. She'd been following me for twenty minutes and already knew perfectly well what I'd bought.

But could that be used as evidence against me?

I stared at her, my tone cold.

"These are the holiday gifts I bought for my nephew."

"Owning kids' clothes makes someone a trafficker? Then the mall might as well shut down its children's clothing stores!"

Nanette jumped in at once.

"Yolanda Joyce, right now you really are the prime suspect. Please cooperate with the investigation and come to the office to explain the situation."

"I'm not going."

"If you won't go, that just proves you have a guilty conscience!"

Lola broke into loud sobs.

"My son is only four years old! If you don't hand my son over today, I'll die right here!"

And with that she moved to slam herself into the fire hydrant.

Nanette grabbed hold of her.

"Ms. Lawrence, please calm down! We'll definitely help you find your child!"

My eyes went cold.

With her making this scene, the people around didn't need to bother with the truth—they'd already slapped the bully label on me.

Sure enough, quite a few of them started cursing at me.

"Trafficker!"

"Stealing a child and driving the poor mother to her death—how vicious can you get!"

"Even the property manager says she's the prime suspect, and she still won't budge!"

"Post it online and expose her!"

Public opinion is frightening enough, but being exposed online is even more terrifying.

I was just about to call the police when a shout suddenly came from behind me.

"Yolanda!"