Chapter 4

I heard the ambulance.

Two paramedics carried a stretcher up the stairs.

When they reached the fourth-floor landing, a whole crowd of people stood packed together.

"Whose child is this? What's the situation? Let me see."

A paramedic reached out to take the boy.

Nora clutched the child tight, her head turning to look into my apartment.

I had just come out of the bathroom, and I met the venom in Nora's eyes.

I watched the corner of her mouth curl into a strange little arc.

Only then did she hand the child in her arms to the paramedic.

The paramedic lifted the blanket for one glance, and his face went white with shock.

"This child stopped breathing a long time ago!"

"What kind of parent are you? A child with febrile seizures has to be rushed to the hospital immediately. Didn't you know that?"

At the words stopped breathing, everyone sucked in a cold breath.

Nora's mouth fell open in shock.

She screamed, "That's impossible! He was fine just now!"

"Doctor, you must have checked wrong!"

Out of basic decency, the paramedic still began working on Nora's son right there.

But the boy's face had already turned an ashen gray.

They hooked him up to the monitor, and all that showed was one flat, straight line.

Nora shrieked and threw herself at Gregory.

"My son! My baby boy!"

She sobbed like her heart was being torn out.

Around her, plenty of people had red eyes.

Then she twisted her head and looked at me.

"It's you! You wouldn't open the door, and that's why my son is dead!"

"You're a murderer! I'll kill you!"

The instant Nora lunged at me.

I shut the door.

Bang.

My heart skipped a beat with it.

Nora pounded wildly on the door from outside.

I leaned back against it and slowly slid down to the floor.

The messages appeared again.

【Don't panic yet, hold steady. Nora is going to spread lies online that you killed her son.】

【Tell your parents exactly what happened first, so they don't overthink it.】

【Ask building security to pull the hallway surveillance camera footage, to prove how much time Nora wasted stalling outside your door.】

【Then call the police! Demand the hospital state the child's time of death, to prove the boy didn't die at your door.】

【Last, move out of here first, in case some worked-up people online show up at your door.】

Nora was dragged away by building security.

The sounds outside slowly faded.

Once it went completely silent out there, I was already slumped on the floor, all the strength gone from me.

Nora moved fast.

The next day, a post titled Neighbor Deliberately Got Drunk to Refuse Taking My Son with Febrile Seizures to the Hospital exploded across the internet.

The post described how she had knelt down to beg me.

And how coldly I had refused to open the door.

And how, when I finally did open my mouth, there was the smell of alcohol on me.

She said I never drank, that on that day I had gotten drunk on purpose because I didn't want to take her son to the hospital.

The post had clearly paid for a swarm of fake commenters, and the comments underneath were all, without exception, cursing me.

【So disgusting. How can a neighbor like this even exist.】

【He was only five. How could she be this vicious!】

【She just didn't want to be held responsible.】

【Still, no one should be this cold-blooded!】

【People like this deserve to die!】

【Why wasn't it her who died!】

The strangers' curses stabbed into my chest like knives.

I just felt wave after wave of suffocation there.

Following what the messages said, I first called my parents and explained the situation.

Then I packed my things and checked into a plain, unremarkable hotel.

It all snowballed fast.

Within two days, my personal information was dug up.

Someone made my photo into a funeral portrait.

Trash was piled up outside my door.

And on the front door, someone had painted the words 【Go die.】

By the fifth day, Nora had a banner strung up outside the hotel.

Demanding I pay with my life for her son.

Plenty of people online stood beside her, holding up phones and livestreaming.

Reporters waited outside the hotel too, microphones out.

All of them waiting for me to show my face.

Nora's eyes were rimmed red, her husband Oliver Chavez standing beside her.

"I just want justice!"

"If she had opened the door and taken my son to the hospital right away, my son wouldn't be dead!"

"I know she didn't want to be held responsible, but my son was innocent!"

"He was still so little..."

The crowd below took up my name.

"Get Janet Hughes down here!"

"Hiding is nothing to be proud of!"

"Pay for the child with your life!"

"I say she's got a guilty conscience, that's why she's hiding!"

That was when I pushed open my door, walked slowly downstairs, and came toward the crowd.

When Nora saw me, a flash of triumph crossed her eyes.

Then her legs buckled as if to drop into a kneel before me, and I caught her with one hand.

My voice was cold but steady. "You're saying your son's treatment was delayed because I wouldn't open the door?"

Nora's tears hit the ground. "I'm not blaming you. I only want an answer! I only want justice!"

I nodded. "Fine. I'll give you justice."