Chapter 3

The room erupted into utter madness.

Several young officers lunged forward, slamming me face-down onto the floor and cuffing my wrists. Behind me, Mom and Claire let out blood-curdling screams.

"Chloe! What in God's name are you saying?! We are inside a police station! You can't just spew crazy lies like that!" Mom's knees gave out, and she nearly collapsed before Claire caught her trembling frame.

Claire helped Mom sink into a nearby chair, then turned to me, tears streaming down her face as she shrieked in rage.

"Chloe! Have you completely lost your mind?! There's a time and place for dark jokes!"

"Dad has been missing for days, and you're pulling a sick stunt like this? Are you even human?!"

I didn't bother looking at them. I kept my eyes fixed on Reynolds.

"My purse is sitting on the chair back in the interrogation room. Unzip it and see what's inside. Then you'll know whether I'm telling fairy tales, or the cold, hard truth."

Before I even finished my sentence, Reynolds stormed back into the interrogation room and dumped the contents of my bag onto the metal table.

Tumbler, wallet, makeup—and right in the center, a white button-down shirt drenched in dried, crimson blood.

It was a bespoke designer shirt Dad had custom-ordered from an exclusive Italian atelier. There was only one like it in the entire country.

Mom instantly fainted, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Claire's face drained of every drop of color, her voice trembling violently.

"Th-that's Dad's shirt... Why is it in your bag?!"

"Whose blood is that?! Chloe! Tell me this isn't real... please..."

Before I could answer, forensics rushed the bloody fabric to the lab to run a rapid DNA cross-check against Dad’s profile in their system.

The results came back in record time. The blood soaked into the fabric belonged to Arthur Sterling.

I was immediately processed, slapped with murder charges, and locked into a holding cell.

Claire's mental state completely shattered. She clung to the bars of my cell, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Why?! Dad loved us so much! How could you do this to him?!"

"Do you remember when you were little and refused to eat real food? You gorged on junk until your kidneys were failing!"

"The second Dad found out, he didn't even hesitate—he demanded the doctors test him so he could give you one of his own kidneys!"

"For all these years, he would have laid down his life for this family without blinking! Why would you murder him?!"

Not long after, Grandma and Grandpa arrived in a frenzy after getting the call from dispatch.

When the detectives laid out the grim sequence of events, both elderly folks nearly collapsed on the spot.

Grandpa dragged himself over on trembling legs, using every ounce of his remaining strength to slap me across the face. Tears poured down his wrinkled cheeks as he choked on his own rage.

"Chloe Sterling, you heartless monster!"

"Arthur treated you two girls like royalty! No matter what terrible mistakes you made, he never once raised his voice at you!"

"Your grandmother and I used to tell him he was spoiling you rotten, but Arthur always said his daughters were put on this earth to enjoy life, that he would never burden you with expectations!"

"And this is how you repay him?! You subhuman beast! Why did you kill my boy?! Tell me why!"

A sudden roar of commotion broke out at the front entrance of the station.

A swarm of media reporters had caught wind of the breaking scoop and were scrambling to get the first exclusive.

They arrived just in time to catch Grandpa's desperate, agonized scream. It took them less than a second to piece together the headline of the century.

Cameras flashed, and live broadcasts fired up, shoving lenses straight toward me.

"Chloe Sterling! Reliable sources confirm you confessed to butchering your own father! Is it true?"

"Why did you do it? Mr. Sterling was renowned for his charity work and legendary love for his children! What drove you to murder such a devoted father?!"

My heart didn't beat a fraction faster. In fact, a sinister smirk curled at the corner of my lips.

I stared directly into the flashing camera lenses and chuckled.

"Why? There is no why."

"Dad spoiled me rotten my whole life. Whatever I did, he always forgave me."

"I felt like killing him, so I killed him. Do I really need a reason?"