Chapter 4

"Friends from the media."

Russ Henson raised the microphone, interrupting the groundbreaking ceremony.

He pointed at me, lying on the ground vomiting blood.

"With millions of people watching the live stream online today, I'd like to take this opportunity to teach everyone a vivid lesson."

The room went quiet, and the cameras focused on the podium.

Russ pointed at me.

"Many of you may not know it, but this ugly, crippled woman who has suffered so much out in the village was once my own sister, Theresa Henson."

The crowd erupted, and the cameras swung to me on the ground.

"Five years ago, to fight for the enormous fortune our father left behind, she pushed her own mother, who suffered from depression, off a cliff, leaving her shattered to pieces with not even a body to recover!"

Russ hardened his tone.

"If Camille hadn't bravely come forward to testify, this tragedy would have stayed buried forever."

"I didn't call the police to have her arrested, out of respect for our blood ties."

"So I stripped her of everything, sent her here, and put her through the lowest, hardest labor to cleanse her sins!"

He walked down the steps and stopped in front of me.

"Theresa Henson, today we break ground on the Camille-Grace Hope School."

"I want you to kneel here in front of the whole nation's netizens and loudly confess to the crime of murdering your mother!"

"And kneel and thank Camille for exposing your crime!"

Austin Lambert pressed down hard on my neck from behind and spoke against my ear.

"Admit it now! You do whatever the boss tells you to do! Otherwise I'll kill you the second we get back tonight!"

My face was pressed to the stone slab, and I could barely breathe.

The look in my mother's eyes before she fell off the cliff flashed through my mind, along with the days and nights of beatings in the cowshed over the past five years.

If I confessed today, it would lock in the charge of killing my mother, with no way to ever overturn it.

If I didn't, endless beatings were waiting for me.

I twitched my lips, and blood spilled out.

"Fine... I admit it."

I spoke in a hoarse voice.

Russ frowned and waved his hand at Austin.

Austin let go and stepped back.

Russ tossed a spare microphone down beside my face.

"Climb up, face the camera, and say it loud."

Dragging my broken leg, using both hands and feet, I crawled up onto the three-meter-high groundbreaking platform.

There was no railing behind the platform, and below it ran the surging river.

Once I was steady, I gripped the microphone tight.

I looked at the crowd below.

Camille's lips curved up, and Russ stood in front, turning his rosewood prayer beads as he watched me.

I took a deep breath and pressed the microphone to my lips.

"I, Theresa Henson, swear here today, before the entire internet."

I raised my voice and spoke loudly.

"I did not kill my mother! I never did!!!"

"It was Camille Roman, that vain little bitch, who gave false testimony to take over my life for herself!"

"It was Russ Henson, that blind fool, who believed the slander and shoved his own sister into hell!"

"For five years you've stripped my bones and drunk my blood! Did you think you could beat a false confession out of me?"

The crowd erupted, and the reporters began talking among themselves.

Russ's face darkened.

He pointed at the platform and shouted.

"Cut off her microphone! Austin, drag this lunatic down here!"

Austin and several bodyguards charged up the steps.

I looked down at Russ and wept.

"Russ Henson! You're always saying the Buddha is merciful."

"But you're steeped in sin. Even if you snapped every one of the prayer beads in your hand, you'd never wash the blood off it!"

"Take my life. I'm giving it back to you. I owe the Henson family nothing anymore!"

The moment I finished, Austin lunged at me and grabbed for me.

I turned and jumped off the edge of the platform into the river.

The water swallowed me.

Screams broke out across the scene, and the crowd descended into chaos.

Russ stood where he was, clutching his prayer beads, staring blankly at the rolling river.

Camille pressed a hand to her chest and leaned in close.

"Russ, she killed herself out of guilt. Don't be sad over someone like her..."

The crowd along the perimeter was shoved aside, and Russ's executive assistant squeezed through, drenched in sweat.

He was shouting, a phone still connected to a call clutched in his hand.

"Mr. Henson... Mr. Henson! Something terrible has happened!"

"We just got an urgent call from a remote sanatorium out near Northport... Madam... Madam has woken up!"

Russ went still and looked at him.

"What did you say? My mother fell off that cliff years ago—we never even found her body..."

"Madam was caught on a vine halfway down the mountain years ago. An herb farmer coming into the mountains rescued her, but she's been in a coma ever since! She just woke up today!"

The assistant dropped to his knees, held up the phone, and cried out.

"Madam says... she jumped down herself back then! The second young lady nearly fell to her death trying to pull her back!"

"Madam keeps crying and asking where the second young lady went; she wants to see Theresa!"